Staff at the five schools in East and West Sussex will be striking again tomorrow, Tuesday, and on Wednesday and Thursday in protest against the University of Brighton Academy Trust’s alleged withholding of funds.
Teachers and support staff from the Burgess Hill Academy, Hastings Academy, St Leonards Academy, Robsack Wood Academy in St Leonards and the Baird Academy in Hastings will form picket lines again after similar action last week as part of what is believed to be the first academy trust strike of its kind.
A rally is expected to take place at the Burgess Hill Academy picket line tomorrow, July 9, at 9.45am, with strikers supported by the National Education Union (NEU).
Burgess Hill Academy staff say reported that between 2021-23, £2,829,000 has been withheld from the school.
Alice Seymour, a parent of a child at a University of Brighton Academy Trust School, said: “School strikes are always difficult for parents and we don’t want our children missing school.
“Despite this I fully support the strike. There isn’t enough government money going to schools – it’s disgraceful that even this amount hasn’t been getting to schools in the trust.
“Teachers and teaching assistants should not be cut to pay for CEOs and marketing teams.”
Discussions are ongoing between the NEU and the University of Brighton Academy Trust.
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Vice-president and secretary of the NEU Phil Clarke said: “To resolve this dispute the trust not only needs to change their funding model, which they have agreed to, they need to guarantee that school budgets will not pay for the change.
“We cannot accept further job cuts and workload increases as a price for putting this right.
“They have chosen to fund their own central trust at the expense of schools.
“It is the central trust that needs to pay and the CEO who needs to start trying to win back the trust of the staff.”
The University of Brighton Academy Trust declined to comment.
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