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Teachers at school in Walsall strike over fears for safety from pupils

Pupils' legs
The teachers, who also have concerns over the management of the E-Act academy chain, intend to take prolonged periods of industrial action over the next two weeks if matters do not improve. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

Teachers at a West Midlands secondary school have begun industrial action because of fears for their safety from disruptive pupils and concerns about management, as staff spoke of violent behaviour after a critical report by school inspectors.

Teachers from the National Union of Teachers and the NASUWT unions staged a one-day strike on Tuesday at Willenhall school, which is run by the E-Act academy chain. The teachers intend to take prolonged periods of industrial action over the next two weeks if things fail to improve.

Teachers at the school have reported running battles with unruly pupils and even Ofsted inspectors being pelted with food during an appraisal visit this year. Staff turnover at Willenhall has been extremely high in recent years, with 70% leaving the school in 2015 and 2016. Nearly half of teachers working there took part in strike on Tuesday called in protest at conditions and recent changes proposed by E-Act.

“We have been unable to get E-Act to address the staff’s concerns and suggestions for improving the school that have been put forward over many months. We therefore have no option but to sanction strike action,” the NUT said.

E-Act said it had offered to delay timetable changes objected to by the unions. “We take seriously the concerns raised by union members, and believe that these are being addressed at pace and with urgency,” it said. “Raising the expectations at Willenhall is the absolute top priority for E-Act and a raft of changes and improvements are already under way.”

The school on the Lodge Farm estate in Walsall was downgraded to inadequate by Ofsted after its inspectors reported being abused by students. “Inspectors had food thrown at them in the canteen and in a classroom. A small number of pupils were rude to them. Inspectors were jostled in corridors and witnessed staff being ignored or defied. A senior leader was spoken to disrespectfully by pupils and told inspectors this was the norm,” the Ofsted inspection report said.

Disabled students or those with special needs told inspectors they liked to “find safe places in the school” to avoid fighting and pushing among other pupils. Inspectors also complained of unruly behaviour and “internal truency” throughout the school day. “Pupils who had been sent to a referral room chose instead to congregate on stairwells,” they noted.

Tom Bennett, a teacher specialising in classroom behaviour, said: “Without wishing to comment on an individual school – which would be unfair, given I don’t know their specific circumstances – schools get this bad by degrees, not overnight. If you expect behaviour to be good without effort, you are inviting this kind of school culture erosion. It’s like hoping your fridge will always be full.”

Bennett added that restoring good behaviour within schools in such dire straits would be difficult. “It takes a mammoth effort in some circumstances. But it is never not worth it. The benefits that accrue are immense.

“The sad thing is that in some schools, the skills aren’t there to turn these situations around, because as a society we’ve lost focus on what good schools do to be the architects of healthy, calm cultures,” said Bennett, who was commissioned by the Department for Education to write an independent review on school behaviour.

In an anonymous account published by the BBC, a teacher at Willenhall reported details of “a near riot” among students, lessons being continually interrupted by pupils, and rampant bullying. “A considerable portion of pupils would routinely truant and walk around the school building avoiding their lessons,” the teacher wrote.

“These pupils would bang on windows, shout, get into fights and disrupt lessons continually. When challenged, they would be threatening and verbally abusive. If they attended lessons, they would generally just sit there and do nothing, or disrupt enough to be removed and then entertain themselves running around the school.”