Striking teachers have voted to pause their walkouts in a row over pupil violence.

It comes after Sheppey’s Oasis Academy pledged to spend £500,000 on behaviour specialists and introduce five-day exclusions as the minimum punishment for physical and verbal assaults on staff.

After a meeting between the National Education Union and Oasis boss Steve Chalke on Thursday, November 20 it was expected the teachers would take to the picket lines again this week from tomorrow until Thursday, December 7.

However, union members have now voted to accept the academy’s offer.

This includes commitments to try to tackle unacceptable student behaviour with the promise to spend £500,000 on additional behaviour specialist staffing.

Fixed five-day minimum exclusion periods for assaults and threats against staff have also been promised as well as the establishment of a joint union-employer behaviour and safety working group.

It comes after around 80 teachers and staff members went on strike on Friday, November 22 forcing both the school’s Minster and Sheerness campuses to close.

Staff continued to withhold their labour on Tuesday, November 28 and Wednesday, 29.

NEU regional secretary Maria Fawcett says members now expect “rapid improvements” to be made and they have made clear that further action will come “if promised improvements in behaviour and safety do not take place”.

She added: “I am pleased that progress has been made in negotiations and that this has given members some confidence that things will start to improve at their school.

“The employer has made several promises and members have now put their trust in Oasis to deliver a safe and acceptable working and learning environment.”

The Oasis Academy which has campuses in Sheerness and Minster, has been left in disarray since the trust which operates it – Oasis Community Learning – confirmed it was to pull out running it next year.

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It followed a damning Ofsted report last summer which said too many pupils felt unsafe at the school.

In an interview with KentOnline, Mr Chalke admitted failures on his and the trust’s part, explaining their two campuses on Sheppey were the hardest to run out of all their 50+ sites.

Education on the Island is now set for a major revamp with the academy set to be split into two separate schools and run by different trusts.

However, Mr Chalke thinks the problems will not simply just disappear when someone new takes over unless more investment comes into the Island.

He said: “The poverty on Sheppey is immense so it was the toughest to run. It has been and will continue to be really hard for whoever runs the school without more investment.

“There are children who need extra tuition, extra help, extra input and bespoke care. Someone to be with them as they kick off and not give up on them but that means having more resources.”

Strike action of this kind is unprecedented in the county.

One education expert based in the county suggested that if an alternative solution couldn’t be found to the behaviour issues then security guards might be needed.

He also suggested the school might be forced to shut as a last resort.