Governors attempt to avert teachers' strike over disruptive pupil

Governors at a Nottinghamshire primary school were meeting last night to try to avert a teachers' strike over a disruptive pupil. Talks between union leaders and the local authority yesterday failed to resolve the dispute over ten-year-old Matthew Wilson.

Members of the National Association of Schoolmasters/ Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT) at Manton Junior School near Worksop say they will refuse to teach Matthew who is due to return to school next Monday. Governors have twice overruled the school's head, who tried to expel the boy last term for allegedly disruptive behaviour.

In another case in West Yorkshire, the parents of a 13-year-old withdrew her from school after NASUWT members had threatened to strike over her. Judith Judd