Staffordshire and Birmingham schools trust and union bosses hold talks after 800 more than teachers walk out over redundancies
A Staffordshire and Birmingham schools trust and union bosses have been in talks after more than 800 teachers went on strike over redundancies.
National Education Union (NEU) said 830 members working at 20 schools in the Arthur Terry Learning Partnership have so far taken part in industrial action which is set to continue January 20-22 and on three days next week.
NEU national executive member Chris Denson said: "Members across the trust remain committed to finding a negotiated solution and will be meeting the trust on Monday in an attempt to do this."
The strikes have been in protest over redundancy plans at the trust based in Sutton Coldfield over proposals to tackle financial issues after it was ordered to make improvements by The Department for Education and Education and the Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) for failing to balance the books in 2024.
The Arthur Terry trust said it was "regrettable" that hundreds of pupils were unable to attend lessons because of the ongoing strikes and "parents hugely inconvenienced".
Mr Denson said: "The first two days of action saw massive member participation across the 20 schools taking action. There are around 830 members across these 20 schools and they were all taking action.
"Support from parents, the local communities and students has been overwhelming with many joining us on the picket lines, filling in online petitions and attempting to try and contact the trust directly for an explanation as to why the jobs of teachers and support staff are under threat.
"While the trust continue to be critical of their staff taking action, they are not focussing on where jobs can be saved, keeping class sizes at current levels and the potential damage these job cuts will bring to children’s education.
"Cutting pupil facing roles will always damage education, wherever it happens. The massive central spend and central structure need to be cut, not support for students and their teachers and support staff jobs."
