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A union official has predicted some Harrogate district schools will close because of the impending teachers’ strike
Members of the National Education Union plan to strike on February 1 and stage further walk-outs in February and March.
Gary McVeigh-Kaye, branch secretary of NEU North Yorkshire, said all primary and secondary schools across Harrogate would be impacted by strike action. He said:
“It is likely that there will be a mixture of full and partial school closures. Furthermore, plans are being made to hold picket lines at schools across the area, though these have not been confirmed yet.”
Mr McVeigh-Kaye said teachers in North Yorkshire were “in the grip of a cost-of-living crisis” caused by a below inflation pay offer, school funding and a shortage of teachers. He added:
“Hardworking teachers have had enough and are now taking the only course of action open to them and withdraw their labour.”
Read more:
- First ever nurses’ strike begins at Harrogate hospital
- Picket line at Harrogate station as latest RMT strikes near end
The Stray Ferret asked North Yorkshire County Council, the local education authority, what impact it expected the strike to have on schools, who is responsible for making decisions on school closures and what measures it was putting in place to cope.
It replied in a statement:
“Information about school staff’s union membership is not retained by North Yorkshire County Council, or schools, in line with national rules on data governance, although we expect to be provided with headline data from the union on overall numbers. It is a personal decision for those members whether they participate in the strike action.
“Individual schools will co-ordinate the impact of any strike action, but we will support them with general guidance on mitigating the impact on pupils where possible, alongside the Department for Education’s own guidance.
“Headteachers will also be provided with advice from their professional associations in managing strike action within the protocols for employers when responding to strikes.”
Education Secretary Gillian Keegan has said she plans to meet union leaders this week to try to avert the strike.
Department for Education guidance says headteachers are expected to take “all reasonable steps” to keep schools open for as many pupils as possible during a strike,
Stray Views is a weekly column giving you the chance to have your say on issues affecting the Harrogate district. It is an opinion column and does not reflect the views of the Stray Ferret. Send your views to letters@thestrayferret.co.uk.
My dog was banned from church – this is wrong
My gorgeous bit of fur, a well behaved six-year-old French bulldog, was asked to leave a well known church in Harrogate this afternoon. She could have stayed if she was an assistance/ guide dog on a lead and wearing a jacket. ‘Ordinary’ dogs are not allowed as their allergens may cause suffering to churchgoers. Do the leads and jackets stop allergens… no!
Belle has been visiting the sessions most weeks this year, to no known detriment to the church community. Has there been an anaphylactic reaction to a person during or after our sessions? Probably not.
Belle is adored by the churchgoers. They love giving her treats, petting and interacting with her. Pat-a-dog activities are a welcome therapy with the elderly and dementia sufferers. As a nurse for over 30 years, and having been a matron/ manager of care homes, I have seen the happiness this interaction brings.
Are dogs not God’s creation like us? Is a house of God not a sanctuary and place of peace? Are all of God’s creatures not welcome?
Although Belle is not officially a therapy dog, she helps me overcome anxiety/panic attacks and kept my mental health and wellbeing from spiralling into a black hole during the covid crisis. She continues to support me and bring joy.
Chrissy Richardson, Scotton
Read more:
- ‘Badly let down’ Woodfield school closure confirmed
- Diners to eat blindfolded to raise funds for Harrogate guide dogs
Politics of Woodfield school closure should not be forgotten
As branch secretary of the National Education Union, it is with great sadness that I have watched Woodfield Community Primary School, in the Bilton area of Harrogate, move towards closure.
The community of Bilton deserves a thriving primary school and over the course of the past decade the school has undergone several traumatic events that led to a lack of parental confidence. Rather than working with the community to help the school re-establish its reputation, it seems that far too many agencies involved have sought to sweep things under the carpet and not give the school staff and the local community the support they deserved to keep the school functioning.
I read with interest Cllr Paul Haslam’s comments in which he argues that the school should not be closing, due to the growth in population in Harrogate. I agree with Cllr Haslam about the need to keep Woodfield school open, but I do take issue with the fact that it is the Tory party, a party he represents, whose policy of forcing schools to become academies that has been the final death knell for the school.
The behaviour of the Department for Education is akin to the school bully who get their own way by any means necessary. Every member of the Tory party, from the Prime Minister to the Andrew Jones MP, to ward councillors are culpable in the decimation of our education system and schools such as Woodfield pay the heavy price for their neo-liberal ideology.
Over the past months the NEU has run a campaign to save Woodfield School. A campaign to which Tory councillors were happy to say they supported in words but then failed to back it up in gestures. When children are having to travel increased distances and crossing over catchment area borders to get the education they deserve I hope those local councillors, and the local MP, hang their heads in shame.
Mostly, I feel for the future generations of children in Bilton who will not be able to attend what was, not so long ago, a thriving, caring and wonderful educational setting.
Gary McVeigh-Kaye
Opposition councillors on Harrogate Borough Council are set to call for Woodfield Community Primary School to be saved from closure.
A four-week consultation on a proposal to close the school on December 31 ends on July 4.
Some parents and unions have called for the school to remain open. But North Yorkshire County Council, which is the local education authority, has said it has exhausted all options to keep the school open.
At a borough council meeting next week, Liberal Democrat councillors Pat Marsh and Philip Broadbank are due to submit a motion requesting that the authority supports keeping the school open.
Cllr Broadbank said there was concern over the future of the school and what could potentially happen to the site on Woodfield Road in Bilton.
He said:
“I just worry what will happen to the site.
“It is a big building. I think they have to look at going through the options.”
School closure is ‘immoral’
The school was rated inadequate by Ofsted in 2020 and placed into special measures.
The rating meant the school had to become a sponsored academy, but it failed to find a backer.
A proposed merger with Grove Road Community Primary School fell through this year, prompting the county council to open a consultation on closing the school in the next academic year.
Read more:
- Woodfield school closure ‘an absolute disgrace’, says union
- Bilton has ‘sufficient primary places’ if Woodfield school closes
- Last-ditch campaign to save Woodfield school in Bilton
Gary McVeigh-Kaye, secretary of the North Yorkshire branch of the National Education Union, is also campaigning to save the school and has called for the consultation to be extended.
He said:
“Woodfield school has been through some traumatic times over the past decade and the school needs support, not criticism from Ofsted.
“Woodfield is a genuine community school, at the heart of the community and serving generations of families whose children have attended the school. To force the closure of this valuable community asset is immoral.”
A public meeting over the future of the school was held earlier this month.
Mr McVeigh-Kaye said he had secured meetings with local politicians, including Harrogate and Knaresborough Conservative MP Andrew Jones about extending the consultation.
A poorly attended public meeting this month saw people express anger at how a school with good facilities, in a densely populated area of Harrogate, could end up in this position.
But, Adam Dixon, the county council’s strategic planning manager for children and young people, pointed to how Woodfield pupil numbers had fallen from 154 in 2018 to 37 this year.
Woodfield, he added, faced a cumulative deficit of £229,000 in 2023/34, due to low pupil numbers.
The consultation over the future of the school closes on July 4. You can have your say here.