How are parents and schools in Ely preparing for strike action?

Home to a little over 20,000 people, Ely is one of England's smallest cities. The city has five primary schools, a secondary school and a special school. How are head teachers and parents there preparing for Wednesday's strike action?

"Schools are doing an amazing job in really challenging circumstances," says mother-of-two Tali Iserles, who lives in Ely.

"Our key workers kept us going throughout the pandemic when we needed them. We need to be here for them now."

Ms Iserles' 11-year-old daughter attends Ely College, a school and sixth form college with about 1,100 students on its roll.

The college has decided to close on Wednesday for all students except those sitting GCSE exams or A Levels this year.

The strike will coincide with a Year 11 BTEC Digital Information Technology exam at the school during the morning.

Students poised to sit that exam have been told it is "vital" they come in for it.

For Ms Iserles, the industrial action means both her daughter and nine-year-old son, who is at a local primary school, will be at home on Wednesday.

"I'm very lucky that I have my own part time business," she says. "So it is fine, I am in a privileged position in that respect.

"I don't have to worry about getting childcare or making other arrangements.

"I don't think one, two or three days is going to make any enormous difference to our children's education."

Ely College, which is part of the Meridian Trust, has asked parents not to discuss the industrial action with staff who, in turn, have been urged not to discuss their personal views on the action directly with children, parents, and carers.

This, says Ms Iserles, is a sensible move.

"We are very lucky in Ely because it really is one large community. We've been told not to discuss it with the teachers.

"I support the teachers 100%. They, and the teaching assistants, are absolute heroes."

Head teachers are expected to take "all reasonable steps" to keep schools open for as many pupils as possible during a strike, according to Department for Education guidance.

In his letter to parents, the Ely College principal Simon Warburton said that because staff were "not under any obligation to notify us in advance" as to whether they would be striking, it made "predicting the impact of action difficult".

"There are a significant number of our staff who are members of the National Education Union," Mr Warburton wrote. "We can only plan based on our best estimates of the likely impact on staffing.

"We have risk-assessed these estimates against the safe running of the college and supervision of the children.

"Unfortunately, we are not able to offer live online lessons for students through the day because we are unable to ask non-striking colleagues to 'cover' in this way."

The college has restored its remote learning pages on its website and updated the links they contain in a bid to make them an "effective resource for students" to use during the strike.

Year 13 students have been told that while they should come in as normal, there was potential for some disruption to their lessons.

If that happens, the school says, they will be expected to carry out private study on site.

After balloting 300,000 teachers and support staff, the UK's largest education union, the National Education Union (NEU), announced seven strike days in February and March:

The NEU expects 100,000 teachers to strike, disrupting 23,000 schools. NEU teachers in sixth-form colleges in England, who have already been striking in a separate pay dispute, will also walk out on these dates.

Most state school teachers in England and Wales saw a 5% pay rise in 2022. But the NEU says this rise actually equates to a pay cut, because of high inflation rates.

Dr Mary Bousted and Kevin Courtney, joint general secretaries of the NEU, said: "This is not about a pay rise but correcting historic real-term pay cuts.

"Teachers have lost 23% in real terms since 2010, and support staff 27% over the same period.

"The average 5% pay rise for teachers this year is some 7% behind inflation.

"In the midst of a cost of living crisis, that is an unsustainable situation."

The education secretary, Gillian Keegan, previously told the BBC the planned strike action was "deeply disappointing".

She said the government had already met the unions' request for an additional £2bn in school funding "which will take real-terms spending on schools to its highest level in history".

"Any strike action from one union will have a damaging impact on pupils' education and wellbeing, particularly following the disruption experienced over the past two years," she added.

Schools will not be the only places in Ely affected by Wednesday's industrial action.

The city's busy railway station is a key hub used by four different operators.

Jamie Burles, managing director at Greater Anglia, which runs a number of services through Ely, said: "We are very sorry that once again our customers will be disrupted by strikes.

"We're only able to run a fraction of our usual services, so our advice again is to avoid using our trains on strike days.

"The rail industry is working hard to resolve these disputes and talks will continue with ASLEF and RMT to reach an agreement."

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