Striking Harrogate teachers make their point on day of disruption for schools and parents

Harrogate members of the National Education Union joined the strike this morning as part of a nationwide day of action.

Nationally more than 120,000 members in what is the largest teaching union in the country voted to strike in a ballot with a 90% majority.

Strikers outside Grove Road Primary School on Skipton Road in Harrogate in the cold wind received early morning honks of support from passing traffic on roads which were quieter than normal on a day when hundreds of pupils stayed at home.

The NEU claims 85% of the nation’s schools will be either fully or partially closed today.

When it comes to school closures in Harrogate, the decision lies with each school’s headteacher, although Government guidance says they should take “all reasonable steps” to ensure they do not close.

The union says that teachers have lost 23 per cent in real-term pay since 2010, which it described as an “unsustainable situation”.

Most state school teachers in England and Wales had a five per cent pay rise rise in 2022.

But with inflation at more than 10 per cent, the NEU argues this has resulted in a real-term pay cut for teachers.

It also believes low pay has led to thousands of teachers leaving the profession, including a third of those who have recently qualified.

Today’s industrial action is the latest strike to hit the UK this winter that has also seen nurses, rail workers, postal staff and paramedics join picket lines.

Education Secretary Gillian Keegan defended the Government's record on pay and school funding.

Speaking this morning to BBC Breakfast, the minister said: "it makes no sense to give inflation-busting pay rises to some of the workforce" at a time when prices are rising for everyone.

She said the Government had provided an extra £2bn in school funding.

But the Labour Party’s deputy leader Angela Rayner MP accused the Government of deliberately stoking the conflict.

Today is the biggest day of industrial action in the UK for ten years.