STRIKE action by thousands of Hampshire teachers over the new six-term year has not been ruled out - despite a new agreement between their union and the Local Government Association.

On Monday, the NASUWT, the second largest teachers' union, announced an agreement with the LGA on proposals for the six-term year, which is set to be introduced in Hampshire in 2005.

But Ron Clooney, the regional director for the NASUWT, said he still couldn't rule out the possibility of a strike.

He said: "I think it's unlikely at this present stage because the LGA has agreed to all our demands. But we still have an issue with Hampshire's consultation process, and until we know the outcome of the ballot, it's still on the cards."

The papers from the indicative ballot are due back tomorrow. They were sanctioned by the NASUWT to test the strength of members' feelings after it claimed Hampshire County Council ignored the views of 81 per cent of schools who voted for no change to the school year last month.

The agreement between the union and the LGA has five points:

to start the school year as close to September 1 as possible

to divide the school year into six, roughly equal, teaching blocks

to establish a two-week break in April irrespective of Easter

to maintain the six-week summer holiday where possible

to identify a number of suitable dates for teacher training days, commonly known as inset days, which would not impact on teachers' own holiday entitlement.

However, Hampshire's education chief, Cllr Don Allen, said that the term dates for 2005/06 had already been set and he had "no plans to change them" in light of the new agreement.

Cllr Allen said: "There is a small degree of difference between the spring break and Christmas break dates put forward by the LGA and ours but, as most surrounding LEAs have the same dates to ours, it is very unlikely they will change as well."

He also said that Hampshire schools would continue to arrange teacher training days during school term time, despite a call from the LGA to incorporate inset days into official school holidays.

The LGA says that this would limit disruption to the timetable and bring schools into line with each other.

But Cllr Allen said that common inset days would be difficult to achieve due to the limited availability of teacher training staff in the county.

He added: "We will consider the proposals for term and holiday dates in future years, take into account the guidance from the LGA, and ensure a high degree of consistency with our neighbouring authorities."