Teachers Plan Strike at Dairy Meadow Primary School
Taking industrial action over redundancies and mixed-year classes
The sign at the entrance to Dairy Meadow School
May 20, 2026
Teachers at Dairy Meadow Primary and Nursery School in Southall are planning strike action in response to compulsory redundancies and a restructuring plan that will introduce mixed-year “vertical” classes from September.
The action has been called by the Ealing branch of the National Education Union (NEU), which says the changes will increase workload, reduce staffing levels and have long-term consequences for pupils’ education.
The school confirmed the restructuring in a letter to parents on 14 May, citing a sharp fall in pupil numbers and a resulting drop in government funding. Dairy Meadow has capacity for 420 pupils but currently has 293 children on roll, leaving the school with £394,000 less income than it would receive at full capacity.
As a result, the school says two teachers will be made redundant and some year groups will be taught in mixed classes — specifically Years 3 and 4, and Years 5 and 6 — for at least part of the timetable.
In the letter, Headteacher Alison Reed and Chair of Governors Ben Gibbes told families the decision had been taken “with great sadness and regret”, but was necessary to maintain financial stability and protect the quality of teaching.
The school said it was rewriting its curriculum to ensure continuity for pupils in mixed-year groups and highlighted research suggesting younger children can benefit from older role models, while older pupils develop leadership and empathy.
They also reassured parents that Dairy Meadow’s “history of high academic achievement” would continue, noting that last year’s KS2 SATs results were among the best nationally.
The NEU says its members do not believe the restructuring is educationally sound and are concerned about the long-term impact on children.
In a statement, Mat Milovanovic, Joint District Secretary of Ealing NEU, said the union opposed the compulsory redundancies and the introduction of mixed-year classes, arguing that the changes would “increase workload significantly” and place additional pressure on remaining staff.
The union also raised concerns about the school’s financial management, saying Dairy Meadow had “racked up considerable debt” and should have acted earlier to address falling pupil numbers.
“We are concerned about the long-term educational impact on children and how this will affect the local community,” the NEU said.
The NEU is holding a public meeting on Wednesday (20 May) at 3.30pm at Aleka House, Havelock Road, Southall, where parents, staff and residents will be invited to discuss the dispute and the future of the school.
Members are not striking this week, they are being balloted for strike action, which will close on Friday 29th May.
The school held two information sessions for parents on Monday 18 May, the changes were explained in more detail and any questions were answered by the school leaders.
A ballot on strike action will be held on Friday 29 May.
Like Reading Articles Like This? Help Us Produce More This site remains committed to providing local community news and public interest journalism. Articles such as the one above are integral to what we do. We aim to feature as much as possible on local societies, charities based in the area, fundraising efforts by residents, community-based initiatives and even helping people find missing pets. We’ve always done that and won’t be changing, in fact we’d like to do more. However, the readership that these stories generates is often below that needed to cover the cost of producing them. Our financial resources are limited and the local media environment is intensely competitive so there is a constraint on what we can do. We are therefore asking our readers to consider offering financial support to these efforts. Any money given will help support community and public interest news and the expansion of our coverage in this area. A suggested monthly payment is £8 but we would be grateful for any amount for instance if you think this site offers the equivalent value of a subscription to a daily printed newspaper you may wish to consider £20 per month. If neither of these amounts is suitable for you then contact info@neighbournet.com and we can set up an alternative. All payments are made through a secure web site. One-off donations are also appreciated. Choose The Amount You Wish To Contribute. If you do support us in this way we’d be interested to hear what kind of articles you would like to see more of on the site – send your suggestions to the editor. For businesses we offer the chance to be a corporate sponsor of community content on the site. For £30 plus VAT per month you will be the designated sponsor of at least one article a month with your logo appearing if supplied. If there is a specific community group or initiative you’d like to support we can make sure your sponsorship is featured on related content for a one off payment of £50 plus VAT. All payments are made through a secure web site. |