A strike by teachers has closed two York schools today.
Vale of York Academy and Manor Church of England Academy have both been shut after members of union the NASUWT walked out.
Staff from both schools formed a picket line outside Manor School this morning.
The dispute is over restructure plans. Heartwood Learning Trust wants to introduce a new pastoral system at six of the schools it runs.
These include the two in York, Barlby High in Selby, and two in Scarborough – George Pindar and Graham Schools.
It says this will improve student support, and no redundancies are proposed. The trust’s full response is below.
But Tim Toepritz of the NASUWT says 27 teaching staff have been removed from their pastoral roles and replaced with what he called unqualified learning managers.
“It’s over 150 years of teaching experience that will be lost. It’s probably closer to 250 years of teacher experience, and the consultation process that went ahead was in inadequate,” Tim told YorkMix.
“We are not adverse to changes in a pastoral system that creates more time to talk to parents and has more staff, more boots on the ground, but it must involve a strong trained teacher element.
“We went back to the trust and said can we do a system where you keep the teaching expertise alongside support staff experts and the trust said no.”
He said his members were dismayed by the proposals.
“They’re really shocked and angry, and the real word is heartbroken, because there’s no capability issues here and there’s no Ofsted issues.
“It’s purely a mechanical change on behalf of the trust that doesn’t seem to value its teaching staff.”
The changes also limit career progression for teachers in these schools, the union believes.
Tim said his members didn’t want to go on strike “but it was the only way we could really show the employer” the strength of feeling.
“We are hoping that the strike will get them to backpedal and put in some teaching pastoral roles across the trust, and we’re hoping that there will be meaningful and relevant and purposeful roles,” he said.
He added he wanted parents whose children were affected by today’s strike to know “the full picture”.
“I’m sure that if some of the parents really knew that the amazing pastoral team that they’ve had are going for no reasons to do with capability, they would be quite upset.”
Tim said more strikes could follow.
“There’s potential for more action. Interestingly, this action has uncovered workload issues and other issues within the within the trust, so I predict there will be further action over other associated issues at the other schools as well, to do with workload.
“Also what really worries us is when the staff lose their roles of heads of year or heads of house.”
The trust’s position
A spokesperson for Heartwood Learning Trust said: “A new pastoral structure will be introduced across our six secondary schools from September 2026.
“This follows a comprehensive consultation process with colleagues and trade unions and the decision was made to move forward with a model centred around dedicated and specialised, non-teaching learning managers.
“Importantly, this is not a cost-saving exercise. We have made a significant financial investment in the new structure, which will provide many additional hours of pastoral support each academic year across our secondary schools.
“This additional capacity will improve the support available to young people and help schools respond more effectively to the increasing pastoral needs of students.”
The spokesperson said learning managers “will be fully available throughout the school day to support students, respond to concerns, work with families and external agencies, and provide early intervention assistance”.
They had made changes to the original plan after getting feedback from staff. This included “the creation of additional teaching leadership opportunities”.
“No redundancies have been made as part of these changes and colleagues affected by the restructure remain employed by the trust and continue to receive their current salary.
“The new model simply reflects our belief that dedicated pastoral professionals can provide greater expertise, availability and support for students, while allowing teachers to focus on providing excellent teaching and learning.”
They added: “Our highly trained and experienced Learning Managers will of course continue to work closely with teaching staff to support students. However, we feel certain they are best placed to provide the wide range of pastoral support that students and families need.
“As ever, our focus now remains on supporting our school communities and ensuring that they continue to receive the level of care, pastoral support and education they deserve.”
