Teachers at a secondary school in Wallasey are set to strike for three days next week, in the first industrial action since the school joined a new academy trust.

Members of the NASUWT teaching union at Co-op Academy Oldershaw will walk out on Tuesday 10, Wednesday 11 and Thursday 12 November. Parents have been told the school will stay open during the strikes, with extra support in place for Year 11 pupils.

The school, on Valkyrie Road in Wallasey, is an 11 to 18 academy with 774 pupils enrolled. Co-op Academies Trust took it over in September 2026 after an Ofsted inspection identified what the trust described as serious, longstanding weaknesses and placed the school in special measures.

The ballot for industrial action took place before Oldershaw joined the trust, the trust has said. Since September, it says it has been working to improve attendance, teaching and learning and behaviour, and has introduced a new behaviour policy following staff training.

In a statement, the trust said it recognised the concerns raised by NASUWT and believed they were reasonable matters to discuss. It said it had sought to engage constructively with union representatives but had so far been unable to reach an agreement to avoid industrial action, adding that it remained ready to work together in the best interests of pupils.

The trust said its ambition was to strive for excellence and to ensure every young person at Oldershaw had the opportunities they deserved.

Parents who need advice have been told to contact the school for the latest arrangements for next week. The strike dates fall in the week after the school's first half term under its new trust, and the walkout will test how far the improvement work carried out since September has eased the concerns that led members to vote for action.

The dispute is the latest in a series of localised teachers' strikes across England this autumn, as unions press school leaders and trusts over working conditions and the pace of change in schools facing intervention.

At Villiers High School in Southall, west London, National Education Union members have also been taking strike action in recent weeks, with six days of walkouts planned over three weeks over the treatment of their union representative, pay cuts and workload pressures.

For Oldershaw, the three strike days will be the first test of the new trust's relationship with its staff. The trust took over a school that inspectors had found to have serious, longstanding weaknesses, and it has spent the first weeks of term trying to reset attendance, behaviour and classroom standards. Whether talks can now bridge the gap before Tuesday will decide if pupils face a disrupted week or a settled return to lessons.