Teachers at Hornsey School for Girls are striking today amid claims staff have faced public humiliation, including being ridiculed and belittled in meetings.

Haringey National Union of Teachers (NUT) says there have been “severe problems” at the school, which is rated ‘Good’ by Ofsted.

Teachers made complaints of “bullying behaviour, oppressive management and entirely unreasonable workload expectations.”

And the NUT claims relations between headteacher Kuljit Rahelu and staff have broken down.

Haringey NUT say they do not believe governors are taking the matter seriously and are instead determined to back the headteacher.

Haringey NUT secretary Julie Davies said: “Governors cannot continue to ignore their own staff who, collectively, are very unhappy.

“Strike action is disruptive and was completely preventable.

“The blame for this must be laid squarely with the chair of governors who, after being told there was a serious problem, offered a one hour meeting with strike action imminent.”

A spokesperson for Haringey council said: “We deeply regret the action that the NUT are taking at Hornsey School for Girls and the disruption this is causing teaching and learning in the school. Haringey continues to work with all parties concerned to resolve this dispute.”

Vice-chair of governors, Jon Marks said: “We are proud of the work Hornsey School for Girls is doing to improve the quality of our pupils’ education; something the local community seems to recognise with our increased numbers of students in Year 7 over the next academic year.

“We hope the NUT can resolve their concerns without holding a strike which would disrupt teaching and learning in our school.

“We have clear procedures for our staff to resolve any complaints or concerns.”

- Further action has been called for May 4 and 5.