Staff At Darland High School Striking For Four Days

A Wrexham high school is partially closing this week with staff taking industrial action against ‘unacceptable’ practices being introduced in the facility.

Darland High School in Rossett, is to close for students of year seven, eight, nine and ten for both today and tomorrow.

Industrial action for the school has formally been announced for Tuesday 28th April, Wednesday 29th April, Wednesday 6th May and Thursday 7th May.

A letter posted on the Darland High School website notes: “Due to the numbers of staff who are members of the NASUWT and therefore likely to be on strike, the decision has been taken that on the days above, the school will only be open for students in Year 11.

“The School apologises for the late notification of these strike days, but up until midday Friday, the NASUWT had not confirmed that the strikes would take place.”

There is concern on the impact the industrial action will have on pupils at the school, with year 11 students due to sit their GCSE exams in the near future and years seven, eight and nine due to sit numeracy and literacy exams.

Speaking about the industrial action Cllr Michael Williams, Lead Member for Children’s Services and Education said: “Darland High School is deeply disappointed and saddened by this turn of events and is extremely concerned about the impact that strike action will have on its pupils. The education of our students is always our main priority and so it is always difficult for the school to fulfil that commitment when such action takes place.”

“During this strike, the school has put in place emergency contingency measures to ensure that the education of Year 11 classes will continue uninterrupted.”

“We hope that the NASUWT, Darland High School and Wrexham Council will be able to resolve this strike action quickly and completely and allow our students to study and our teachers to teach.”

Cllr Williams added: “We have contacted the NASUWT headquarters on a number of occasions over the past week or so in order to try and establish precisely which elements of the national dispute are causing concern at Darland High School. Despite assurances that a strike planned for Thursday of last week would be withdrawn in order “to facilitate further discussions”, we have still not received any further correspondence regarding this action. We are very concerned about the negative impact on the children and their families who will bear the brunt of this disruption.”

However Chris Keates, General Secretary of the NASUWT, the largest teachers’ union in Wales said they had been ‘crystal clear about the reasons for the action from the outset’.

Speaking about the strike Mr Keates added: “The School is applying a performance management policy which is unfair, adding to teachers’ workload and putting jobs at risk.

“Parents will rightly be concerned that strike action is now being taken, but we have been left with no alternative. Teachers are equally concerned by the failure of the employer to enter into genuine discussion with the NASUWT to avoid the strike action.

“If the practices at Darland go unchallenged, every teacher in Wrexham is at risk.”