TEACHERS have formed a picket line outside Winterbourne International Academy for the second time in a week.

Members of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) and National Association of Schoolmasters/Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT) have walked out again today in a dispute with senior management over a catalogue of issues including their workload, performance management and an imposed six-week cycle of teaching and persistent testing of pupils.

They have claimed new chief executive principal Beverley Martin has introduced a 'climate of fear' at the academy since taking over earlier this year.

“If things don’t change I will not be staying here,” said one member of staff, who wished to remain anonymous.

“There was a higher than average turnover of staff last year. We are losing our best staff and cannot replace them.”

Another said a high number of staff had been moved to Winterbourne's partner school Yate International Academy.

"We are drowning," he said. "Yate now has two heads of maths and we have none. Teachers in the maths department are thinking of leaving and that is the same across all subjects.”

The academy is closed to all pupils today and tomorrow, when staff are again due to strike.

It follows chaotic scenes in Winterbourne during the first day of industrial action last Thursday when pupils in Year 7, 8 and 9 were left wandering the streets. The school had insisted it would remain fully open until late on Wednesday afternoon when it announced it would be closed to the lower school pupils.

Claims that Year 10 and 11 students were locked in a classroom, left unsupervised for hours and made to do PE lessons all day because only 25 teachers were on site have been passed to education watchdog Ofsted.

Inspectors visited the school on Monday and are due to report on their findings.

An Ofsted spokeswoman said: "We can confirm that a routine monitoring inspection was carried out on September 14. The results of the inspection will be published in due course."

An academy statement said it was 'extremely disappointed' the first strike had taken place.

“Like all schools we are statutorily required to have an appraisal process that links pay progression to teacher performance,” it said.

“It is this policy that the unions have highlighted as one of their concerns. The union would prefer that there are no numerical measures of accountability for teachers and that scrutiny of their work should be minimal.”

It added: “We would like to take this opportunity to thank the many parents, carers and members of the community for their words and actions of support at this challenging time."

The academy said it had hoped to avoid further strikes at talks with unions on Monday but they did failed to find a resolution.

Wendy Exton, national executive member for NASUWT, said: "We have made progress on some points but there are key issues of disagreement that remain. These concern unlimited monitoring of teachers in varying forms, workload and performance management.

"Everyone on the union side accepts that teachers are accountable. It can be done, either in a way that is supportive and developmental and does not impose intolerable pressure, or it can aim to 'catch the teacher out' so that teachers' confidence, health, well-being and career are undermined."

She said a 'one size fits all policy' across the 1,805-pupil Winterbourne site and its federated partners at Yate International Academy and Woodlands Primary phase was 'inappropriate and unfair'.