School closure impact of teacher strike spreads

A second council is to close all its secondary schools for a day when teachers go on strike next week.

Scottish Borders Council says its secondaries will be shut next Thursday because of action by the SSTA and NASUWT unions.

East Ayrshire Council will close its high schools on Wednesday.

Inverclyde Council says some of its secondaries will be closed to S1, S2 and S3 students while one school in Argyll and Bute will close.

Meanwhile, South Ayrshire Council says five of its eight secondary schools will be closed while two will only be open to S4, S5 and S6 students. Just one school will be open to all students.

Stirling Council is expecting disruption across its seven secondary schools next Thursday.

Bannockburn High will remain open to all students. Details of which year groups will be able to attend its other high schools will be confirmed to students and parents.

All Moray secondary schools will be closed to S1 to S3 pupils on 8 December with variable arrangements in place for S4 to S6, depending on staff availability.

In East Renfrewshire S4 to S6 pupils will attend as usual but secondary schools will be closed to S1 to S3 pupils.

And Aberdeenshire said its schools would be open "where possible", although some could be either closed or partially closed a timetable could be disrupted in others.

It is starting to look as if the impact of next week's strikes by the SSTA and NASUWT will be significant.

Between them, they represent around a fifth of teachers. The impact of their action was never going to be as great as that of the EIS union last week.

So far, two councils have said all their secondary schools will be closed while a third says most secondaries will shut.

Others will confirm their plans soon.

The impact of these strikes will vary across the country. It will depend on just how many teachers will be on strike at particular schools.

At some, the anticipated disruption will be so great that closing the school will be more straightforward than making special arrangements.

But if the dispute continues, there is an interesting tactical question for the unions to consider.

All unions share the same aim on pay. If EIS action alone can close schools, could it be more effective for the other unions to strike on different days?

If the row is not resolved, students could be in for a winter of disruption.

The strikes over pay follow on from a national one-day strike by the biggest teachers' union, the EIS, last Thursday.

Teachers on the main pay scale are being offered rises of between 5% and 6.85% but unions want 10%.

No formal meetings between the unions and employers are currently planned before Wednesday.

More councils are expected to confirm their plans for next week's strikes soon.

The SSTA and NASUWT action will be split between Wednesday and Thursday with each council area affected for one day each.

The signs so far suggest that the strikes will have a significant impact on many secondary schools although the overall level of disruption across Scotland will be less than that caused by the EIS strike.

The EIS represents 80% of Scottish teachers.

Although most teachers will not be on strike next week, schools and councils are having to work out arrangements to deal with the likely disruption.

In some cases it may be impractical to keep schools open because so many teachers will be on strike or they may concentrate their resources on senior students studying for qualifications.