MORE than 100 teachers at two £13,000-a-year private schools in north-east England have launched strike action against being fired and rehired with a worse pension scheme.

Members of teaching unions the NEU and NASUWT at Dame Allan’s Schools in Newcastle walked out on Tuesday this week. They will strike again next Tuesday and Wednesday, March 26-27 and April 16-18.

NEU northern regional secretary Beth Farhat said: “Dame Allan Schools has no justification for its plan to fire and rehire teachers on worse terms, which will be a disaster for staff, for future recruitment and for pupils.”

John Hall of NASUWT said: “No teacher welcomes having to take industrial action against their employer but because of the threat of ‘fire and rehire’ and the employer moving forward with the statutory consultation then they feel that they have no choice.”

Dame Allan’s Schools chair of Governors David Arthur said: “Like more than 460 other independent schools, nationally and locally, who have engaged in consultations over the Teachers’ Pension Scheme (TPS), we have been put in the difficult position of having to act to secure the future of the Schools due to rising pension contribution levels, after years of high inflation and a challenging economic and political climate ahead."