General Teaching Council Northern Ireland

School strike parents meet board

27/10/2008 :: Northern Ireland :: BBC News

Parents of pupils from Movilla High School are to meet the South Eastern Education Board on Monday.

The board has said it is considering ways to help the 540 pupils continue their education, which could include placements in other schools.

Parents at the school in Newtownards, County Down, held a protest on Friday morning.

They said that they were concerned that the continuing NASUWT teachers' strike was harming their children's education.

Meanwhile, another union at the school has voted not to teach a boy accused of assaulting a teacher.

The Association of Teachers and Lecturers said it will not put the ban into action until it has held more negotiations with the SEELB.

A spokesman for the ATL said he could see no reason for rejecting the board's proposals on the future education of the boy.

The board said, in a statement, that it was looking at ways to continue the schooling of the pupils, who have now been out of class for two weeks.

It says it was considering a range of options, including sending children to other schools, but that it was not intending to do anything which might escalate the industrial action.