Image from Bablake School’s Facebook page

Members of the NASUWT-The Teachers’ Union at the Coventry School Foundation, which includes BKHS Bablake Senior, BKHS Bablake Prep, BKHS King Henry VIII Senior and BKHS King Henry VIII Prep are staging a strike today and tomorrow, the Coventry Telegraph has reported.

Union members at Coventry’s private schools are preparing to host a two-day strike over pay.

Dr Patrick Roach, general secretary of the NASUWT, said: “Teachers at the foundation have already had a 2.75% pay award imposed on them for this year which is less than the 5% colleagues in the state sector have received to date and despite an 11% increase in the fees charged by the foundation to parents.

“At the time the employer committed to making a pay offer for 2023/24 which would be linked to the state sector pay offer with an additional percentage increase. Last week the employer withdrew the previous offer for 2023/24, offering instead a one off, unconsolidated payment of £300.

“In the teeth of a major cost of living crisis it is entirely unacceptable that hard-working teachers are being expected to accept such significant real terms cuts in their pay. Teachers at the foundation are angry and tired of being taken for granted and treated with complete disrespect by their employer.

“We hope parents will recognise that the quality of the education their children receive depends on having teachers who are recognised and rewarded as skilled professionals. We ask them to join us in calling on the foundation to stop playing games and enter into genuine and transparent negotiations with us on teachers’ pay.”

Alan Jones, NASUWT national executive member for the West Midlands, commented: “We call on the employer to honour its commitments on pay to its employees and to recognise that its staff are its most important and valuable asset. Teachers deserve pay levels that not only enable them to weather the cost of living crisis but which reflect the highly skilled and challenging nature of the work they do.”