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‘We’ll fight on,’ warn teachers
School forced to close after latest walkout over reduced lunch
break dispute
PIMLICO teachers walked out on strike yesterday (Thursday) for the second time in three months, warning schools chiefs “we will fight on”.
The action forced the school’s closure after talks to solve a row over a reduced lunch break collapsed.
Headteacher Jo Shuter has shortened the school’s lunch break from 45 minutes to half an hour.
She argues more than 1,300 pupils face three years of “hell” as the school is demolished around them and it is better to get everyone off the site as quickly as possible.
NUT staff at the school say they are bearing the brunt of the council’s “penny-pinching” decision not to decant the school during the demolition.
Speaking through a megaphone, the secretary of National Union of Teachers Padraic Finn, said: “The picket was a huge success.
“We will fight on.”
Another strike is planned at the school, which is likely to become an academy in September, on February 27.
Mr Finn added: “Staff believe that the 30-minute lunch break is part of preparation for the worsening of conditions which are likely to follow from the academy takeover because both of the other academies in Westminster tried to cut lunch breaks in a similar way.
“In one case, it was only the threat of strike action by the NUT that secured an increase in the lunch break.”
Nick Yarker, deputy schools chief at the council, said Pimlico was being “held to ransom” by a “very small and unrepresentative group”.
He said: “I urge the NUT to support these vital changes that are bringing about improvements that the vast majority of pupils, teachers and staff are desperate to see.”
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