As most people will be aware, on this Thursday some members of two teaching unions are planning to undertake strike action because they are discontent with proposals made by Lord Hutton on the reform of public service pensions.  The two teaching unions which have balloted on strike action, ATL and NUT, both have teacher members at Bennett.  Amongst these teachers, fourteen have notified me that they will be on strike on Thursday. Wherever we find ourselves in the debate on this subject, we respect the well-founded reasons why these staff have made their decisions, just as we respect the reasons why others have reached different conclusions.

Because a relatively small number of staff are taking part in the strike action in the context of the total number of teachers employed at Bennett, and because those teachers’ timetable loads are significantly reduced at this time of year, in the absence of year 11 and year 13 lessons, we will not need either to close the school or to keep any year group at home on that day.  All students should therefore come to school on Thursday as normal.

The vast majority of students will be unaffected during the day by any staff absence due to strike action.  Those classes whose teachers are not present will be covered by a member of the school’s leadership team.