UPDATE:

We have now had the official announcement that the NEU have declared another 9 days of strikes on top of the 7 already executed.

This totals 16 days, over 150,000 hours, directly impacting over 1400 Wanstead children, as well as their families. Every single day of strikes loses over 9,500 hours of schooling for our kids. This has to stop!

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We, as parents and guardians of current pupils, are seriously concerned about the seven days of strike action called at Wanstead High School and its impact on pupils’ education. 
 
We have now read all the correspondence, on both sides of the argument, that has been shared with us, and attended a Zoom call with the Union and others.
 
It is our conclusion having listened and reflected that the Union should now immediately stop all strike action.

Our reasons are as follows:

• We recognise that teaching is a demanding profession and that workload and wellbeing are pressures facing schools and teachers nationally. We are very grateful to the teachers for the great work they do.
• We support improvements at the school alongside the education and wellbeing of our children. The letter from the Head dated 11 January confirms that "pupils are missing key curriculum content which will affect outcomes".
• We do not wish to get involved in all the details of how the school operates, which are a matter for school teachers and leadership, overseen by the independent governors.
• We are not convinced, having seen how the Union handled our queries (where the children were barely mentioned except in the context of bad behaviour) that they are working constructively and in good faith with the head teacher and the local authority to bring about improvements for the whole school community.
• The Union do not seem to have followed due process and taken all routes necessary to avoid strike action. We are aware that the Union had instigated significant strike action in several other local schools. The Union's letter dated 17 January says: "“For the avoidance of doubt, these are fundamental workplace expectations that should be resolved through standard HR processes”. We therefore call on the Union to stop the strikes and raise the concerns through the relevant HR processes. 
• The Union's list of 30 demands seems to be fluid and ever-changing, without a clear rationale for what is included. The letters from the Head dated 16 and 20 January demonstrate that they have agreed to certain changes but have valid reasons for not meeting all of the Unions demands. 
• The strike action is not the appropriate route to resolve this and the impact on our children is disproportionate.
• Similar recent local NEU strike action at King Solomon High School, Ilford was stopped by parents who put their support behind their school leadership - in the same way we are expressing our support and full confidence in the Headteacher and SLT at Wanstead High School. 

This petition is a follow up to our original petition of 8 January.