Holbrook Academy will be closed tomorrow, 1 February, due to teachers' strike action.

However, school buses, including the 98 from Shotley to Ipswich stopping at the school, is due to run as usual to allow a small percentage of students to still attend.

Students from as far afield as Felixstowe, Manningtree and Claydon are bussed into Holbrook for school.

There will be an on-site provision for vulnerable young people and children of critical worker and the Academy will also provide a safe learning space, which will include IT facilities, for Year 11 students who would be unable to revise or conduct independent learning at home.

Students who are on site and eligible for free school meals will have access to this provision. Catering facilities will also be available to everyone who is on site.

Pupils from the peninsula using East Bergholt High School and Chantry Academy in Ipswich, have been told those schools will be closed.

Head teacher Tom Maltby said in a statement: "I am working closely with our staff union representatives to keep up to date with the situation, and I will inform you (parents) as soon as possible if arrangements change further."

Further strikes are planned for Wednesday 15 March 2023 and Thursday 16 March 2023. A further strike for the Eastern Region is scheduled to take place on Wednesday 1 March 2023.

Teachers' strikes in England and Wales are to go ahead, after talks between the government and unions ended without resolution. 

The National Education Union said Education Secretary Gillian Keegan had "squandered an opportunity" to avoid Wednesday's strike action. 

It expects about 23,000 schools to be affected in the first of its seven planned walkouts.

Ms Keegan said she was disappointed the strike action would continue.

NEU joint general secretaries Dr Mary Bousted and Kevin Courtney said the government had been "unwilling to seriously engage with the causes of strike action".

They are demanding a "fully funded, above-inflation pay rise for teachers". 

National Association of Head Teachers general secretary Paul Whiteman said the meeting had been "unproductive" as the secretary of state "was unable to make any offer on the eve of industrial action".

Teacher salaries in England fell by an average of 11% in real terms between 2010 and 2022, after taking rising prices into account, says the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

Most state-school teachers in England and Wales received a 5% pay rise in 2022. 

More than 100,000 teachers are expected to strike, with industrial action expected on the same day from train drivers, university staff, and civil servants.

The list of the schools confirmed to be closing on Wednesday is as follows:

• East Bergholt High School 
• Chantry Academy, Ipswich (only open to Year 11 students)
• Sybil Andrews Academy, Bury St Edmunds (only open to Year 11 students)
• Thurston Community College 
• St Edmund's Catholic Primary School
• Westley and Horringer Court Middle Schools (only open to Year 6 students)
• Abbots Hall Community Primary
• County Upper, Bury St Edmunds (only open to Year 11 students)