What is happening at two Greater Manchester primary schools on strike

On two picket lines seven miles apart, teachers stood shoulder-to-shoulder outside the school gates, greeting children by name as they made their way to class. Their smiles masked the ‘devastation’ they felt inside.

“It’s a last resort,” one teacher explained. “We feel we are not being listened to. The emotional toll – last year I went off sick because of it. I couldn’t keep children safe anymore.”

Teaching staff at two Greater Manchester primary schools say attacks on their colleagues have reached such a point that they now fear what each working day could have in store. They say their concerns are not being listened to – and in some cases, they claim they are being blamed for episodes of violent or disruptive behaviour.

Lily Lane Primary School, in Moston, and Ravensfield Primary School, in Dukinfield, are both run as academies by the Changing Lives in Collaboration (CLIC) Trust. Members of the NASUWT teachers’ union say a ‘culture of violence and intimidation’ at both schools has led to industrial action, with eight strike days taking place this month.

Those on strike have stood outside their usual workplaces each morning, waving flags and holding placards with messages like ‘zero tolerance to violence’ and ‘out here for their future’. At Lily Lane, teachers on the picket line recall incidents of ‘daily assaults’ on their colleagues, with some reportedly requiring visits to A&E.

CLIC confirmed incidents of an imitation gun and a kitchen knife being brought onto school grounds.

Over at Ravensfield, teachers claim they have been hit, kicked and spat at, with objects thrown at them and doors pushed into them. CLIC insists the union’s claims ‘do not reflect the day-to-day reality in our schools’ – but for the striking staff, the trust’s statement reflects a leadership that is not listening to their concerns.

‘They feel it’s better to leave’

Outside both schools, teachers on the picket line were buoyed by drivers beeping their horns in solidarity with their cause. Parents stopped to chat with the staff outside – some lending their support – while children said hello to their teachers and innocently asked ‘why are you out here?’.

Teachers on both picket lines asked not to be named, fearing repercussion. At Lily Lane, one told the LDRS: “School is meant to be a safe space, but currently that isn’t the case.”

Their colleague elaborated. “I’ve witnessed daily assaults on myself, colleagues and teaching assistants. Staff have had to go to A&E multiple times this year. They’ve tried to stab teachers with pencils. I could go on all day with incidents I’ve seen.”

Both staff and parents raised concerns about high staff turnover, amid incidents of aggressive behaviour. One parent at Ravensfield said her child had four teachers in the space of one year, during the last academic year before the Tameside school joined CLIC.

“Many teachers have left who have families and mortgages,” one Lily Lane teacher said. “They feel it’s better to leave and have to deal with those consequences.”

Conor Priestley only joined the teaching staff at Lily Lane in September 2025. He handed his notice in weeks later before leaving the school in December. He is now pursuing a different career.

“I wasn’t here that long and I decided it was the right move to leave because it got to a point where I felt unsafe coming into work every day,” Conor said. “A day didn’t really go by where someone wasn’t hit, kicked, punched, or chairs thrown. Talking about my school days, I realised my good days were ‘oh I didn’t get hit today’ – which is ridiculous when you say it out loud.”

NASUWT says that at Ravensfield, incidents of pupil aggression have led to classes being put into lockdown. On the picket line, teachers spoke of a ‘level of fear’ they live with through the working week, wondering if something bad will happen to them – and if it does, how the school’s leadership will respond.

One teacher said: “We have been met with no support, met with blame being passed on to us for certain incidents. It’s really upsetting that we have had to get to this point.

“To be out here, when children are in there not getting their full education, it’s devastating. We want this to end now, so we can go back to school as a safe environment for everybody.”

Rachel Knight, national executive member for Greater Manchester’s branch of NASUWT, has been supporting Lily Lane staff. She said: “Both schools have seen, over the last 12 months, a massive increase in incidents of violence and aggression.”

She said that ‘alongside their physical injuries, teachers are suffering high levels of stress and anxiety which are affecting their entire lives’. “All they want is to go to work in a safe environment and to be able to keep their pupils safe,” Rachel added. “They are desperate for change.”

‘We’re not trying to demonise children’

Lily Lane joined CLIC in March 2023, while Ravensfield followed in November 2024. NASUWT says it has ‘raised complex concerns’ with CLIC’s chair of trustees, with staff suffering ‘high levels of stress and anxiety’.

Striking staff say they are ‘not supported’ to make decisions on certain procedures around disruptive behaviour and safeguarding. One teacher said: “We are overridden. I think it has been going on for too long.”

A colleague added: “There were children doing dangerous things that could have had really bad consequences. Our job at the end of the day is to keep children safe. I don’t want to be out here, but we feel we have no choice.”

Outside Lily Lane, several parents gave their support to the strike. One mum, who has two children at Lily Lane, said: “The school needs shutting down, in my eyes. My children don’t want to go to school any more.”

A number of parents of children with special educational needs (SEN) and education, health and care plans (EHCPs) claimed their concerns had been ‘ignored’ by higher ups at the school trust. Many telling the LDRS they want to get their children out because they’re unhappy and not getting the support needed.

At Ravensfield, one mumsaid she was ‘glad’ the teachers were taking industrial action. She claimed that support for teachers who raised concerns was ‘non-existent’, while she also suggested that some children at the school have ‘not got the right support’ either.

Another parent said she was ‘disgusted’ the issues were only coming to light because of the strike. “I trust what the teachers who are striking are saying,” she added.

The union has raised concerns about a knife which was brought into school by a young pupil in the last academic year. It’s understood a member of staff discovered a kitchen knife in the child’s bag while putting an item inside.

According to CLIC, appropriate action was taken with the child and their family in line with safeguarding and behaviour policies. But parents outside the school raised concerns about only finding out about the incident now, with one saying: “If you found out there was a knife in school you would want to pick your kid up.”

Parents were quicker to learn that an imitation gun had been fired by a child on school grounds on January 7, with a letter sent out the following day. The school says the toy had not been aimed at anyone, no one was injured and the incident has been dealt with.

The LDRS also spoke to some parents of children who previously attended Ravensfield. One mum, whose child was taken out of the school at Year 4 in 2024, said: “There were a lot of disruptive children, and teachers just couldn’t control it. As time went on, things got worse and worse. There were many times my daughter would say they didn’t get a breaktime because the classroom was put on lockdown.”

She says her child witnessed children fighting in class and hurling abuse at staff, including pupils as young as eight telling teachers to ‘suck their d***’. The mum says that by the time her child left the school, most of her peers were ‘wearing ear defenders’ in class to block out the noise.

Rebecca Mahony, whose daughter attended Ravensfield until summer 2024 when she left for secondary school, says children were seen ‘throwing chairs in the classroom’ and ‘talking to staff like dirt’. She added: “When members of staff are leaving, it tells you something is wrong. Teachers will last a long time in a job in the right setting.”

CLIC says that since Ravensfield joined the trust in November 2024, it has worked with school leaders on staffing stability, with two changes to teaching staff – one due to maternity cover and one to enable a flexible working opportunity. It also says that while two children recently left the school due to ‘disruption caused by strike action’, their families had not raised issues about aggressive behaviour.

Jac Casson, NASUWT national executive member for Greater Manchester, has been supporting union members based at Ravensfield. She says staff are battling against a lack of adequate strategy to deal with aggressive behaviour, while in some cases teachers have been ‘told it’s not happening’ when they have raised concerns.

She said: “We’re not trying to demonise children or their behaviour. It’s about how that behaviour is managed.” Jac says the issue has become so bad, that some children have been ‘too scared’ to be in class.

‘A storm brewing for a long period of time’

The prevalence of aggressive behaviour in classrooms comes at a time where children have been facing increasing social pressures. Most children at primary school spent some of their early years during the Covid lockdowns, which had an impact on their social development.

One teacher at Ravensfield said that lockdowns had caused challenges to children getting used to routine. NASUWT’s Jac Casson says schools ‘had to deal as best we could’ with the pandemic.

But she felt austerity from 2010 was also a major factor, describing it as a ‘storm brewing for a long period of time’, with schools being left to pick up the pieces. Jac said: “Whether it’s local authority funding cuts, speech and language therapy, CAMHS, social services, Sure Start, health visitors.

“The whole thing that was there to nurture and support and develop and protect children has been stripped away. It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that we are facing this kind of situation.”

On the picket line, one Ravensfield teacher said: “I think everybody is a bit confused about why this level of violence and disruption is going on.” Perhaps surprisingly, she said that some of the worst incidents have taken place in key stage one – children aged four to seven.

“We’re maybe not challenging this behaviour in the best way, and it’s only going to get worse as they get bigger and stronger,” she added. “They are going to take those behaviours with them as they get older.”

Young children are also facing growing pressures from technology, particularly with social media. Earlier this week, NASUWT joined calls for access to social media to be banned for people under the age of 16, to ‘prevent further damage to mental health and improve concentration and learning in school’.

At Ravensfield, one striking teacher said a number of safeguarding issues her colleagues have to resolve are ‘becoming more digital’. She added: “In terms of what they are saying, what they are accessing, we are having to deal with things that are a bit out of our remit.”

What CLIC says

CLIC says it is working with leaders at both schools to drive improvements, with a new executive headteacher appointed to support Ravensfield last September. Neither school has been inspected by Ofsted since joining CLIC.

The trust says it has clear HR policies and insists that no teacher who has raised concerns has ever been punished. It also says new behaviour policies have been developed, with risk assessments carried out, including for pupils with the most complex needs or challenging behaviour.

A spokesperson for the trust said: “The safety and wellbeing of pupils and staff across our schools is our highest priority. The claims made by the union do not reflect the day-to-day reality in our schools, nor the significant improvements that have been delivered since they joined the trust.

“Where individual behaviour incidents occur that fall below our high standards, they are taken seriously and addressed through robust behaviour and safeguarding policies developed in consultation with staff. In addition, we also work closely with families and the relevant external agencies to ensure the right support is in place for children with SEND.

“We cannot comment on individual staffing matters, but any decisions are taken in line with our HR policies and with independent external HR support. We have sought to engage constructively with the union, including offering independent conciliation through ACAS, which is standard practice in these situations.

“Those offers were not taken up before strike action began. We remain open to dialogue and, in the meantime, have arrangements in place to minimise disruption for the children and families affected.”

At Lily Lane, five members of staff were absent due to strike action on three of the strike days and four members of staff were absent due to strike action on the other three strike days. This is out of a total staff of 90 and a total number of 32 teachers.

At Ravensfield, 10 members of staff were absent due to strike action on strike days. This is out of a total staff of 64 and a total number of 21 teachers.

After five days of industrial action, further strike action at Lily Lane Primary School and Ravensfield Primary School is planned for January 20, 21, 22. Picket lines at both schools are due to take place at 8.45am, but both schools will remain open as usual.