Teachers at two schools to strike over cuts

Teachers at two secondary schools in Horncastle are going on strike later over proposed job cuts.

Members of the NASUWT union at Banovallum School and Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School are staging four days of strike action, citing concerns about increased workload and working hours.

The union said the Horncastle Education Trust, which runs both state-funded schools, is making seven voluntary staff redundancies and is proposing to cut the time allocated to teachers for planning, preparation and assessment (PPA).

A spokesperson for the trust said the cuts were necessary as their costs had risen above the level of funding they receive. Both schools will only be open for those taking exams.

Strike action is planned for 11-14 May, and NASUWT members intend to picket outside the schools between 08:00 and 09:00 BST, the union said.

The trust's spokesperson said: "We reached the point where keeping things as they are was no longer sustainable, so we had to make a very difficult decision to start a redundancy programme."

All the redundancies were voluntary, the trust said, and more than half were leadership or support posts.

Matt Wrack, NASUWT's general secretary, said teachers working for the trust were worried about their workloads.

"They are being expected to simply absorb the impact of these redundancies, including through a reduction in the amount of time provided for them to undertake essential lesson planning, marking and assessment."

Wrack said the plans threatened teachers' welfare and the standard of learning provided to pupils.

The trust said the time allocated to teachers for PPA would be cut from 15% to 12%, which, they pointed out, is above the nationally agreed minimum of 10%.

Further information about the schools' arrangements during the strikes can be found on their respective websites.

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