After a concentrated battle union members at Kaplan Aspect reached agreement recently with the company on a collective agreement.

It's been a rugged time for teachers at the school with the company wanting to increase time at school when teachers were not teaching.

Kaplan Aspect was effectively asking for 15 hours more time at school each week without compensation.

Previously teachers were free to work either at school or at home and many people had built their lives around the flexibility this offered to staff to work other jobs or organise childminding arrangements.

It took a day-long strike on 26 March to provide the momentun for a breakthough and eventual settlement.

The agreement includes a 4% and 5% increases in base rates of pay over two years, a voluntary redundancy package and a cash payment for staff moving onto the new contract.

"It's not everything we wanted but its a big step forward from where we were when we started" said Unite Organiser John Minto.

"It is very rare for teaching staff to take strike action but it was the only way to get the US owners to take any notice"