Fleetwood school forced to close as teachers strike over academy status 'order'

A Fleetwood school will be closed for two days next week while staff go on strike.

The industrial action at Cardinal Allen Catholic High School takes place on Monday and Tuesday over plans to turn the school into an academy.

Members of the National Education Union (NEU) and NASUWT are unhappy that the Diocese of Lancaster is ordering the Melbourne Avenue school to become an academy.

The NEU says the policy of Bishop of Lancaster, Paul Swarbrick, will drain vital funds away from the classroom – and could see teacher numbers cut.

Andrew Cafferkey, Headteacher of Cardinal Allen Catholic High School, said: "Parents and carers were informed in advance that members of the National Education Union (NEU) and of NASUWT were taking part in industrial action.

"Our school will be closed to all pupils on Monday 21st and Tuesday 22nd of September and will open again to all pupils on Wednesday 23rd September."

A spokesperson for Lancashire County Council added: “"We are aware of the planned industrial action.

"Decisions relating to academisation, engagement with staff and arrangements during the strike are matters for the schools, their governing bodies and the Diocese of Lancaster, not Lancashire County Council."

Context and background

Bishop Swarbrick set out his intention back in 2020 for all Catholic schools in the Lancaster Diocese – which covers Central and North Lancashire, the Fylde coast and Cumbria – to convert to academies by the end of the current 2025/26 academic year. The vast majority of them have already made the switch.

However, the NEU said that strikes could spread to some of the other schools that have chosen not to do so – of which there are five in Central Lancashire and one on the Fylde Coast - Cardinal Allen.

When a school becomes an academy, it leaves the control of the local education authority for that area – Lancashire County Council for most of Lancashire and Blackpool Council for schools in that patch – and joins a trust or sponsor.

Academies have more flexibility than schools operating under a council umbrella – including an option to deviate from the national curriculum in some areas and to set their own admission arrangements and term times.

Bishop Swarbrick has previously said he wants to use academy status ‘to protect, secure and develop the Church’s mission in education through greater collaboration and support between our school communities and parishes’.

However, the NEU says academies have to sacrifice some of the funding they previously received as maintained schools, because the not-for-profit MATs (multi-academy trusts) “top slice” academy budgets to fund the central services that would previously have been provided by the local authority. The union also claims that this cash is “used to maintain the high salaries of central executives who don’t teach”.