Trusts running sixth form colleges across England are drawing up contingency plans to keep settings open after teaching staff voted to strike for the first time in six years.
In one trust, managers will take registers and set work if staff walk out as planned later this month.
It comes as the NAHT headteachers’ union, which is currently balloting for strike action, sought to reassure its members it “cannot envisage” asking them to close their schools.
The National Education Union announced on Monday that a formal ballot of over 4,000 staff in 77 sixth form colleges had yielded a ‘yes’ vote of 88.5 per cent, on a turnout of 63 per cent. Support was similar to that seen in an indicative ballot held earlier this year.
