Teachers need to win hearts and minds if they choose strike action

It will be very, very hard to hold the line (or the picket) if the weight of parent opinion is against them, writes Ed Dorrell

As a seasoned observer of such things, I am in no doubt that the anger being channelled by these unions is righteous (PA)

We live in unthinkably challenging times. Other than in times of war, things have rarely been more difficult, or unsettling, or disquieting. Stuff that would normally be front page news is relegated to the “news in brief” section, as huge events reveal themselves daily.

Almost lost from the news cycle in the last week has been one such story: the decision by the two biggest teacher unions and the biggest headteacher union to ballot over taking strike action. The scale of the potential industrial action – and the disruption to schools – would be completely unprecedented.

The National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT), which is run by moderates in the interests of its members, has never before gotten this close to taking its members to the picket. To do so at the same time as the classroom unions, the National Education Union (NEU) and the NASUWT, would be nothing short of extraordinary.