Read our full report from Winterbourne International Academy parent and staff meeting after teachers call off strike action

Beverley Martin, who has come under fire from teachers for introducing a rigid modular curriculum, persistent testing of pupils and failing to listen to staff since taking over in April, said she was sorry for the situation at the highly-regarded academy which led to three days of industrial action in the first two weeks of term.

Addressing a packed meeting of concerned parents and staff on Monday (September 21), Ms Martin said: “We are sorry we got into this situation but we have got to move forward.

“I am really sorry the situation has got to this point, it was never anybody’s intention.”

Speaking publicly for the first time since 100 members of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) and National Association of Schoolmasters/Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT) went on strike in an unprecedented move in the South West, Ms Martin said no teacher had been bullied at the academy.

“There have been disagreements and things have been said which could have been said in a better way and I hold my hand up to that,” she said. “I apologise for those mistakes but we are at the beginning of hoping to put it right.

“We need your support and we will need your patience.”

She said herself and academy principal Richard Haupt, and Yate International Academy principal Paul Skipp, were not responsible for an Ofsted report which gave the academy a notice to improve having only taken over two days before.

“The key thing is about the end users and they are your children and we have got it wrong,” said Ms Martin.

“We inherited a performance management policy which had been in place a while. We tried to make some changes we believed to be positive, not to weed out bad teachers but to make every single teacher as good as they can be.

“We have the team we want. The teachers here and at Yate and Woodlands Primary are the team we want.”

Parents at the tense meeting expressed a variety of concerns with some showing support for the new leadership team and others defending teachers for standing up for their profession.

One parent said: “The leadership teams has only been in since April 1. We had a bad Ofsted and they were brought in for a reason. I don’t think they have been given a chance yet.”

Another parent, whose three children have attended the academy including her youngest who has just started in Year 7, said: “Did anybody think there are 300 Year 7 children who haven’t had a full week of school to get used to new teachers, new curriculum and a new school with 3,000 pupils?

“The effect it has had on the children has been appalling. My child is waking up every night with nightmares.”

But a parent with two daughters at the school said: “There is a tangible unhappiness in this room.

“I have a real anxiety that it doesn’t matter what systems you put in place you will never make a difference if the staff are so unhappy. And if staff are unhappy my children are going to be unhappy.”

Another said the management team were ‘not fit for purpose’.

She said: “Our children are coming to a school where staff are bullied and intimidated.”

In an emotional address to the meeting, maths teacher Dominic Bareau said he had been intent on resigning at the end of this term.

“I apologise enormously, we don’t want to strike,” he said. “I have had sleepless nights because of some of the changes that have happened. I went home and told my wife I wanted to leave teaching.

“But the strike made me happy because my voice was being heard.”

Maths teacher Nicola Richardson said: “I am heartened to hear we are appreciated and the right staff for the job but I want to be treated like that.”

Unions and management agreed to a resolution to teachers’ 25 concerns on Friday and three further days of strike action this week were suspended. Union representatives said the issue now would be upholding those resolutions.

Mr Haupt said: “It is really important we go away from this meeting knowing we have reached an agreement with which we can move forward.

“I am really confident this will put to rest those problems we have had and will be able to move forward and actually get much better education for our sons and daughters.”