A TWO-day strike closed a Forest school after talks about teachers' work­load again broke down.

Wyedean School in Sedbury was closed yesterday (Tuesday) and today to all but GCSE and A-level students after the NASUWT (National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers) staged the action.

Although progress was made on targets, so-called 'learning walks' – observation of classrooms by managers – remains a sticking point.

The union has also criticised head Clive Pemberton for taking the six other members of his senior management team to a four-star hotel to discuss various issues.

Mr Pemberton insists learning walks are standard practice and are not unannounced.

Teachers were joined on the picket line outside the school on Tuesday morning by junior vice-president of the union Fred Brown and regional official Justin Thomas.

Mr Thomas said: "What the management are calling learning walks we call being constantly observed and nobody wants to be constantly observed.

"Teachers are trained professionals and they just want to be allowed to do their jobs. Clearly if they do something wrong, as with any worker in this country, there will be sanctions.

"Responsibility for observation is devolved down through the management structure.

"As far as we are concerned it is reasonable for headteachers to do learning walks to sample the atmosphere and feel the flavour, they are the sort of words we use.

"It's when it gets written down and used to judge our members and then gets used to affect their pay that's really important. That is not reasonable at all.

"We understand and accept that headteachers have the right to walk around their school and get the feel, flavour and atmosphere.

"It's when he starts spreading it and taking the team around with him and there is recording.

"What a learning walk is to us is an individual doing it and there is no recording device and there is no detriment to the future pay or progress of our members."

He said that the union had made an important concession on data-driven targets before talks broke down over learning walks late on Monday afternoon.

"If our members do not hit a percentage pass rate, for example, they can be judged not to have achieved what they set out to achieve. Missing a target by one percentage means you are not good enough? That's the implication.

"Our members work incredibly hard throughout the school year to get the pupils to where they need to be and to miss a target and not get pay progression as a result does not do justice to our members.

"We said (previously) we wanted it to be working towards the target and what we said on Monday is we are prepared to compromise further and say making good progress towards the target – so there is now another area of subjectivity."

Talks will resume on Friday to prevent three more strikes planned for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday next week.

The union's south-west member of the national executive, Wendy Exton, who has been negotiating with the school said teachers did not want to go on strike – and Mr Pemberton's decision to use the St Pierre hotel for discussions was "disgusting".

Ms Exton – who lives locally – said: "We don't see why they needed an overnight stay at St Pierre.

"There are plenty of meeting places in and around Chepstow where they could have gone.

"To go to St Pierre was disgusting."

Headteacher Mr Clive Pemberton said: "In terms of the strike, we are constantly talking to the union. The strike is about one issue: 'learning walks' which are a standard practice that involves any senior member of staff to sit in on a lesson and identify any issues. It is not an unannounced observation and we look to summarise what we see and address this with the teacher.

"The 'walks' is not a performance test which determines the teacher's pay packet.

"In terms of my decision to take staff to St Pierre, this is nothing new. We have been using the hotel for many years to train staff and hold meetings. I don't think it's for the union to criticise where we go."