Striking teachers say “heavy-handed” redundancies at their school will “tear apart a great team” and leave pupils struggling.

Thinking Schools Academy Trust (TSAT) is set to lay off five members of support staff, such as teaching assistants, at Goodwin Academy in Deal from September.

The move has led to other teachers leaving on principle and seven days of industrial action from National Education Union (NEU) members, the second of which took place this morning.

Speaking at the school gates, the school’s head of English and NEU representative Jay Cleary told KentOnline: “We're trying to protect jobs.

“We have people who have been forced to be made redundant, we have teachers who have been forced to leave, and we're worried about the level of support and the level of education that the school is able to provide.

“It's a real worry that this is only the start of it.”

The 55-year-old has worked at the comprehensive secondary for 10 years and was shocked when the lay-offs were announced just days after the school received a strong inspection report from Ofsted.

“The school had been awarded Good by Ofsted in all areas, and then the following week, they announced the redundancies,” Mr Cleary added.

“Obviously we were on a high when we got the good, and then the next week, we were down to a real low when we found out that the great team that we'd created was going to be torn apart.”

He adds that several pupils have profound needs and will not be getting the level of support needed come September.

TSAT - which previously planned to cut seven roles - has offered talks to NEU members next week, but says it will only do so if industrial action is put off.

Trust bosses insist they are open to working with unions and were “disappointed” to see strikes continue today.

South East Kent NEU secretary Jamie Pout explained: “Members didn't feel that was appropriate to pause action with the offer of maybe having discussions with the trust, and so we've been forced out for a second day of action.

“This is day two of seven days of planned action.

“We have a very simple ask - no forced redundancies of staff here.

“We understand the school is seeing a slight reduction in pupil numbers and therefore they might not need some teaching staff.

“We appreciate the school needs to run, but a small reduction in pupil numbers doesn't correlate to this gross cutting of LSA (learning support assistants) support staff and teachers.

“It is massively heavy-handed.”

Mr Pout claimed the chief executive of TSAT, Stuart Gardner, earns more than £200,000 a year. TSAT papers confirm its most senior executive staff earn between £177,000 and £218,000 per year.

Lauren Swain, head of history and RE at Goodwin Academy, added: “I feel like the response we've had has been a lot of pressure rather than support to try to get us to back down.

“The children are going to suffer unless they replace those staff members, and we need to protect the children and support our staff.

“They need to stop taking all of the money and put it where it actually needs to go.”

A TSAT spokesperson said: “We are committed to continuing to provide the highest quality education for our students and the best working environment for our staff.

“These are very difficult decisions, and we value all our team, but we are taking proactive action now to remain financially sound, while not compromising on the excellent education and care our students receive.

“We have been working closely with the unions to resolve this situation and are disappointed to see strike action continue today, but respect staff’s individual decision to do so.

“We are doing all that we can to minimise disruption to our students’ learning and remain open to working with the unions to reach a resolution.

“We will continue supporting the small number of support staff affected during this time.”