BACK in April 2008, thousands of students in the Taunton and Wellington area were off school, as members of the National Union of Teachers went on strike.

The strike brought schools in our area to a stand still as they took a whole day off for their fair pay strike.

Mick Lerry was the then divisional secretary for the NUT and he told the County Gazette at the time: We see this as a long-term campaign.

"We'll be lobbying MPs and Parliament and we may have to take further action.

"We have the support from the public, a lot of people work with schools and teachers and many have been supporting this.

There will be some disruption and no doubt people will be angry with the Government for causing this to happen."

The Somerset County Council confirmed that Holway Park Primary School, Milverton Primary School, West Somerset Community School and Minehead Middle School would all be closed.

Dulverton All Saints Primary, Curry Rivel Primary, Cheddon Fitzpaine Primary, Huish Episcopi Science College, Court Fields Community School Wellington and Heathfield Community School all had partial closures due to the strike.

Fast forward to 2022, and teachers are still campaigning for pay increases.

Headteachers have said they are “disappointed” by the Government’s decision not to increase education funding in the spring statement.

Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the NEU teaching union, said if the Government is serious about protecting living standards, it should reverse the real terms cuts to teacher pay.

Reacting to Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s statement to MPs, she said: “Instead, with RPI inflation reaching 8.2% and in the midst of the worst cost-of-living crisis in decades, the Government plans yet more real terms pay cuts for teachers.”