News / St Brendan’s Sixth Form College
College teachers call for equal pay at nationwide strike
Teachers at a city college have gone on strike to ask for “pay justice” after the government excluded non-academised sixth form colleges from a pay rise that was offered to academised sixth form colleges.
Led by the National Education Union (NEU), the teachers formed a picket line outside St Brendan’s Sixth Form College for their first strike of 2025.
The striking teachers had previously gathered outside the Brislington college in November and December after failure of the government to respond to their requests.
is needed now More than ever
The strike is part of a nationwide campaign led by NEU, which includes 32 participating non-academised sixth form colleges.
NEU’s workplace representative for the college, Bev Forsythe-Cheasley, told Bristol24/7: “If we don’t get the same pay rise as other sixth form college teachers it does mean that places like this won’t be able to recruit staff (and) that’ll disadvantage our students.
“It is really important that we fight for equal pay across the sector. All the teachers are doing the same job so we should all be paid the same.”
St Brendan’s Sixth Form College in Brislington has been the strike for several teacher strikes
Forsythe-Cheasley added: In education at the moment, recruitment is really hard. There is a national crisis so not paying us the same as other teachers is just going to make that even worse at places like St Brendan’s, and in the long term it might mean places like this aren’t viable.
“Already we have problem recruiting for certain subjects and that’s only going to get worse. We’ve got students taught by non-specialists and students who don’t have a teacher because they can’t recruit one.
“There seems to be no logic behind the government’s decision – why we deserve less pay than colleges down the road.”
On Monday, the union were in negotiations with government representatives but these discussions came to no conclusion which led to the strike going ahead on Tuesday morning.
Teachers will continue to strike on Wednesday and Thursday.
Many of the teachers held placards on Tuesday, some of which read ‘Pay Up’ and ‘Beep 4 Fair Pay’.
Forsythe-Cheasley said that their strike has received a “really positive” reaction: “We get lots of beeps from passing cars. Lots of students are really on board.
“We communicate with our students that we will be on strike, mainly so we can explain the reasons so they’re not travelling in to find they’ve got no lesson on.
“The issue we have is we’re a really small sector. We’re only one of 32 colleges across England on strike and that’s the challenge.
“People passing will beep because they can see we’re on strike, but they often don’t know what the issue is.
“It would be really easy for [the government] to stop the strikes if they just gave us the same pay rise, they gave everyone else.”
Prior to the strike action, Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the NEU, said: “The NEU has made every effort to reason with government, but a fully-funded fair pay award for every college is still not forthcoming.
“Pay justice must mean a fair, above-inflation pay award for all. Our members are determined to fight for what they clearly deserve.”
All photos: Elizabeth Abbott
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