MORE than 600 pupils at a Derby secondary school will be out of lessons for the second time in eight days today.
Two teaching unions have taken their members out on strike at Merrill Academy, which will close the school for all but year 11, over performance-related pay for the second time.
The first strike was a week last Tuesday and there will be a third strike tomorrow.
If a settlement cannot be reached between the National Association of Schoolmasters' Union of Women Teachers, the National Union of Teachers and Merrill Academy, which is run by Derby College, then the unions have threatened a further three days of action next week, starting on Tuesday.
Talks last Thursday failed to resolve the situation, which arose after the unions said that their members had been given "impossible" targets to achieve performance-related pay increases.
Sue Arguile, Derby NUT branch secretary, said: "Very few of our members were given the increase and although we were consulted on the terms of the performance-related pay, we did not agree to them."
A picket line was due to be staged outside the Brackens Lane school in Alvaston this morning and a further one could take place tomorrow morning.
