Staff at Roedean School are to walk out for five days over changes to their pensions in the first strike action the 140-year-old school has ever seen.
Members of the National Education Union are also protesting over the loss of 28 jobs in a restructure which they say will also see pay cuts.
Strikes will take place on 30 April and 6 ,7, 13, 14 and 15 May.
Regional secretary Phil Clarke said: “We are calling for the Trustees to drop the use of fire and rehire to coerce staff to accept alterations to contracts under threat of dismissal and also to withdraw compulsory redundancies.
“Our members have voted overwhelmingly for strike action. They have engaged in good faith with the trustees in the consultation process to try to resolve the situation without the need for industrial action.
“NEU members do not engage in this action lightly, but it is clear to them that industrial action is their only option in this situation.
“Fees at Roedean School are some of the highest in the sector with annual boarding fees being around £45,000. It is therefore galling for many members to be told that they are facing a reduction in their pay or pension.
“As well as jobs being at risk, with the cost-of-living crisis affecting low paid workers in Brighton more and more, support staff are finding it increasingly difficult to afford to live close to the school, and so the changes proposed by the employer are simply unacceptable.”
Teachers at Roedean are members of the Teachers’ Pension Scheme (TPS), a government run scheme which guarantees benefits based on career length and salary. All state schoolteachers and most of those working in independent schools are members of the TPS.
The union says the school’s trustees want to cap the school’s contribution to the TPS at 22 per cent. This means that, teachers in the TPS will have to fund the difference via reduced take-home pay (equivalent to a 6.68 per cent pay cut) or move to a proposed inferior private (defined contribution) scheme.
It says the trustees have stated their intention to force through changes to contracts by use of the controversial fire and rehire procedure, with dismissal of staff who refuse to sign a new contract incorporating the above terms.
The union says the restructure will only affect junior staff, with none of the 13 members of the senior leadership team set to lose their jobs.
Support staff members voted 80.7% in favour of strike action on a 76% turnout. Teacher members voted 87.67% in favour of strike action on an 85.88% turnout.
The NEU has only been recognised at the school since 2023, when NEU teacher members won a statutory ballot to force the school to recognise the union for collective bargaining.
Roedean School was founded in 1885. Notable alumni include the actress Rebecca Hall and Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran.
Aren’t they collaborating with Whitehawk Women’s football club? How can they be this bad? Very odd!
You have only started this from the teachers view point??? I thought that journalists are supposed to give an unbiased view??? The school is also battling the hike in running costs and now has to face the vat on school fees too which has led to a reduction in pupils joining the school. Why are you not talking about any of this???
It’s a reasonable consideration. VAT is likely to have had only a limited impact to the financials at this stage, however. Not to say that it might be causing some prompting of early management of the situation. The fire and rehire, immoral bullying tactics, and forced redundancies are probably far more influential to the strike action.
B&H News haven’t given a view so how can they be biased?
They have reported what the union has said and done. That doesn’t make B&H News biased.
If the school wants to post a comment here they can do so. If they want to release a statement they can do that too and I’m sure B&H News will report that too – without bias.
Have you looked up the salaries of senior staff including the headteacher? Why have they not received salary cuts?! Why must it time and time again be the people at the bottom who suffer whilst the top lose no sleep?!
What a damaged school. I cannot believe that, for the fees they charge, they can’t pay the teachers decently. What a scam. They have so many charitable endeavours according to their website, but if they can’t even afford to pay their teachers why give their money to others?
Brighton College seem to do the same thing with the charitable endeavours; I would suggest what is presented is typically a disingenuous overrepresentation, and very much done in self-interest than true altruism.
I was literally go to say Who Pays the Staff wages as its a Private School, as it isn’t run by BHCC
But £45,000 for the Fees.
I didn’t realise that you have to do an Exam to get into these Private Schools, I thought they can just enrol etc if there Parents had the Cash to put there Children in Private Education.
But now Staff aren’t able to live nearby to a Job so near to there Home, it’s hardly on a Bus Route, and the stop that is on the Seafront-it’s a walk up the Hill just to work-works up a sweat to go to work.
Complete and utter tosh regarding staff not being able to afford to live close to the school. The cheapest parts of Brighton for housing are those areas nearest to the school (east Brighton, Woodingdean and Saltdean).
I wish articles and others would not throw in unnecessary lies such as these to try and help further peoples causes as it will have the opposite effect.
all thanks to the Labour party – reverse snobs- paying themselves enough to send their kids to private schools
and this will have a knock on negative effect on general education level of the future generations.
Ironic, really Labour introduced Comprehensive schools in 1965 in Foxhills Leeds and the level of eductaion and behavior descended to where it is today – once again too be destroyed by the Labour Party.