Fife schools will close in January due to industrial action

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Teaching unions EIS, AHDS, SSTA and NASUWT have notified Fife Council of strike action involving primary and secondary school teachers on different days in January 2023.

  • All Fife primary schools (and their nursery classes), special schools and primary pupil support centres will close to pupils on Tuesday 10 January 2023 and Wednesday 18 January 2023.
  • All Fife secondary schools and secondary pupil support centres will close to pupils on Wednesday 11 January 2023 and Wednesday 18 January 2023.

Family nurture centres and their associated standalone settings and childcare services will operate as normal:

  • Beanstalk (Fergus Place and Aberdour Road)
  • Carleton
  • Clentry
  • Fair Isle (Appin Crescent and Fair Isle Road)
  • Gallatown
  • Ladybird
  • Paxton
  • St Andrews
  • Sunflower (McGregor Avenue + Melgund Place)
  • Treetop Inverkeithing
  • Treetop Rosyth
  • Westfield
  • Woodlands (including Methilhaven)

Should the industrial action go ahead, a direct payment for school meals, covering two days of industrial action, will be made into the bank account of a parent/carer where children are registered for free school meals (FMR).

All schools, educational and childcare facilities will reopen as normal the day after strike action takes place.

Shelagh McLean, Head of Education, Education & Children’s Services, said: “This strike is part of wider action relating to a national pay dispute. I fully appreciate how difficult it is for parents, carers and pupils when we have to close our schools, and I can only ask for their patience and understanding.

“We can’t know in advance how many of our teachers will join the planned strike action. However, we do know that most union members voted in favour of action and most took part in the industrial action in November and December, so we expect a continued high level of participation.

“As you will understand, we can’t open our buildings to children and young people, or provide cover across all classes and subjects, without sufficient teachers. So, even though some staff may come to work, we’re unlikely to be able to run any educational facility safely.

“Therefore, to help families plan, we’ve made the difficult decision to close Fife secondary schools on 11 and 18 January and primary and special schools on 10 and 18 January. I know this may be challenging or inconvenient for many families.

“Our children and young people have access to a wide range of online learning resources and educational games, and more senior pupils have access to GLOW, Teams, Scholar, SQA Past papers, BBC Bitesize, West OS and e-Sgoil. We ask that they make use of these resources across their subject areas."