School teachers’ strikes 2023: Peterborough union branch boss says teachers need ‘pay restoration to save education’

One of Peterborough’s National Education Union (NEU) leaders has said teachers need “pay restoration to save education”, as school budgets are stretched “beyond breaking point”.

Teachers who are members of the NEU - the UK’s largest union with 450,000 members - went on strike over pay and conditions in the East of England on Wednesday.

Charlotte Davis, branch and district secretary for NEU Peterborough, said the strikes are a “last resort” and a “cry for help” from teachers - who “don’t want to strike, but feel they have no other option”.

It is the second of four dates of planned industrial action taking place across England and Wales in February and March this year.

An estimated 200,000 teachers were expected to walkout across three days of strikes this week - with NEU teachers in Peterborough, the Eastern region, East Midlands and West Midlands striking today.

“Our demands remain the same,” Charlotte said. “Our main focus is a government-funded pay rise in line with inflation.

“The government-funded element is key to so many of us, as we are seeing school budgets beyond breaking point.

“Our pupils have suffered through austerity and a lack of investment in education. We have teachers in their classrooms who are not qualified because we have a recruitment and retention crisis.”

Charlotte said teachers are “not being listened to”, with a lack of government funding affecting both staff and students - including the region’s “most vulnerable” children.

“Those with special educational needs and disabilities are the ones experiencing the biggest of funding and recruitment issues in their staffing - they are lacking specialist support,” she said.

“One in four teachers are leaving within three years of qualifying, 13 per cent of those who qualified in 2019 have already quit.

“Teachers are striking because they feel helpless watching all this happen around them.”

Further national strikes are set to take place across England and Wales on March 15 and 16.

On the first day of the NEU strikes, on February 1, Department for Education data suggested that 44.7 per cent of state schools in England were open but restricting attendance, while 9.3 per cent were closed.

Only 17.4 per cent of secondary schools reported being fully open, compared with 52.1 per cent of primary schools.

For Peterborough City Council’s full list of Peterborough schools which are either open, partially open (open to selected classes or year groups), open to selected vulnerable and critical worker children, or closed, click the link below.