Strike action this week at INOVA schools in Sheffield suspended following talks with NEU
The strike was called by the National Education Union
Two days of strike actions at a number of Sheffield schools this week have been suspended following talks.
Classroom staff at seven schools operated by INOVA MAT staged a walk out last week over a union’s claims support staff are at risk of job cuts.
The strike was called by the National Education Union, which primarily represents teachers, in support with back-of-office staff in HR, finance and estates - but the trust’s CEO insists no one is being made redundant.
Now, the next two days of walk outs on June 16 and 17 have been suspended.
Many of the affected schools had to ask some pupils to work from home so available staff could safely administer GCSE and A Level exams for Y11 & Y13 being held this week.
An email home to parents by one of the schools, Tapton, on Sunday afternoon reads: “We have been informed by the National Education Union that next week's planned industrial action has been suspended. As a result Tapton School will be open as normal next week.”
In an interview with The Star published today (June 15), CEO Lee Barber admitted his frustration that the reorganisation of back-of-office staff - in a restructure named Project Pioneer - had led to a teachers strike.
The project initially considered compulsory redundancies, which angered staff and unions.
All told, the strikes at INOVA came about because of outrage that compulsory redundancies were ever considered, combined with what appeared to be grandiose spending by the trust’s executives.
In contrast, the trust sought to assure staff Project Pioneer comes at no cost, neither financially or to anyone’s jobs.
The Star has received numerous emails from INOVA staff in the last week, who continue to criticise spending, pointing to the at-times six figure salaries of executives, the rollout of iPads & tablet computers to staff across its school, and an annual meeting in June 2025 thrown at The Crucible which cost £25,000.
Mr Barber has appealed to staff on strike and hopes to explain the restructure by saying; “We’re not fat cats.”
““Our people aren’t happy about the way we’ve gone about this,” said Mr Barber. “And I’m happy to own that.
“It could have been done differently. We could have gone to schools in person to explain and gather opinions.”