Winchester - why are they striking?

[Thewickerwomen]

Hello. I saw in The Times that Winchester might strike. Does anyone know the reasons why? (… and can one school decide to strike on their own?)

I've not read the article....but my first thought was Why not ?

yes, of course one school can decied to strike on its own! and other schools may decide to strike in support of them, but it depends on the links between local schools

Thanks @Nimbostratus100 So how would you go about it? Are they with the NEU?

Is it teacher pension scheme?

The reasons are in the article you say you’ve seen 🤷‍♀️

The Times understands that National Education Union members at Winchester held an indicative ballot over five days in November and December after a below-inflation pay offer. They are also in a dispute over pensions.

Eighty-nine per cent of staff balloted voted in favour of strike action on a turnout of 83 per cent. A formal ballot has begun and is expected to return a mandate for industrial action, which would take place next month.

A majority of teachers at Winchester are members of the NEU, which earlier this week declared seven days of strike action in February and March in a separate national dispute over pay. The union is recognised by the school to conduct pay negotiations on behalf of all teachers.

From The Times article

Winchester College?

The Independent shows a photo of Wellington, not Winchester 🙄

Yes individual schools can go on strike, it has been happening a lot in private schools in recent years as they decide to remove their teachers from the Teacher Pension Scheme.

As the Times is saying the dispute is over pay and pensions, I suspect that that is part of the problem.

Wow hadn't twigged private schools would strike too.
Especially those pretty established.

Are the dates the same as the national strike days?

It is quite something for an independent school to strike, not least because they don’t tend to have union reps. I think it likely that a lot of staff would not have been union members, either.

The other reason I am asking is because the NASUWT have 172 independent schools that are striking on 1st Feb, when the NASUWT members in the maintained sector are not.

The independent sector doesn’t strike much … how is it getting to this point (from an organisational point of view)?

I mean, I do see your point @LittleBearPad there is a great deal of information there. But it is the first of the independents to be striking with the NEU.

and I suppose I am curious about the TPS replacement being offered - there are staff in independents who have acted to secure the TPS and staff who have lost theirs (through not getting organised in time).

What will the school do on strike days?

Just go off timetable with non striking teachers. The ratio of teachers/pupils is amazing in private so presumably a lot of leeway for activities run by other staff/double up groups etc.

I've not got a stake in this just curious as a teacher!

(And work missed would just be made up next lesson surely?)

Can't see how it actually works! There won't be disruption like with state schools closing surely?

well, in my experience of private schools, there is no minimum ratio of adults to children, so they remain open when state schools would close, and they are also much less strict on supervision, and leave some student groups unsupervised for long periods. Again, state schools would close before this happened

non striking teachers cant be asked to supervise students of striking teachers

Nimbo that's kind of what I meant - in that they can be more fluid with supervisions and having small class sizes/more staff if they declare a sporty afternoon or off timetable day they could manage with a few staff in a way state schools couldn't.

They aren't going to send boarders home for a day/actually close really are they.

They can only declare a sporty day off-timetable if the people supervising the collapsed classes agree to cover for striking teachers, which they don't have to.

Independents are culturally very different. Staff wouldn’t know that they didn’t have to cover for their colleagues.

Just go off timetable with non striking teachers

On the numbers quoted, there can’t be many of those.

Staff wouldn’t know that they didn’t have to cover for their colleagues.

Because they're thick? Because they're unable to hold a conversation with their striking colleagues? Unable to google?

Staff wouldn’t know that they didn’t have to cover for their colleagues.

I’m sure they’re able to find this out.

It says the ‘majority’ of staff are with the NEU. This is unusual for somewhere like that.

Perhaps they have all joined for the purpose of striking. There will still be a leadership team and non-union members etc (and agency, maybe) that could cover. Boarding staff, too.

what did the GDST do?

Fantastic- well done Winchester staff. Presumably they'll use the non striking staff to keep boarders supervised and close to day pupils? I imagine there are quite a lot of those at Winchester as it's in the city itself.

The government are clearly shaken- their (probably illegal) guidance that hasn't been issued to staff in any other striking profession proves thus. Solidarity with all striking school staff.

What the fuck is Winchester using those huge fees for if not paying its staff properly?