SCHOOL leaders across Wales have overwhelmingly voted to take further industrial action, NAHT Cymru announced today.

The headteachers’ union said that 95 per cent of those balloted this month supported continuing action short of a strike and about three-quarters endorsed walkouts. 

The latest six-month mandate comes after the workforce voted in March to reject an improved but still below-inflation offer from devolved Labour ministers of 3 per cent in this academic year and a further 5 per cent in September.    

Cardiff has already awarded this year’s wage rise — half of which was permanent and half a one-off payment — but concerns that the package would not be fully funded have “proved justified in many areas of the country,” the union said. 

NAHT Cymru director Laura Doel warned that her members’ resolve has “not weakened and they remain determined to fight over pay, funding and workload.

“Ongoing recruitment and retention issues, compounded by pay and funding concerns, have left schools unable to deliver,” she said. 

“School leaders are taking a stand in their fight to defend education and they won’t rest until they get what they need to support their learners.”