Concerned parents have called for stability at a school in the centre of an ongoing row over becoming an academy.

Greenwich Council was urged to step in and offer help as staff at the John Roan School went out on strike again today, November 6.

The John Roan was hit with an academisation order after a damning Ofsted report found it to be inadequate earlier this year.

The government has said the University Schools Trust will take the school over despite concerns from parents and councillors.

Since the order, staff have held strikes and parents are preparing to take on Ofsted to court.

At the same time more than 100 parents have signed an open letter supporting the school’s leadership and calling for an end to “disruptive” strikes.

At a question time session last night one parent called for stability as her child has been forced to miss nearly a week of school.

The mother said: “We would be lying to ourselves if we said the school was doing fantastically well. Something had to change – I don’t believe in academisation but I don’t think parents have had enough support in this process.

“We get fed information from the school and from John Roan Resists. I am part of the parents who signed the letter [against industrial action]. There’s a lot of rumours going round and we actually want to know what is going on.”

John Roan Resists is a pressure group against the UST running the school as an academy.

The mother continued: “In 2018 my daughter has missed four days of school through strike action. I know there is a bigger picture but that is my child – if I took her out for four days they would be on my back.”

Cllr David Gardner, education cabinet member and deputy leader of the council, said the school had been through “difficult years” and that the council was doing its best to support parents.

“What we want to achieve is stability and the best outcome for our children. We’re there to support the school, what we don’t want to do is cut across them.

“I fully understand the issue that teachers face and their concern, I’m not sure strike action is the best way to address that as it is very disruptive but I understand the point they are making.”

Council leader Dan Thorpe admitted the UST was probably “not the council’s first choice” of provider, but said his administration was doing what it could to resist further academies popping up elsewhere in the borough.

Greenwich Council is anti-academy and last week published a new commitment to keeping schools under its care.

John Roan teachers are striking ahead of a “community day of action” on Wednesday, November 7 against forced academisations in Greenwich.

Despite parents having to be called in to help the school run because of strikes, one grandmother said she supports industrial action.

She said: “The teachers don’t feel that they have any option to strike and I support them. It’s a forced academisation, you can appeal against a murder charge but you can’t appeal against Ofsted.

“The teachers know they will lose this fight but they are prepared to put their job on the line to improve the education my grandchildren get.

“My grandchildren are not just going to an exam factory they need to have morals. Some things are more important.”