Teachers force school closure as row over cuts and £1m deficit escalates

Striking teachers at a high school say they had no option but to walk out of a desperate situation and force it to close.

Members of the National Education Union (NEU) and NASUWT teaching unions at Darland School in Rossett, Wrexham, said they felt let down by the leadership team and the local authority who had allowed the school to overspend its budget and cut staff for too long.

One striking worker said that the school had been in decline since 2019 and the situation was so bad that every teacher with a full-time teaching schedule had joined the industrial action.

They even claimed that teaching shortages were so bad that specialist subject tutors were being forced to teach classes they had no grounding in, leading to falling standards and behavioural issues within the school.

Maths teacher Matthew Edwards – who is both a teacher and a parent at Darland, said in three decades of teaching he had never joined industrial action until now.

“I’ve been teaching for 32 years,” he said. “I’ve never taken part in a strike.

“What’s happening is so serious that even I, who am against strike action, I feel I have no option but to do this.

“Which would you rather your kid be in? A class of 36-plus pupils or a class of 32 where you’ve got a history teacher teaching maths? There’s there’s no good option there.

“The senior leadership team (SLT) is expanding while the maths department shrinks, the English department shrinks, the science department shrinks.

“All of the frontline departments are getting smaller and getting weakened, When I started, we had over 800 kids and an SLT of four. Now we have 686 pupils and five members of SLT.

“Meanwhile the Maths, English and Science departments used to have seven teachers each. In September, they will be reduced to four. It’s wrong.

“We’re over a million quid in debt. Coming out of Covid we were about £400,000 to the good.

“If this was your bank account and you saw it going from £400,000 to £180,000, then to -£230,000, the following year down again to -£700,000 and then -£1m do you think you might have stepped in and taken action maybe three years ago? The local authority didn’t.”

Head of History Daniel Jones added: “Wrexham Council do have to accept some responsibility for where we are.

“Wrexham is the lowest funding authority in North Wales for the amount it gives per head, per pupil to schools and it’s the third lowest in Wales.

“If they adjusted their funding model, we wouldn’t be in as bad a state as we’re in. The school would still be poorly managed but the numbers wouldn’t look as desperate.”

Mr Edwards said he understood parents’ frustration at the strikes, but said that the quality of education on offer was far short of what Darland could achieve.

“It pains me because I’ve been here 10 years and believe the school can be awesome. We’ve seen it going in the right direction in the past and with all its potential it could be one of the best schools in North Wales.”

Responding to the claims made at the picket line Cllr Phil Wynn, Wrexham Council’s Lead Member for Education and Early Intervention Services, said: “The concerns raised by teaching staff are being taken seriously, and I understand the strength of feeling that exists within the school community.

“It would be inappropriate for me to comment on individual members of staff or ongoing personnel matters. However, I can confirm that there is ongoing dialogue between the school, Local Authority education officers and teacher union representatives to investigate and address the issues that have been raised.

“The Wrexham Schools Budget Formula was reviewed in 2025/26 by a panel of school heads, governors and education finance officers and implemented that same academic year.

“As such I am confident that the allocation of the overall school budget of £116m for 2026/27 has been distributed transparently and fairly and refinement of the budget formula will continue as additional funding is secured.

“Our shared priority is to support pupils, maintain stability within the school and work constructively together to achieve a positive outcome for the whole school community.”

Talks are ongoing between the school, Wrexham Council and teaching unions. More strike action is scheduled at Darland High School on Tuesday, June 30 and Wednesday, July 1  with the school again expected to be closed.