Schools at risk of closure as teachers strike

Teachers and public sector workers are expected to strike in a row over pay and pensions on Wednesday.

The UK's largest union, UNISON, representing nurses, teaching assistants, social workers, paramedics, police staff and school dinner ladies, said it will keep negotiating this week but the strike will be called if no progress is made.

A UNISON spokesman said: "[Members] don’t want to inconvenience people in Berkshire, but they’ve been left with little choice.

"Government ministers’ plans to make them work longer and pay more, all for less in their retirement, are not only unnecessary, they are also unworkable and unfair."

The National Union of Teachers and the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) will walk out on the same day. Their last strike in June resulted in the closure of 13 schools in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead.

Dr David Wills, secretary of Windsor and Maidenhead NUT, said: "It is still too early to tell what exactly will happen. But I expect hundreds of teachers to be on strike, as last time."

But Royal Borough chief executive Ian Trenholm said the council is 'cautiously optimistic'. "We're not expecting a significant number of schools to close at this stage," he said.