But parents advised to check their school's website to get the latest information

Parents in the borough are being advised to check their school’s website this evening, Wednesday 16th October to get the latest picture on tomorrow’s planned industrial action by teachers.

In total 61 of the borough’s 82 schools will be either fully open or partially open. That figure may rise when final announcements are made by the eight schools who have not yet notified the town hall.

The latest figures show that 13 of the borough’s 61 primary schools will be fully closed as a result of strike action. Sixteen primaries will be completely unaffected while 26 others will be largely open, but some lessons or classes may be disrupted. Confirmation from six other primary schools is still awaited.

The strike action has been called by the National Union of Teachers and the National Association of Schoolmasters and Union of Women Teachers. Christine Blower of the NUT gave a message to parents and carers about the strike action on 17 October: "The NUT sincerely regrets the disruption that will be caused by strike action on Thursday (17 October) for children and parents. Teachers, however, feel they have no other choice to demonstrate their concerns about the Government’s proposals because Michael Gove:

* has done nothing to address the crisis of low morale in the teaching profession which threatens the continued provision of high quality education in your child’s school;
* is making changes to teachers’ pay, pensions and conditions that will make it harder for your child’s school to recruit and retain good teachers;
* has not engaged in negotiations with us to seek to resolve our dispute."

The primaries that have confirmed they will be closed to all pupils are Chesterton, Eardley, Eastwood, Furzedown, Griffin, High View, Penwortham, Ravenstone, Roehampton CE, Sacred Heart in Roehampton, Sacred Heart in Battersea, St Faith’s and St Mary’s RC.

Primary and special schools that are expected to be totally unaffected by the strike action and will be fully open as normal include Alderbrook, All Saints CE, Bradstow, Gatton, Greenmead, Hillbrook, Holy Ghost RC, Honeywell infants, Honeywell Junior, Oak Lodge, Our Lady of Victories, Our Lady Queen of Heaven, Shaftesbury Park, Somerset Nursery, Southmead, St Joseph’s RC, Swaffield, The Alton, Tooting and Victoria Drive PRU.

At secondary level, two (Ashcroft and Bolingbroke) of the borough’s 11 schools will be fully open and a further seven partially open. Information is still being sought from the last two remaining secondaries.

As well as checking school websites, parents who have provided mobile phone numbers to their children’s schools should also receive an SMS text message direct from schools tomorrow morning confirming the latest picture.

October 17, 2013