Jewish schools braced for Wednesday’s teachers’ strike

Yavneh College, JFS and JCoSS have updated parents about how they will be impacted by Wednesday’s planned National Education Union teachers’ strike.

Dr Melanie Lee, the new headteacher at JCoss in Barnet, has informed parents that “unfortunately” the school has taken the decision to fully close. “We recognise the impact this may have on students and their families but you will appreciate our duty is to ensure that we have enough staff on the site to provide safe supervision for all students,” she said.

JCoSS is providing “access to high quality remote learning resources on Teams and live lessons will be taught by colleagues who are not striking.”

Meanwhile, Spencer Lewis, executive head of Yavneh College in Borehamwood, said some years will be impacted, but arrangements have been made for teaching provision across some years, meaning school will still run for pupils in Year 7. However, there will be no cover for years 8, 9 and 10, who are instead encouraged to “take the opportunity to catch up on any work and on some reading”.

Years 11, 12 and 13 will be able to attend ‘normal lessons’ in school, although no vocational sessions will be available to the latter two groups.

Lewis concluded his email by writing: “I understand that this may not be convenient for some parents but hope that you appreciate that this is not an easy situation for us to manage.”

JFS head teacher Dr. David Moody told Jewish News teachers “have been supportive in letting us know their intentions”, enabling them to give parents notice ahead of the strike action’.

“Unfortunately, with nearly half of teachers opting to strike, the school has had to close for the day. We will be providing resources to all pupils and small groups of students are also being invited in for intervention where possible.”

Rabbi David Meyer, chief executive of Jewish schools network, Partnerships for Schools, (PaJes) told Jewish News there is no legal requirement for staff to inform schools in advance – which is an added challenge: “The decision as to whether to close a school is difficult for school leaders, especially as it can be unclear how many teachers will actually take industrial action.

“As always, the priority must be to ensure a safe environment for their students, and if there are insufficient teachers in attendance then a school would be forced to close. Most schools that are closed will arrange some form of distanced learning provision, but as we all know too well, this is far from ideal.”

He added: “The rise in the cost of living, pay increases below the rate of inflation and increased workloads has created an impossible dynamic and it is not surprising that we are facing a crisis in teacher recruitment and retention. We have a duty to value the educators of our children.  It is always worrying to see teachers striking but unless these concerns are addressed we are in danger of it precipitating a far greater crisis.”

Immanuel College in Bushey was not able to confirm whether it would be affected. Mathilda Marks-Kennedy (MMK) primary school in Mill Hill told Jewish News: “At present none of our teachers have told us they are striking and we intend to open. However, we understand the reasons that teachers are striking.”