Headteachers determined to make a stand as they prepare for historic Telford vote

Members of the heads' union, the NAHT, were holding their annual conference at the International Centre where they were preparing for an historic vote.

A press conference was due to take place at 5pm on Friday with four teachers' unions preparing to speak out on pay and the pressures on schools.

Debby O'Connell, the head of Newport Primary School in East Riding, Yorkshire, said she would be voting for industrial action although she was worried about the impact it would have on her pupils and parents.

"It's not something I want to do but we have seen cuts at so many levels," she said.

Claiming to be from the best school with the best staff from "the best Newport in the country", she added that funding for schools is "chronically poor", with leaders struggling to recruit and retain staff. They are also under "extreme pressure on a daily basis", she said.

"I absolutely love the job but it is an immensely hard role, with pressure coming from above, and seeing respect for teaching deteriorating over 20 years, including with less respect from pupils," she said.

"I will be voting for industrial action but I feel worried for children who won't be in school."

Many of the delegates whom the Shropshire Star spoke to before the vote said it had been the first conference that they had attended, either ever or in many years, but they feel so strongly about the situation they are in. We did not speak to anyone who was going to vote against taking action.

Matt O'Grady is the head of a primary school with 170 pupils in Essex. He had not been to a NAHT conference in 15 years and described it as a "watershed moment" adding that schools were at "crisis point".

"We have got to do more and more, with less and less," he added.

"Pay has reduced in real terms, there has been a massive increase in mental health needs, and support for schools is crumbling.

"I will be voting for industrial action in solidarity with my staff."

Having just undergone a stressful Ofsted inspection, Karen Highcock of Widnes Academy, said it was time for a rethink of the inspection regime.

"It was pleasant with the outcome but not the experience," she said at her first ever conference in her nine years as a headteacher.

"The feeling across headteaching is that they are going to vote for industrial action because there is nowhere else to go."

Another headteacher from the north East of England said the mood of the profession was "exhausted" and it was the first time she had voted at a union conference in her career. She did not wish to be named but has also never before been on strike.

"If we don't do anything now we will have no headteachers left, it will crumble away," she said.

"I don't take industrial action lightly but I feel very passionately about it."

A head teacher from Colwyn Bay in Wales said he was there to use his democratic vote over the funding issue. He also did not wish to be named.

"If we do not take a stand the future for our schools is going to be pretty bleak," he said.

Duncan Thompson, head of Shawlands Primary School, in Barnsley, has been a head for 11 years and a teacher for 19. It was his first conference and he too said he would vote for industrial action.

"I feel so strongly about the issue," he said. "It all comes down to finance. We have fewer staff and because of the pressure that puts on others, they are going off sick.

"The Government should stop lying and fully fund pay rises and funding for special needs."