Oldham teachers walk out for fourth time this year

The borough’s teachers joined the tens of thousands of other National Education Union (NEU) that walked out of schools and sixth form colleges across England for the fourth time this year, with a fifth strike planned on Tuesday.

Picket lines were mounted outside schools across Oldham and a demonstration was held outside the Oldham Civic Centre.

Speaking from the picket line outside St Matthews C of E Primary School in Chadderton, Marie Buckley, a Year 1 teacher at the school, said: “We haven’t got the funding in schools that we need.

“Apart from the pay, that is unfair and not being kept in line with other public sector jobs, children are not getting what they need.

“The special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) children coming through are not getting enough support. We are not able to provide properly for them within schools because everything has to come out of existing school budgets.”

Teachers on the picket line outside St Matthews C of E Primary School (Image: Newsquest)

Over at the demonstration outside the Civic Centre, Nye Goodwin, the former headteacher at Stanley Road Primary School in Chadderton who retired in 2013, said: “Teachers are woefully underpaid given their qualifications and the important job they do in society.

“The turnover of teachers is huge but it’s not just due to the pay it’s also the workload.”

An Oldham primary school teacher at the demonstration, who did not wish to be named, said teachers are leaving due to the “workload and stress in work” which is having a knock-on effect on students.

“I feel frazzled every day because you’re running around 100 children that you cannot get round.

“There is not the support for them. Special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) children are waiting three years for a referral to even be looked at it’s pathetic.

“Three years is too long they are going to leave school unable to read and write.

“There is a lack of SEND support and teaching assistants. Who would want to be a teaching assistant. You could earn more working on a check out. The chances are you will be looking after a very difficult child and won’t have the space for them or the resources,” she said.

Retired headteacher Nye Goodwin at the demonstration outside the Civic Centre (Image: Newsquest)

Another Oldham primary school teacher, who chose not to give her name, criticised the education system for prioritising staff recruitment over retention.

“The system is aimed at getting new teachers in.

“It’s all based on ‘We know you’ll leave after five years so we’ll make it appealing to join, we’ll pay you this much, give you training, and move you onto this wage immediately because we know you’ll leave after five years because the workload is unmanageable’.

“It’s not a system that is suitable for children,” she said.

A recent survey by the National Education Union (NEU) found that nearly half of teachers plan to quit the profession within the next five years.

In a poll of 1,788 teachers 44 per cent of England’s state-school teachers said they plan to quit by 2027 and half of those (22 per cent) intend to leave within two years.

Meanwhile over half (52 per cent) of teachers surveyed said their workload is either ‘unmanageable’ or ‘unmanageable most of the time’, up from 35 per cent in 2021.

Jason Sharp, a governor at St Cuthbert's RC High School in Rochdale used to teach in Oldham but was forced to leave due to the workload.

He said: “At our school we are trying to recruit Maths teachers and we have only had one person apply for the role who did not meet the necessary requirements.

“We are having to offer recruitment and retention payments to try and entice people. Some schools are going to have to stop teaching Drama as it’s not worth it financially.”

James Stirton, a Sociology and RE teacher at North Chadderton School, said his school is struggling to recruit Maths, Science, and Modern Foreign Language (MFL) teachers as the starting salary for staff remains uncompetitive compared to other graduate jobs.

“For computing jobs, we have had people that have never taught before and work at Curry’s.”

Left to right James Stirton, a Sociology and RE teacher, Jack Mason a History and Politics teacher, and Tom Harvey,a Geography teacher, on the picket line outside North Chadderton School (Image: Newsquest)

James added that despite the Government’s narrative that the strikes ‘all about pay’ most teachers are walking out due to their concern over funding for education as a whole.

“The fact of the matter is that funding is not being added to the current budget so if we get an increase in pay it will come out of current school budgets and with the cost of gas and electric now school budgets are already massively under pressure.

“Everything has gone up. Classes usually have the same colour exercise books, but we are now using different colour books that we are finding in cupboards,” he said.

Also at the demonstration was Phillipa Gell, who teaches English at Oldham Sixth Form College.

She said: “It has been a very difficult to take action in the run up to exams it’s very hard not to be in our classrooms today, but we don’t think the government thinks about sixth form colleges enough.

“Our pay has fallen by 20 per cent in real terms since 2010. We want sixth form colleges to be recognised for the work they do.”

The NEU is expected to announce three more strikes during the summer term after its members voted to reject the Government’s pay offer.

The Government offered teachers a £1,000 one-off payment for the current school year (2022/23) and an average 4.5 per cent pay rise for staff next year following intensive talks with the education unions.

Four education unions, the NEU, the NASUWT teaching union, the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) and the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), have rejected the pay offer.

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “We have made a fair and reasonable teacher pay offer to the unions, which recognises teachers’ hard work and commitment. Next year, school funding will be at its highest level in history – per pupil, in real terms.

“We know schools are facing increased costs like energy and staffing and are providing an extra £2 billion in each of the next two years to cover those costs. As a result, school funding is set to rise faster than forecast inflation in both 2023/24 and 2024/25.”