Pupils are being punished by strike action at Monmouthshire’s first all-through school, according to leading figures on the county council.

Staff at King Henry VIII 3-19 school, in Abergavenny, have taken three days of industrial action on March 5th, 11th and 12th as the premises has opened to some students for just three days per this week.

Now, councillors have criticised the Union which is backing the strike, the National Education Union (NEU), for punishing pupils during a crucial time of the academic year.

“The National Education Union must call off the next round of strikes and get round the table with the governing body and the council and stop punishing pupils,” said Cllr Richard John, opposition leader of the Council.

“This dispute will only be resolved by dialogue not by striking and disrupting young people’s education. These kids have already suffered enough, missing schooling during the pandemic and putting up with disruption while the new school was being built. Pupils in years 10-13 have GCSEs or A Level exams coming up in the summer term and further strike action risks harming their prospects.”

Staff are taking the action in protest against the prospect of compulsory redundancies, which would be used to help plug a shortfall of over £7 million in Monmouthshire’s schools budget.

As the county’s only all-through school housed in a new building opened less than a year ago, KHS has been seen as a large part of the problem. However, no final decision has been made on the futures of any staff.

Further criticism has been levelled at the Labour-run local authority for allowing such a void to appear in its education budget. Over a quarter of the financial hole for the whole county can be laid at the door of Abergavenny’s largest school.

The initial consultations for the project took place when Cllr John was the leader of Monmouthshire Council and the authority was run by the Conservatives. The group backed plans for a new school at the time, saying the current facilities were “not fit for purpose.” The party had lost power in County Hall to Labour in the 2022 local elections, and the project was given the green light later that year.

Despite claiming just under four years ago that approving a £26 million increase in costs to build the school was a “momentous” day for the council at that time, Cllr John took aim at Labour for allowing the school’s deficit to double within the space of a year. Most of that time will have been spent in the new school building.

“The school’s budget deficit is extremely concerning and it’s shocking that it was allowed to balloon to £2.3million unchecked by the local authority and will now need to make deeper cuts than would otherwise have been necessary to balance the books,” he continued.

“What the school needs now is a period of stability and constructive dialogue between the union, the school and the council about the way forward. The NEU must call off the strike action immediately and put the wellbeing of students first.”

Further strike action will take place in the final week of term before the Easter break, on March 24th, 25th and 26th.