Defend Abbey School - Demonstration at All Saints Square (Rotherham Town Centre) Sat, 14th Dec 11am

11 Dec 2013

Abbey School in Rotherham to be torn apart by savage restructure and redundancies.  The children of Abbey School will be the victims if a massive planned restructure takes place at the special school early next year. It is possible that almost every teacher in the school, as well as a number of school support staff, will be made redundant if the plans go ahead. 

Such an upheaval will negatively impact on children at the school. School support staff and teachers who know them best will, in significant numbers, be made redundant. This can only have a detrimental impact on students’ learning and emotional well-being. “Many of these children are very vulnerable,” said teacher Pat McLaughlin. “I dread to think about the potential results of these changes.”

Fred Sprague, Divisional Secretary of the Rotherham Association of the National Union of Teachers, said: “Rotherham Council and the present interim management of the school seem willing to
allow a school judged good by Ofted in its most recent report be plunged into chaos. It has made a judgement to attempt to sack teachers and to effectively completely change the ethos of the school.” 

The NUT and GMB believe that the consultation with staff which ends next week is a sham: Jobs in the school have already been advertised. The school and local authority refuse to negotiate with unions in order to discuss these horrendous proposals.