by Hugo Pierre, Tower Hamlets Socialist Party
NEU members at St Paul’s Way Trust School in Tower Hamlets started six days of strike action on 29 June against compulsory redundancies, and are continuing in July.
The school’s Trust claims to have a financial deficit, requiring cutbacks. However, the school is over-subscribed and has a waiting list of students wanting to join. Management has shown union reps the hole in the budget but refuses to show how it developed over previous years.
NEU members showed up in big numbers against the redundancies, with over 90 on the picket line outside the school.
The staffing restructure takes an axe to the Pastoral Support Team. The total number of posts has been reduced, but where existing posts are retained, a large number of them are being downgraded, in some cases by as much as 50%. The school has also significantly increased teaching hours and cut planning time to the statutory minimum of 10%.
The new proposals show no place for the wellbeing of children. The ballot result, with a 70% turnout and 98% in favour of action, shows the level of support for those members facing compulsory redundancy.
Some Unison members in the school refused to cross the picket line. Sadly, the lengthy ballot timetable, which the local branch heavily criticised, meant that Unison members would not be able to take action until two days before the end of term. This lack of urgency meant unfortunately they did not meet the Tory ballot turnout thresholds that Labour has kept in place.
St Paul’s Way Trust school strike against redundancies
🕒 1st July 2026
by Hugo Pierre, Tower Hamlets Socialist Party
National Education Union (NEU) members at St Paul’s Way Trust School in Tower Hamlets started six days of strike action on 29 June against compulsory redundancies.
The school’s Trust claims to have a financial deficit, requiring cutbacks. However, the school is over-subscribed and has a waiting list of students wanting to join. The school has shown school union reps the hole in this financial year’s budget but refused several times to show how it developed over previous years.
NEU members showed up in big numbers against the redundancies, with over 90 on the picket line outside the school. They were in full voice on a very good natured picket.
The staffing restructure takes an axe to the Pastoral Support Team which provides vital support to each school year. The total number of posts has been reduced, but where existing posts are retained, a large number of them are being downgraded, in some cases by as much as 50%. This means staff lose any rights to salary protection in the process. The school has significantly increased teaching hours and cut planning time to the statutory minimum of 10%.
The new proposals show no place for the wellbeing of children. As with any inner London school, the students have high levels of social, economic and educational needs. The new timetable will limit the ability of all teachers to differentiate teaching to those that require it, and provide pastoral support, a specific strength of this school, according to the latest Ofsted report.
In the consultation, the unions negotiated with management to reduce some of the proposed redundancies, but at present six workers still have this terrible stress, not knowing whether or not they have a job in September. The school only started consultation about redundancies in May andtherefore there is very limited time and opportunity for these staff to find new, commensurate jobs. By the time this process is over, most schools will have recruited for September making it difficult to get a similar job in another school.
The ballot result, with a 70% turnout and 98% in favour of action, shows the level of support for those members facing compulsory redundancy. The support on the picket line outside the school will give encouragement to those facing redundancy, and that they are prepared to strike is a strong and determined sign to management to save jobs.
Some Unison members in the school refused to cross the picket line. Sadly, the lengthy ballot timetable, which the local branch heavily criticised, meant that Unison members could not take action until two days before the end of term and at the end of the NEU action! This lack of urgency meant unfortunately they did not meet the Tory ballot thresholds that Labour are still keeping in place.
Members are preparing for two days then three days of strike action if management do not agree to back down and save the jobs. With the initial eight compulsory redundancies, all from the Pastoral Team, there is a combined 97 years of experienced, skilled and empathetic professional expertise being lost.
As well as the compulsory redundancies there are also serious concerns among NEU members about changing TLR (teaching and learning responsibility) points, changes in job descriptions, significantly less planning and pastoral time, and a huge increase in lesson time compared to the previous academic year. All resulting in a significant increase in working hours per week for the next academic year.