Nottinghamshire teachers to strike again and march in Nottingham in protests for fairer pay

The strike on February 1, was the largest teacher strike in a generation with a record number of pickets across the city and county with thousands of teachers marching to a full capacity rally at The Albert Hall.

Since then, thousands of teachers have signed up to join the union to take part in the action.

The NEU is planning it’s largest ever demonstration in the Nottingham on Wednesday, March 1, starting at noon at the Forest Recreation Ground, marching to Market Square for speeches and a rally.

The union is expecting an even greater number of schools across Nottinghamshire to close or partially close with a record number of teachers joining the strike, march and rally.

The strike action is in opposition to a real-terms pay cut and the unwillingness of the government to even fund the below inflation rise as schools in the city and county face staffing shortages, smaller budgets and larger class sizes.

The NEU wants a fully funded pay rise which doesn’t cut into existing school budgets. At present, schools across Nottinghamshire face a reduction in their budgets as class sizes are already at a 20 year high.

Nick Raine, senior regional officer for the National Education Union in the East Midlands, said: “Teachers in Nottinghamshire care passionately about their schools and the pupils they teach.

"After over a decade of pay cuts and decimated school budgets, they feel they have a duty to stand up for teachers, pupils and education and demand that our schools are properly funded.

"We’ve been delighted by the support we’ve had from parents, communities, councillors and MPs across Notts.

"No teacher takes strike action lightly but our members feel they have been given no choice.

"As the government and Secretary of State refuse to negotiate or discuss fairer funding, our members are standing up for pupils to demand they get the funding they deserve.

"This is a strike to not only improve teacher retention, but to secure a better future for children across Notts.”