ABERGAVENNY’S KHS School has apologised to parents and carers ahead of their forthcoming strike, which begins this Thursday.

In an email sent today, KHS Headteacher Mr John Watson explained, “The National Education Union (NEU) has informed me that they intend to call their members to take part in strike action, due to the employer’s failure to agree that there will be no compulsory redundancies in an ongoing staff restructure process.

“They have informed me that they intend for this to take place on Thursday 5th March, Wednesday 11th March, Thursday 12th March, Tuesday 24th March, Wednesday 25th March and Thursday 26th March.

“I am sharing these dates so you can make any necessary arrangements. While these dates have been identified I, along with partners in Monmouthshire County Council, remain committed to ongoing discussions and negotiations with the NEU to remove the need for future days of industrial action.”

Mr. Watson adds, “I am very sorry to inform you of this news.”

The announcement was made when the school was already closed due to a teacher’s training day, and it came a week after the half-term break.

This week, the majority of pupils will only be in school for three days, with planned strike days for the rest of March set to cause further disruption to their education.

It is not known what, if any, plans KHS has made for home learning.

If the planned strike action takes place on March 25 and 26, pupils will only be in school for one more day before a two-week break for Easter.

School will remain open for Year 12 and 13 pupils this Thursday but will remain closed to all other years .

The World Book Day activities and Primary Phase PTA event, scheduled for that day, will now be postponed.

The school, which cost over £70 million to build and only opened its doors last year, is in continued discussion with Monmouthshire County Council “to do everything possible to try and avert this strike action.”

Mr. Watson ended the email by thanking everyone for their continued support.