by Jack Sedgwick, Waltham Forest Socialist Party
Hopes and energy were high from the outset on 10 November at the picket line at Whitefield School for SEND students (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities).
Socialist Party members brought our solidarity to the approximately 30 teachers and support staff on the picket line. They were committing to three days of strike action against changes they all felt had compromised the safety of the children.
Negotiations had been brought forward to try to win demands and enable further action if necessary. Morale was high. During the first morning, members experienced solidarity from local parents, as well as two delivery drivers, who were easily convinced to turn around without making a drop-off to the school.
Grievances centred around the school’s unilateral decision to reshuffle classes, without meaningfully responding to staff concerns that this would represent a danger for the students and an increased burden on the staff. In the reorganisation, students with different needs are now sharing the same classrooms, which staff believe causes student distress and disruption, and safety risks – with students fearing being tripped or trampled.
Strikers said that they were not supported in this transition with appropriate time to prepare for new workload pressures, nor with higher numbers of staff in each classroom to manage the increased demand for individual support.
While staff numbers have not increased, the number of unqualified, untrained agency staff has. Successive budget cuts have reduced the number of permanent positions for experienced staff. Strikers reported that the agency workers are not supported sufficiently, and that classroom assistants take on more work. This shows the impact of thoughtless, repeated cuts to services: students are improperly assisted, and staff are overworked. Only an end to cuts, and a pledge to maintain and bolster SEND budgets, with democratic control over how the money is spent, can resolve these issues.