Teachers continued to carry out strike action this morning (Thursday, May 2) at Llangors Church in Wales Primary School over adverse management practices, redundancy, and staff wellbeing.
Accompanied by parents and pupils, they made their voices heard with banners saying ‘Powys Council please talk to us and listen to our concerns,’ and ‘My school, my future, please listen!’
For months, teachers at Llangors have worked under threat of redundancy. It is strongly felt that the proposed redundancy is the result of years of mismanagement by the school’s leadership and governors.
NASUWT members have requested to negotiate and to hold an independent investigation into the mismanagement of the school with Powys County Council before the redundancy takes place.
The school and Powys County Council have pressed ahead with their plans to select staff for redundancy.
Parent, Jess Jones said: “We’re feeling very ignored, countless emails stressing our concerns have been sent to the Local Authority and Chair of Governors with no response. We urgently want an independent investigation into the concerns that have been raised. I am concerned that this is impacting the children’s learning, 11 days of missed learning for pupils who have already missed so much through Covid is not acceptable. Powys’s failure to engage in constructive conversation with the Union, teachers and parents has led to this situation.”
Protestors were joined by former school governor Rev. Trisha Lodges who resigned from the school’s board of governors shortly after joining due to the ongoing treatment of the teachers. Being a former teacher herself, she is in full support of the teachers of Llangors School.
Further dates are planned on 9, 14, 16 May and 6 June, with more in the pipeline if the dispute is not resolved in the near future.