School Closure Notice - Thursday 15th November

As you will be aware there is impending strike/industrial action scheduled for a full day on Thursday 15th November.

The Board of Trustees will close the school for health and safety reasons on that day as there will be insufficient teaching staff on site to manage the school. We ask that you make alternative arrangements for child care for that day. This instance is different to previous stopwork meetings, because all teaching staff are required to be off site for the full day.

We appreciate that this is most inconvenient. Please be assured that the decision to take this action has not been made lightly. Our teachers feel strongly that action is necessary to address the seriously concerning shortage of teachers. Teacher training enrolments have dropped 40% between 2010 and 2016. The following issues need to be addressed if we are to be able to recruit and retain enough of teachers to competently staff our schools:

* Adequate resourcing and support for students with special needs or learning challenges

* Staffing entitlements that allow enough time to plan and teach quality programmes

* Salary offers that ensure teaching is an attractive and valued profession

The Board of Trustees supports our teachers’ views in relation to this matter, and supports the taking of industrial action. It is regrettable that such steps are required, given the disruption and inconvenience it will cause to our school community.

Tahuna Normal Intermediate School Board of Trustees and Teaching Staff