Weekly round-up: Teacher strikes to go ahead - all the latest

Monday brought the historic announcement that teachers in England were set to walk out on strike over pay next month, and subsequent crunch meetings between unions and government officials failed to deliver a resolution to the pay dispute.

The biggest teaching union, the NEU, has declared seven days of strike action in February and March after its ballot result, while the NASUWT teaching union and the NAHT school leaders’ union have both said they are considering re-running their strike ballots after they failed to achieve the minimum turnout. 

With questions swirling around staffrooms about the rights of striking and non-striking teachers in the event of industrial action, and the measures schools can take to minimise disruption to education, Tes published its essential Q&A guide.

In other news, schools minister Nick Gibb came under fire for suggesting stretched pupil premium funding could be used to provide free school meals, and Ofsted’s chief inspector defended the watchdog’s controversial subject research reviews.

Catch up on your must-read Tes news and analysis articles from the past week right here:
 

• Teachers to strike in England from next month
  Teachers across England are set to go on strike over pay from 1 February after a 90 per cent vote for strike action in a ballot held by the NEU, the biggest teaching union.
   
• Teacher strikes: DfE issues new guidance to schools 
  The Department for Education has told schools which pupils should be given priority if strike action means they have to prioritise places.
   
• Strikes: DfE talks must ‘move mountains’ to stop walkouts
  A teaching union leader warned on Friday that “we are going to have to move mountains” to avoid a strike over pay after six hours of talks with government officials.
   
• Heads’ union fails to reach threshold for strike 
  The NAHT school leaders’ union has said it is considering re-running its strike ballot after its vote - in which 64 per cent supported a strike - failed to satisfy the minimum legal threshold for turnout.
   
• NASUWT to ballot members again after low turnout
  The NASUWT teaching union said it will be “announcing plans shortly for further balloting of members” after its strike ballot failed to meet the legal turnout threshold.
   
• Teacher strikes Q&A: everything you need to know
  Tes answers the key questions on the impending strikes, from what striking and non-striking teachers will be expected to do on strike days to the issue of pay and the measures school leaders will be allowed to take to provide cover.
   
• Heads face costly ‘dilemma’ over part-year worker pay
  The government has launched a review that could prevent school leaders from having to pay out thousands of pounds in holiday pay, legal experts have told Tes.
   
• Keegan: New strike laws will protect ‘vulnerable children’
  With teachers set to go on strike in England, education secretary Gillian Keegan has defended the government’s controversial new anti-strike legislation aimed at ensuring “minimum service levels” in the public sector in the event of industrial action.
   
• Gibb: Schools can use pupil premium to offer more free meals 
  Schools minister Nick Gibb has come under fire for suggesting schools could choose to spend pupil premium funding on extending free school meals to more children.
   
• Ucas changes: what schools need to know
  Changes to the university applications process announced by Ucas last week will have a significant impact on schools. Here’s what’s changing and why.
   
• Call for Ofsted school grades to be axed ‘immediately’
  Ofsted’s overall graded judgements of schools should be scrapped and the watchdog should tell schools what year they are due to be inspected in, according to a new report from the Association of School and College Leaders.
   
• Ofsted complaints review ‘won’t restore heads’ confidence’
  An Ofsted shake-up of its complaints policy looking at faster referrals of cases to senior bosses will not go far enough to restore “waning confidence” in the inspectorate, union leaders have warned.
   
• Ofsted: Spielman defends ‘distorted’ research reviews 
  Ofsted chief inspector Amanda Spielman has defended the watchdog’s controversial subject research reviews, saying they are used “extensively” by schools to develop their curriculum.
   
• ‘We must champion the expertise of teachers’
  Teachers need to realise the power they can wield if they join together and champion their professional expertise, says Steven Berryman, president of the Chartered College of Teaching.
   
• ‘Do we really need GCSE exams in everything we learn?’
  Reforming our assessment system could reduce the burden of exams for students, cut staff workload and build trust in teachers’ professional judgement, writes Tom Campbell, CEO of E-ACT multi-academy trust.
   
• Why the rise of ChatGPT should liberate education - not scare it 
  The emergence of ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence chatbot with its ability to answer any question you ask, reinforces the argument that learning and assessment should no longer be focused on memorising information, writes Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders.