THE National Union of Teachers (NUT), stuck to its guns and staged a walkout on Tuesday in a protest to changes to the education sector including pay, pensions, conditions and workload.

On Thursday, June 23, it was announced that nearly 100 per cent of NUT members in England voted in favour of strike action to protect pay and working conditions.

However, the number of ballot papers returned was only 51,530 out of 210,458 papers originally issued. Results showed that 47,218 (91.7 per cent) voted yes, and just 4,285 voting against the strike.

According to Surrey County Council’s online records only seven schools throughout the county were due to be closed, with none recorded in Farnham and its surrounding areas – however due to academies not having to declare their closure this number could potentially be much higher.

As it was not a necessity for teachers to inform their headteacher of their intention to strike schools throughout Farnham prepared for the worse, with some only partially opening.

All Saints School, Waverley Abbey and Potters Gate Primary School were just a few schools within Farnham unaffected by the strike - however, All Hallows Catholic School was only partially open for years 10 and 12.

Farnham Heath End suffered the loss of teachers but carried on as though it were any other day. Headteacher Nick Phillips said: “We managed absolutely fine. There was only five out of 63 teachers off, so it was doable - they were kind enough to tell me in advance.

“They aren’t angry with the school but with the system, they feel that they need to make a difference – one of the reasons being the cuts. To help meet these demands we are increasing our class size next year from 24 to 28. We have to balance the budget.

“There are two ways - either to increase the school revenue which is hard or to decrease the outgoings. We had a staff turnover last year which was good for us - in Surrey there is a 20 per cent turnover of staff.

“So from that point of view we have had staff move on and that has saved us money, while making no redundancies.

“I believe that in a few years time schools across Surrey, not Farnham Heath End, will have to start making redundancies to save money.”

Government figures showed that out of 21,957 state schools across England more than half remained open coming in at 63.2 per cent, with 20.3 per cent partially closed and 11.3 percent fully closed.

Following Tuesday’s day of strike, Kevin Courtney, Acting General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said: “This has been a very well supported strike, both by NUT members and the general public. We thank all those parents who have supported us despite the inconvenience it may have caused.

“This strike should not have been necessary. The NUT will keep campaigning to ensure that the education our children receive is not compromised through school budget cuts. We must invest in our education. The government needs to start listening.”

The NUT said its priorities are to increase funding to schools and education, guarantee terms and conditions in all types of schools, and to resume negotiations on teacher contracts to allow workload to be addressed.