Council confirms impact of school strikes
Planned strikes by school support staff will have a “significant effect” on Orkney’s schools and early learning facilities over three days next week if they go ahead, Orkney Islands Council (OIC) has confirmed.
The majority of schools and nurseries will be closed across Tuesday, September 26, Wednesday, September 27, and Thursday, September 28, if the situation remains as it is.
The following facilities will remain open:
- Willow Tree Nursery
- Strynd Nursery
- Burray Primary (Nursery closed)
- Eday Primary School and Nursery
- Hope Primary (Nursery closed)
- North Ronaldsay Primary School
- North Walls Commuinty School and Nursery
- Papa Westray Primary School and Nursery
- Rousay Primary School and Nursery
- St Andrews Primary School (Nursery closed)
- Shapinsay Primary School and Nursery
Orkney College will remain open to senior phase pupils, and they’ll be expected to attend if transport allows.
The council’s corporate director of education, leisure and housing, James Wylie, said: “We have been working with headteachers to assess impact in each school, taking into account a range of factors, including the need to provide a safe environment for children and young people.
“Before we could give absolute clarity on which settings would be impacted, we have checked all our information with individual establishments and reviewed the information coming forward from the unions.”
School support staff members in ten Scottish council areas have voted to strike in a pay dispute with the council umbrella body Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (CoSLA).
Those areas include Orkney, Argyll and Bute, Clackmannanshire, Western Isles, Dundee, East Dunbartonshire, East Renfrewshire, Fife, Glasgow and Inverclyde.
Areas that are impacted include early learning services, janitorial and cleaning, school kitchens, classroom assistants and administration.
The national pay award negotiations between Scottish Government, COSLA and the Teaching Unions have not yet led to an agreement.