Islington Arts and Media School teachers to vote on strike over threatened job losses

Published: 11 March, 2011
by TERRY MESSENGER

A TEACHERS’ strike is being threatened at Islington Arts and Media School over fears that nine staff face redundancy.

The school is planning to shed the posts in an economy drive aimed at saving hundreds of thousands of pounds to wipe out its debts and to fall in line with cuts imposed by the government.

Islington National Union of Teachers (NUT) had a crisis meeting on Tuesday night with headteacher Diana Osagie in an attempt to dissuade her from making compulsory redundancies.

Borough branch assistant secretary Ken Muller said:  “We asked for a guarantee that there will be no compulsory redundancies and we didn’t get that guarantee so we are now moving towards balloting members on strike action.

“It’s 99.9 per cent certain there will be a ballot but it’s got to be ratified by the national action committee of the union.”

The school in Turle Road, Finsbury Park, wants to make savings to wipe out a £357,000 deficit, to fall in line with government austerity measures and to adjust staffing levels to reflect a drop in pupil numbers from 900 to 750.

Savings plans include a rejigging of the timetable to lengthen lessons from 45 minutes to 60 minutes, reducing the number of periods and thus the supposed need for the same number of teachers. A reduction of nine teachers has been suggested.

In December, Cambridge Education Auth­ority, which runs schools in Islington, wrote to headteachers suggesting “a modelling of five per cent cuts to overall income... in the light of possible budget reductions.”

Ms Osagie said: “The consultation on these proposals closes this week and I will be  considering all the responses carefully with school governors. Our main priority is to ensure we are providing students with the best possible education and care, and that the school is run as efficiently as possible.

“Two years ago the yearly intake number was reduced by 150, but the staffing structure was never changed to reflect this. A reduction in teaching posts now would in no way damage the level of education provided to students and we are hoping to avoid having to make any redundancies.” 

Mr Muller commented: “Whatever the budgetary situation of the school, sacking teachers is not the best way to resolve it. Apart from throwing valued and experienced teachers on the scrapheap, it will inevitably have a negative impact on the ability of the school to provide its students with a decent education.”

NUT members at the school issued a statement saying they believe falling school rolls should present an opportunity to improve educational provision by reducing class sizes. “We are opposed to all cuts and redundancies at our school, especially when the latter are compulsory,” the statement added.