‘Standing up for our children’: parents divided over London teachers’ strikes

The gates to South Grove primary school in Walthamstow were closed to pupils last week.Teachers were on strike as part of a disparate wave of industrial action by members of the National Education Union (NEU) in schools across the borough of Waltham Forest in east London.Nearby Henry Maynard primary school has been affected, as have South Chingford foundation school, Connaught school for girls, Leytonstone, and Belmont Park school, which caters for pupils with special educational needs.Next week, South Grove will be closed for a further five days of strike action, leaving working parents scrambling for childcare once again.And yet parents joined staff on a sunny, breezy picket line last Wednesday, keen to show their support in response to a school-wide restructure that will lead to job losses and less support for children with special educational needs.The successful and sought-after school has been running a deficit for years – locked into an expensive private finance initiative, with rising costs associated with special needs provision and a new catering deal that will cost an additional £50,000 to £60,000 every year.South Grove school is facing job losses and cuts to special educational needs support. Photograph: Martin Godwin/The Guardian“We’re here because we love our teachers,” said Stephanie Cobb, a mother of two South Grove pupils. Last Friday, parents and children took their protest to the borough’s new Green-led council at Walthamstow town hall, where two newly elected councillors came out to listen to their concerns.Lottie Gammon, another parent with two children at South Grove, said: “When the strikes were announced it was a shock, as nothing like this had happened before and myself and my husband both have full-time jobs.“I think the teachers have been very brave to take this action knowing it could be unpopular with families and leadership. They are standing up for our children and their school.”Elsewhere in the borough, however, parents have expressed concern about the impact of persistent strike action – over a variety of grievances – and pupils at Connaught recently took part in a counter-protest demanding an end to the strike.Protesters outside Walthamstow town hall, where they met Green councillors last Friday. Photograph: Martin Godwin/The GuardianDaniel Kebede, the NEU general secretary, said industrial action in Waltham Forest was in keeping with the wider picture across London. “It’s very easy to blame what’s happening in Waltham Forest on overactive trade union reps, but it’s not the case,” he argued.“The problem is, across London at the moment, we’ve got this perfect storm of record low birth rate [and] gentrification meaning that families can’t afford to live in the city any more, which means pupil numbers are declining significantly.“If you look across London, we have an awful lot of industrial action and it is all relating to restructures and redundancies.”According to NEU figures, 13 workplaces in Waltham Forest have voted for strike action in the current academic year. In London as a whole, there have been 26 disputes around redundancies, restructures and school closures.Across England, there have been successful NEU ballots for strike action in 171 workplaces so far in 2025-26, compared with 117 the previous year. The vast majority of such disputes are settled amicably without strike action going ahead.This autumn, however, a formal national ballot of NEU members could bring schools across the country to a standstill, as in 2023 when teachers took eight days of strike action.The NEU is demanding an above-inflation pay rise, to be fully funded by government. If ministers fail to deliver, Kebede is confident there will be resounding support for national industrial action.Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the NEU. Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA“Strike action, including in Waltham Forest, is a last resort. It’s not where anybody wants to be. But unfortunately, the crisis is so deep at the moment, we’re often left with no alternative,” the union leader said.“I was elected during the 2023 strike and I never wanted to have to be involved in action of that size or significance ever again, and was hopeful that Labour would reset the dial.“Now I am in complete despair. I thought Labour would prioritise education. I grew up under ‘education, education, education’, and that’s what I was hoping for, but unfortunately that’s not been the reality.“Action is not something we want to take, and we hope that the government changes course and we can avoid it.“But unless the government invests in education, and unless they fully fund an above-inflation pay award, they are going to shift schools from financial crisis to financial collapse.”A Department for Education spokesperson described the NEU’s approach as “extremely disappointing”, adding: “Ultimately, it will be children, young people and hard-working parents who will pay the price for any industrial action.”