Dozens of teachers from across North Yorkshire converged on Harrogate today for a rally.

The National Education Union, Britain’s largest teachers’ union, is holding strikes today and on Tuesday as part of its latest wave of industrial action.

The NEU has organised rallies across North Yorkshire on previous strike days but today’s was the first in Harrogate. Teachers from as far as Scarborough took part.

Those taking part near the war memorial told the Stray Ferret their main reason for striking was the “crisis” in education, which had left many schools struggling to get any applicants for some teaching posts.

Today’s strike comes after alll four teaching unions turned the latest government offer of a one-off payment of £1,000 and a 4.3% pay rise, as well as an increase in the starting salary for teachers in England to £30,000 a year by September.

Gary McVeigh-Kaye, the North Yorkshire branch secretary of the NEU who organised today’s rally, described the government offer as “an insult”.

The Department for Education described it as a “fair and reasonable offer”.

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The National Education Union is to hold a rally in Harrogate on Thursday as part of a day of national strike action.

Teachers are due to strike on Thursday this week and Tuesday next week as part of their ongoing pay dispute with the government.

The action has been called after 98% of NEU members rejected the government’s latest pay offer.

Thursday’s rally by Britain’s largest teachers union will be held at Cambridge Crescent between 11am and noon and will include guest speakers from unions and the education sector.

Gary McVeigh-Kaye (pictured above), North Yorkshire branch secretary for the NEU, said:

“The government’s recent offer was an insult and in no way represented a serious negotiated settlement.

“Offering our members a 4.3% pay increase, whilst inflation is still over 10%, does not even begin to address the real terms pay cut of 24% most teachers have experienced under 13 years of Tory government.

“To add insult to injury, this pay increase was expected to be taken from already stretched school budgets.”

Mr McVeigh said the NEU had attracted 60,000 new members since its January strike ballot and called on the government to engage in “serious negotiations”.

Picket lines have been formed outside many schools in the Harrogate district on strike days.

Education Secretary Gillian Keegan has urged teachers to “get back to the classroom” and said a  4.5 per cent average pay rise would see the starting salary for a new teacher rise to £30,000.

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Teachers at schools across the Harrogate district will not be in the classrooms tomorrow in the first of a series of days of industrial action.

The strike has been called by the National Education Union (NEU) in a dispute over pay and conditions.

The union argues a 5% pay rise in 2022 was insufficient to combat the impact of inflation at 10%, leaving many teachers effectively facing a pay cut.

It argues low pay has been a significant factor in many teachers choosing to leave the profession, and has deterred others from joining it. The result, the NEU says, is more pressure on those who remain, particularly since the pandemic.

The union’s points were supported yesterday by Harrogate Grammar School headteacer Neil Renton, who appeared on BBC News to discuss the situation.

He said he was “torn between [his] head and heart”, seeing the difficulties faced by teachers while also wanting to keep the school gates open for pupils.

The issues the NEU raised, he said, affected schools directly too: a recent advert for an English teacher at HGS attracted just one applicant. He added:

“If this continues and we are not able to work with government and ministers to create an education for the future I would, as an educator, want to take steps to make sure we make a much brighter education for our children.”

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The following schools across the Harrogate district have confirmed some of their teachers will be on strike and released details of how they will operate tomorrow.

Harrogate Grammar School

The school said it is prioritising students taking exams this summer, and those identified as vulnerable.

Years 11 and 13 will be in school, along with children from other year groups who have been contacted individually.

Remote learning from home will be offered to years 7, 8, 9, 10 and 12. Some live lessons will be led by teachers who are not on strike.

King James’s High School, Knaresborough

The school will be open to pupils in years 11, 12 and 13. Other year groups will be provided with online learning.

The school said it would liaise directly with parents of students with an EHCP about the possibility of provision in school.

Outwood Academy Ripon

The school will be open to year 11 and vulnerable students, while all other year groups learn from home.

Ripon Grammar School

Years 7 and 11 will be in school, but students are advised to bring additional work and reading material in case lessons cannot be taught by the subject teacher.

Students in years 8,9, 10 and 12 will learn from home, including some online lessons with teachers who are not on strike.

Year 13 students will be able to work in school if they wish, or revise and join live online lessons from home.

Any students with an EHCP, as well as boarders who can’t go home, can go into school as usual. There is also provision for students whose parents are critical workers.

Rossett School, Harrogate

The school is open to students in years 7, 11, 12 and 13.

Where usual subject teachers are on strike, younger students will have lessons covered by members of the school’s senior leadership team. Older students will carry out independent revision or private study in the sixth form centre.

Students in years 8,9 and 10 will have online lessons available to access from home.

St Aidan’s Church of England High School, Harrogate

Years 7 and 11 will be in school, with years 8, 9 and 10 asked to learn at home.

Sixth form students can work at home or use a supervised study area, if they tell the school they plan to do so.

Students in any year group with an EHCP can attend.

St John Fisher Catholic High School, Harrogate

Years 7 and 11 will be in school, with years 8, 9 and 10 asked to learn at home.

Sixth form students can work at home or use a supervised study area, if they tell the school they plan to do so.

Students in any year group with an EHCP can attend and will spend the day doing activities to develop their social skills, life skills and wellbeing. The school said there may not be sufficient staff available to have one-to-one provision for all students.

Details of how other secondary schools are affected will be posted as we get them.

The next strike date to affect the Harrogate district will be at the end of February.

Mr Renton said Department for Education guidance stated schools should prioritise students taking exams and therefore pupils in years 11 and 13 would attend school as normal and either have lessons when teachers were not striking or undertake private study.

Other schools set for ‘unavoidable impact’

Harrogate Grammar School is part of Red Kite Learning Trust, which also manages Oatlands Junior School, Coppice Valley Primary School, Rossett Acre Primary School, Western Primary School in the Harrogate district.

Richard Sheriff

Red Kite chief executive Richard Sheriff sent a letter alongside Mr Renton’s saying “a very significant number of our teachers” are members of the NEU and “sadly it is unavoidable that this will have an impact on the provision we offer across our schools on the strike days”. He added:

“The impact will vary considerably from school to school, depending on the number of staff who are members of the union concerned and who decide to support the action.

“Red Kite Learning Trust is the employer for all our teachers and staff in schools, and we have received some information from the National Education Union (NEU) about how many members are in each of our schools. This information does not give us the full picture, however, as we do not know which teachers will choose to actually be on strike on the days concerned. Headteachers/principals will therefore have to cope with a high degree of uncertainty, as they plan for the strike days.”

He added:

Nurses and ambulance workers in the Harrogate district are set to strike on the same day in just over two weeks’ time.

Picket lines could be organised within yards of each other on Lancaster Park Road in Harrogate, where the hospital and the ambulance station are both located.

Unless strikes are averted, the Royal College of Nursing plans to carry out two days of industrial action on February 6 and 7.

Unite has scheduled another ambulance strike in Harrogate on February 6.

Ambulance workers striking in Harrogate this year.

There is also the prospect of schools being affected on February 1, when members of the National Education Union plan to strike before staging further walk-outs in February and March. A union official has predicted some schools will have to close.

Sandy Lay, a nurse at Harrogate District Hospital and a Liberal Democrat councillor representing Otley and Yeadon on Leeds City Council, told a full council meeting on Wednesday the government rather than striking nurses were harming patients.

But he added arrangement for patient care were often better on strike days than non-strike days because minimum service levels were in place,

He said:

“We want minimum service levels and minimum staff levels, but it has to be every day, not just on strike days.”

Hospital: ‘regrettable some services have been affected’

Asked what impact this week’s strikes had had on the hospital, and whether it would amend its plans for future strikes, a spokesman for Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust said:

“Comprehensive plans are in place to maintain the safety of patients requiring our services during the Royal College of Nursing’s industrial action.

“We are committed to providing the best possible levels of healthcare in any eventuality, and as ever, during the industrial action our focus has been on maintaining the safety of our patients.

“Whilst it is regrettable that some of our services have been affected by industrial action, we have ensured that essential services have remained available. Whilst we have been operating at reduced staffing levels in a number of areas such as inpatient wards, we worked with the RCN to ensure that we had sufficient nursing staff working to maintain patient safety.

“During the industrial action we have rescheduled appointments where it has been necessary. We have worked with the RCN to ensure that our services have remained safe.

“While pay is a matter for government and the trade unions, we greatly value our staff and respect those who have chosen to take part in industrial action. We want to see a resolution as soon as possible to ensure we can continue to focus on delivering high quality patient care to all those who need it.”

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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.”

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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.