NEU union members strike in south London (Picture: Sam Vacciana)
Education union members in Southwark, south London, are fighting to keep Charlotte Sharman school open. They took to picket lines on Tuesday and Wednesday and were set to again on Thursday and Friday.
Labour-run Southwark council is set to close Charlotte Sharman and St Mary Magdalene schools on 31 August.
This will mean that the council has closed eight primary schools in the borough since 2022.
Laura is an NEU education union rep at the school. She told Socialist Worker that, since they found out the school was going through a consultation for closure, “all of the teachers and support staff have joined the NEU”.
“We got everyone to join together to fight against this because it isn’t the right decision for the community,” she said.
“It is all down to money and the budget deficit, we are being told” by the council.
The Labour government should change the current funding formula, which allocates money based on student enrolment numbers.
But student numbers are declining in inner London boroughs because the housing crisis has forced working class families to move further out.
“You can look at the year when the council closed a nearby housing estate and our school enrolment plummeted,” said Laura.
“I’ve worked here for 14 years. As a direct result of that estate closing student numbers have dropped significantly.”
“There is no affordable housing in this area. You can see the changes that have happened right on our doorstep. The people who are living in this area are not families.
She added, “Even the teachers working here can’t afford to live around here anymore.”
Parents, school workers and people from the area have campaigned against the closure. In April, parents launched a petition to keep the school open, which gained around 800 signatures.
“We haven’t been given any other options by the council,” Laura said.
The council has even come to run workshops about what other schools are available nearby.
The closure comes a year after a proposed merger between Charlotte Sharman school and St Jude’s school fell through.
Charlotte Sharman school is a non-faith school, with over 50 percent of its enrolment made up of Muslim students. St Jude’s is a Church of England school. Laura described the merger as “not an appropriate match”.
“We serve a very diverse community,” she said. “We are the only non-faith school in this ward.”
She added, “It is a school that generations of families have been to and worked at. The ties to this community are so strong.
“We are doing everything we can to try and keep the school open.”
School workers at the Riverside and Harpley sites of London East Alternative Provision school struck on Wednesday and were set to strike on Thursday.
They are pushing back against bosses’ restructuring plan that would cut four teacher’s posts and one assistant head’s post.
The Riverside building on the Isle of Dogs is being handed back to developers and everyone, apart from the five jobs being cut, moved to Harpley.
School workers at Goodwin Academy in Deal, Kent, struck on Tuesday as bosses try to drive through job cuts.
Management said that five workers, mostly support workers, would lose their jobs.
NEU education union members held a strike ballot where 100 percent voted for industrial action on a 60 percent turnout.
Union members are fighting to stop all compulsory redundancies. They are also concerned about wider cuts that bosses are carrying out in the form of not replacing other workers who are leaving.
This will affect workload and the service the school can provide for its children.
School workers will be holding pickets at the school in Hamilton Road from 7.30am to 9am.
Strike dates are also set for next Thursday and 18, 19, 24, 25, 26 June.
School workers at Outwood Grange Academies Trust struck on Tuesday over bosses’ plan to extend the school day, increasing weekly teaching time.
Some 14 schools are taking industrial action out of the trust’s 28 secondary schools. The strikes are taking place at schools spanning from Doncaster to Redcar.
Bullying management wants to add 30 minutes to the day from 2.30pm to 3pm.
Members in both the NEU education union and NASUWT teachers’ union are walking out. The NEU says it will lead “to a substantial increase in workload and a struggle to retain teachers”.
The decision was made without any meaningful consultation with school workers.
It will result in a higher workload at a time when workers are already feeling stretched.
Some six days of industrial action are planned in June, next Tuesday and Thursday and then three days from 17 June.
19 homes have been destroyed and at least 19 more damaged
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