PARENTS and children face a day of uncertainty tomorrow due to teachers going on strike in the first of seven days of industrial action.

A number of local schools have announced they will have to partially close because they know they will not have enough staff at work.

Others do not know how they might be affected because the striking National Education Union (NEU) has advised its members to refuse to tell headteachers whether or not they will turn up for work.

NEU teachers nationally have voted to take industrial action on seven dates during February and March, although the union said no individual school would be affected more than four times.

Schools in Wellington, including Court Fields Community School and the new Isambard Kingdom Brunel Primary School, were expecting ‘some disruption’ tomorrow but none were currently thought to need to close or restrict the number of classes.

However, Kingsmead School, Wiveliscombe, has said it will be partially closed because of the strike action and has told most of its 931 pupils to stay at home tomorrow.

Year 11 students will be expected to attend classes because they are so close to their final GCSE examinations this summer, while pupils who are in care or have an education health and care plan will be individually invited.

All youngsters in years seven, eight, nine, and 10 will be expected to complete remote learning.

One local school which was uncertain about the effect of the industrial action was Rockwell Green Primary School.

Headteacher Mike Berrisford said in a letter to parents: “Currently, I do not know what the impact will be for our school.

“If teachers in our school do decide to strike, I know that they will not have taken this decision lightly as you only work in this profession because you care about children and want the best for them.

“Sadly, the education sector is very close to a crisis point and both locally and nationally many teachers are leaving the profession due to the increased expectations.

“The issue is far more about much-needed reform rather than pay.”

All four classes and the nursery in West Buckland Primary School, which is part of the Richard Huish Multi Academy Trust, will be open tomorrow despite its teachers going on strike.

Headteacher Cameron Mann said: “The school will remain fully open to all pupils, with classes being covered by myself and our teaching assistants.

“Nursery will be open as usual and extended schools will continue to run as normal.”

In Stawley, primary school executive headteacher Jacqui Collier said she did not expect classes to be affected by the strike action and the campus would remain open ‘as far as we are aware’.

Selworthy Special School has decided to partially close its campus in Taunton and its satellite site The Cove, on the Court Fields estate in Wellington, after carrying out a risk assessment in relation to the strike action. Only 12 of its 25 classes will be open.

The NEU said strike action was supported more than 90 per cent of the half of its members in England who voted in its ballot.

The union said it was not striking for a pay rise but to ‘correct historic real-terms pay cuts’, claiming teachers had lost 23 per cent in real-terms since 2010, and support staff 27 per cent over the same period.

It said an average five per cent pay rise for teachers in 2022 was seven per cent behind inflation.

A spokesman said: “In the midst of a cost of living crisis, that is an unsustainable situation.”

The NASUWT teaching union has also confirmed it is dispute with Government over its demand for a minimum 12 per cent pay rise for all teachers this year.

According to the NASUWT, current pay rates for classroom teachers range from £28,000 to nearly £39,000, with some in an ‘upper band’ earning up to £43,685.