National Education Union teachers to strike again in Mansfield and Ashfield

They will be striking simultaneously with members in the NEU West Midlands and Eastern regions. Other NEU regions will strike on neighbouring days.

This follows an initial day of strike action on February 1.

As well as picket lines at schools across Mansfield and Ashfield there will also be a rally taking place at noon, starting at Forest Recreation Ground with a march to Market Square for speakers including deputy general secretary Rachel Curley and Sheena Wheatley.

Lucy Hopley, East Midlands regional secretary of the NEU, said: "Despite a full month to come to the table with concrete proposals on pay, Gillian Keegan has done nothing to resolve our dispute.

“The responsibility to avert further strikes rests with the education secretary, and she has failed.

"Gillian Keegan has called a series of meetings with education unions in recent weeks, but her latest proposal was to meet only on the condition that we call off strikes. In the absence of anything for us to take to membership for consideration, we are unable to agree to these demands.

"Our members have broken through the threshold for ballots. They have bravely taken strike action already, and our membership has grown by 47,000 since the ballot result was first announced. The strength of feeling is all too clear. Enough is enough.

"The government’s education policy is driving the current recruitment and retention crisis. A fully funded, above inflation pay rise would make a significant difference.

"It would ensure children are taught by those who specialise in the subject they are delivering, and stop the brain drain which leads to pupils seeing a revolving door of teachers over the course of a year.

"We regret having to take strike action and the disruption it causes, but it is also self-evident that disruption to education is now part of a pupil's daily life.

"This is the point we have repeatedly made to the education secretary. It is time for her to come up with solutions.”