Sixth form college strikes: Union announces new strike dates for thousands of teachers in February 2025

• Thousands of teachers at sixth form colleges across England are set for three more days of strike action in the coming weeks
• It follows seven days of similar industrial action late last year
• Unions say its because of a ‘two-tier pay offer’ for teachers at different types of state schools this academic year
• The Government recently fronted an extra £50 million to partially bridge this gap

A major teachers’ union has announced three new strike dates, after it says teachers at some state-funded schools “started 2025 on below-freezing picket lines”.

It is the latest in an ongoing pay dispute involving staff at sixth form colleges, which has already seen seven previous days of strikes by members of the National Education Union (NEU). The union said on Thursday (16 January) that it would be calling on more than 2,000 teachers at 32 colleges to walk off the job on one additional day this month, and two next month.

The new strikes will take place on Wednesday, 29 January, followed by Thursday, 6 February, and Friday, 7 February. There may be further impacts to come as well, with another education union, NASUWT, also announcing this week it would be balloting its members at sixth form colleges over the same issue.

The NEU says that the industrial action is driven by the fact some teachers working in state-funded colleges were set to get a higher pay rise for the earlier part of the 2024/25 school year than others, based on whether or not their school was an academy. This was despite a new £50 million government funding deal to bridge this gap for the latter part.

Earlier this year, the newly-elected Labour Government offered teachers an above-inflation pay rise of 5.5%. It handed more than £1.2 billion in extra funding to schools to cover it. But while teachers at academised sixth form colleges were eligible for the pay rise, the NEU says that their colleagues in non-academised colleges “doing the same work” were offered only 3.5% by the Sixth Form Colleges Association (SFCA). Unions have rejected this offer, saying it constituted a two-tier pay award.

“We will never accept a situation in which college teachers in non-academised colleagues are paid less than their academised peers for identical work,” NEU general secretary Daniel Kebede said in a statement. “It is absurd and blatantly unfair to under-fund sixth form colleges in this way, risking lasting damage to longstanding collective bargaining arrangements.”

He continued: “In affected colleges across the nation, from Brighton to Preston, our members remain steadfast in their desire for pay justice across all sixth form colleges. We call on those in power to do what is right and guarantee funding for the same pay rise for all college teachers.”

The NEU said that although £50 million had recently been made available by the Department for Education for pay rises at further education colleges - including sixth forms - this was only from April 2025 to July. It included “no firm guarantees that this will ensure that all sixth form colleges will be sufficiently funded to enable them to offer the same pay award”, the union said, nor did it address the pay difference teachers in non-academised schools had experienced for the earlier part of the school year, from September 2024 to March 2025.

SFCA chief executive Bill Watkin said they were “extremely disappointed” that the NEU had announced further strike action before formal pay talks had finished, according to the Independent. “We have made a pay offer that amounts to 4.3% across the year and is well above the rate of inflation. We cannot make a 5.5% pay offer for the whole year because the Government has not provided funding for the whole year.”

He said students, many of whom will be currently studying for their A Level exams in the summer, would “pay the price for this through further disruption to their education”. But he said that the Government could stop the strikes immediately by providing extra funding to even out this year’s pay discrepancy. “We urge them to do so without delay.”

A Department for Education spokesperson told the paper: “Ensuring people have the skills they need for the future is crucial to this Government’s number one mission to grow the economy. We recognise the vital role that further education, including sixth form colleges, play in this. The October Budget provided an additional £300 million revenue funding for further education to ensure young people are developing the skills they need to seize opportunity and drive growth.”

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Which schools will be impacted?

The NEU says that it has called on staff at 32 sixth form colleges across England to again take strike action. These are:

• Aquinas College (Stockport)
• Barton Peveril Sixth Form College (Eastleigh)
• Bolton Sixth Form College (Bolton, Greater Manchester)
• Brighton Hove and Sussex Sixth Form College (Brighton)
• Cardinal Newman College (Preston)
• Christ The King Sixth Form College (Lewisham, London)
• Christ The King Sixth Form College Aquinas (Brockley, London)
• Capital City College – Angel (Islington, London)
• Greenhead College (Huddersfield)
• Henley College (Henley-on-Thames)
• Hills Road Sixth Form College (Cambridge)
• Holy Cross College (Bury)
• Itchen College (Southampton)
• Joseph Chamberlain Sixth Form College (Birmingham)
• Leyton Sixth Form College (Waltham Forest, London)
• Loreto College (Manchester)
• Luton Sixth Form College (Luton)
• Notre Dame Catholic Sixth Form College (Leeds)
• Peter Symonds College (Winchester)
• Richard Collyer, The College of (Horsham)
• Scarborough Sixth Form College (Scarborough)
• Shrewsbury Colleges Group (Shrewsbury)
• Sir George Monoux College (Walthamstow, London)
• St Brendan's Sixth Form College (Bristol)
• St Charles Catholic Sixth Form College (Kensington, London)
• St Francis Xavier Sixth Form College (Clapham, London)
• St John Rigby RC Sixth Form College (Wigan, Greater Manchester)
• Varndean College (Brighton)
• Wilberforce College (Hull)
• Winstanley College (Wigan, Greater Manchester)
• WQE and Regent College Group (Leicester)
• Wyke Sixth Form College (Hull)
• Xaverian College (Manchester)

What do you think about sixth form college teachers going on strike, and on the pay dispute? Have your say and make your voice heard by leaving a comment below.