CCCG Staff Open Letter to the CEO and the Chair of Governors

ALmost four years in position and still not provided wiht the basic teacher training as promised right from the start - cost money to support, than you have to allow staff time off to study and practise what they have been taught and you need to pay them more once they successfully pass the qualification - it seems these reasons are more important not to develop someone than to do so - in total opposite than the policy put in place - My one thing - Put me through my teaching quals!

I'm fully supportive of the letter send to senior management

Roy should not be in that position as he has not been fair and competent enough.

I support signing the petition

Please give us a pay rise that values us and reflects the rise in the cost of living.

Please give us something we can accept

Agreed

We need Roy to negotiate desperately.

We've had one pay rise since 2007. This is not acceptable I think.

In solidarity

Teachers are working harder than ever to maintain a professional standard under extremely difficult conditions with little or no support. Our working environment is our students' learning environment.

Our workloads have increased substantially but we have been pushed back on pay for far too long! The offer made is simply not acceptable neither is the new obs policy. It is clear management do not trust us despite us working over and above for our students. The pressure on tutors is now unstainable.

Observation policy is open to abuse by management- of which I have been a victim. It is in no way supportive. It has affected my mental health and this in turn has not been taken seriously.

I'm disappointed, demoralised and worried by the direction this college appears to be going in.

Education is fundamental to a functioning society - CIC has the fortune of amazing teachers who have supported the learning and development of countless students; management should respect this expertise and commitment and negotiate in a collegiate spirit for the wellbeing of all who make this organisation a place for transformation.

We need to be treated fairly, too much work load, pay rise and observation with prior notice

The ESOL department at City and Islington feels devastated by what we see as the erosion of professional standards within our department. 1. Newly introduced systems are driving down success rates. I currently feel unable to manage my learners’ achievement. Please feel free to give me any opportunity explain the realities of policy changes. Many of us are experienced professionals who can see what the issues are and there is resentment that this experience is being discounted. 2. Achievement for the last academic year within our department has been high solely because of the hard work of ESOL teachers. It should be noted that any decrease in achievement will reflect on management decisions. 3. Cuts to management mean there is not enough support to overcome serious failings. This is undermining the student experience and our well-being. Since the start of term there have been many instances of: a) No classrooms for some of our provision; b) Classes without teachers – colleagues have not been fully replaced by HPLs as promised; c) Rooms without adequate equipment d) Classes with 30 plus learners enrolled – although many have now abandoned their course. This is clearly not the way forward and we are all concerned about the future of provision that has benefited so many underprivileged learners.

Fully agree with the letter that has been sent out by the union. I spend more time filling in form, then planning my classes and planning for any new courses.

Drastic changes and decisions taken by management without any consultation have led many valuable members of staff, who had worked for CIC for many years, to leave. All teachers care about their students, they are their priority (students, by the way, not customers! ), but workload and constant unreasonable demands are seriously affecting everybody's morale. CIC is not a happy place anymore.

I took part in the recent strike action because I felt staff concerns were not being heard by management and felt this was the last resort. I believe there are an excessive number of managers within a structure that has no logic particularly in student services. I spoke to my colleagues too who agree with me that if you were to look at the strategic vs operational level duties for student services staff you would see that many of the strategic tasks were already completed at officer level demonstrating the role does not require much supervision. What I am referring to is that majority of job roles do not require 3 managers breathing down our necks every 5 minutes! For example I attend meetings on a regular basis attended with more than 3 senior managers at one time, firstly is this really cost effective (each senior manager is on 50k+) secondly this removes any professional autonomy that the officer has and thirdly will affect staff morale negatively. We are all talented, highly qualified (I recently obtained my masters) I do not believe we need to be treated this way, give us respect and treat us fairly.