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Northfield strike: Leaked Aberdeen council report slams union plan

Northfield Academy. Image: Kami Thomson/DC Thomson
Northfield Academy. Image: Kami Thomson/DC Thomson

Proposed strike action targeting “unteachable” Northfield pupils violates the UN rights of the child, according to a leaked council briefing.

The Aberdeen City Council document – seen by the P&J – provides an update on recent crisis talks over proposed strike action at Northfield Academy.

Northfield teachers are currently considering industrial action over violent pupils at the city school. The EIS teachers union says council leaders aren’t doing enough to protect their members.

The council briefing details a meeting between EIS and education bosses on 11 October. It states:

“The EIS would ask staff to identify pupils who they perceive to be ‘unteachable’ and would support their members in refusing to teach them, citing a legal case by an English trade union.”

The council believe the union is referring to a 2003 legal case which allowed teachers to refuse to teach disruptive pupils. The union believes it’s a health and safety issue.

If EIS reps decide council education bosses aren’t doing enough to help, they could serve 14 days notice and then refuse to teach certain pupils.

Pupils could experience rejection and trauma, says council

However, the leaked paper suggests the council has little sympathy with this position. In a section titled ‘Now what?’ the council states:

“The proposed industrial action would appear to be at odds with both The Promise and the UNCRC, but there is a legal precedent.”

The Promise is a child-centred approach to the care system that all Scottish councils sign up to. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) sets out the human rights of every child under 18.

The council paper continues: “There is a risk that young people, who consider their only safe place to be the school, feel further rejection and therefore trauma.”

Aberdeen City Council headquarters at Marischal College. Photo by Wullie Marr/DCT Media
Aberdeen City Council says Northfield pupils could be left traumatised by proposed strike action at the school. Image: Wullie Marr / DC Thomson

The council says it will now pore over individual support plans for the most vulnerable pupils in case members refuse to teach them. It will also support the Northfield’s new head teacher to ensure he has the “resilience” to cope.

Elsewhere in the briefing, Aberdeen City Council outline a number of steps it has taken to support Northfield school.

These include the creation of a staff voice group, weekly analysis of incidents, and a pilot project to support pupils on the edge of care.

The council also says that it’s working to get Northfield parent council on board with its relationship policy. It has contacted Northfield parents to set out “clear expectations… around behaviour prior to the end of term”.

This follows a range of concerns around violent and disruptive behaviour at the Aberdeen school. The EIS has “serious concerns over the safety of staff” following verbal and physical violence from some Northfield pupils.

Council says there have ‘only’ been 11 near misses since August

However, the council briefing appears to downplay the problems at the school. It says that “only 11 near-miss incidents” were logged in the first term of this year. Six of these were by the same member of teaching staff.

Asked to comment, a spokesman for Aberdeen City Council said: “No incidents have been reported this academic year. Eleven near misses (an event or situation that could have resulted in injury, ill health, damage or loss but did not do so due to chance, corrective action and/or timely intervention) have been reported since August 2022.”

The spokesman said the incidents included:

  • Three occasions where a young person opened a door, causing it to make contact with the teacher.
  • Three occasions of inappropriate language towards a member of staff.
  • Two occasions where a pencil was thrown, and one where a sweet was thrown.
  • One occasion where an inappropriate gesture was made towards a teacher.
  • One occasion where a young person touched the shoulders of a member of staff and used inappropriate language.

The council added: “We continue to work with staff to improve the quality of reporting.”

EIS says 81% support Northfield strike

This is not the first time that the council and union have clashed over acceptable conditions for teachers.

Speaking to the P&J last week, EIS Aberdeen secretary Heather Collie said that teachers are trained and accustomed to handling challenges from students.

“What will always be unacceptable, however, is where challenging behaviour escalates to become violence or the threat of violence against a member of teaching staff,” she said.

“It is, unfortunately, the case that violence against teachers, both physical and verbal, perpetrated by a very small percentage of pupils, has become far too frequent at Northfield Academy.”

Asked to comment on the leaked briefing from the City council, Ms Collie said:

“The EIS are unable to comment on a briefing document that we have never seen. However, we would expect any meetings and discussions between employer and TU to be subject to normal confidentiality.

“To be clear, the EIS statutory ballot for Action Short of Strike and Strike action is not about pupils with ‘behavioural problems’. It is about the employer’s lack of response and failure to provide a safe working environment when violent incidents of physical abuse or threats of physical abuse or serious verbal abuse occur in class.”

Around 60% of Northfield staff are members of the EIS. According to their consultative ballot, 81% support some form of industrial action and 70% would vote for a strike.

The official Northfield strike ballot opened on 21 October and closes on Friday 18 November.

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