Dear Parents/Carers,
As you may be aware from the media, the National Education Union (NEU), in accordance with the provisions of the Trade Union and Labour Relations Act 1992, are calling upon their members to strike. The proposed industrial action will take place on Wednesday 1st and Tuesday 28th February, and Wednesday 15th and Thursday 16th March 2023.
The action, which comprises of strikes on four days, may result in some partial and/or whole school closures across the country. The decision to close a school or send pupils home is never taken lightly and we will endeavour to keep the school open, if at all possible.
Staff who are members of the NEU are not legally obliged to inform the Headteacher of their intention to strike.
In order to take appropriate steps to ensure the health, safety and wellbeing of all pupils, I, in consultation with Cumbria Education Trust colleagues, am undertaking a risk assessment to determine if there will be the need for a full or partial closure on some or all of these days. Amongst other elements of operational risk, our assessment will consider:
- Whether there are likely to be enough suitably qualified staff to enable everyone to be safe.
- Whether we are able to guarantee that pupil to staff ratios will be met.
- Our ability to ensure that our emergency operational plans, including fire and evacuation procedures, will not be compromised.
We are aware that school closures inconvenience parents and carers, so I am writing to give you advance notice that there may be a partial closure of our school, so that you have time to plan childcare for your children.
We will treat the strikes as individual instances and will, therefore, make a decision and inform parents no later than one week prior to each of the proposed strike dates.
Consequently, we will be communicating the outcome of the risk assessment and its implications by Wednesday 25th January 2023, to confirm arrangements for Wednesday 1st February 2023.
Thank you for your patience and understanding.
Yours faithfully
Mr M Bedford
Head of School
