London school staff to go on strike

Teachers at Forest Hill School in Lewisham, which are members of the National Union of Teachers, are set to go on strike this morning (20 June).

Staff will be joined by parents on Great Smith Street, outside the Department for Education’s (DfE) London offices, at 10.30am to demand ministers release “emergency funds” for the school.

This comes after the school was told by Lewisham Council to reduce a £1.3 million deficit through staffing cuts, which has resulted in 15 teaching posts being cut for September 2017,

The union is now asking for more time to pay back the deficit, and for the £100,000 contingency funding written into the school’s budget to be used to keep special educational needs staff and other support assistants.

The school’s budget targets have resulted in 23 administrative and support staff being cut, 23 teachers have decided to resign, in addition to four voluntary redundancies and one compulsory redundancy,

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