Rolling news blog, week of September 16th

AET's headquarters in central London

A large secondary school run by England’s second-biggest academy trust is expected to be partially closed today, as teachers and support staff go on strike about job losses.

Bexleyheath Academy, in the south London borough of Bexley, is engaged in a “restructuring” exercise as the Academies Enterprise Trust, which runs it, says it is grappling with the financial implications of falling pupil numbers after the school was put in special measures last year.

In messages to parents, sent only yesterday, Dr David Moody, an executive director at the chain, wrote that because of the decline in pupil numbers, the school “will receive 10-15% less funding than in previous years”. This would mean a small number – his messages suggest perhaps there would “only be one or two” – of compulsory redundancies for support staff.

Savings would come from reducing the number of teachers, an email from Dr Moody suggested. This was relatively easy to achieve, by implication through not replacing teachers who left, as there was a “natural turnover of teaching staff”.