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

Fully agree with sentiments expressed in the letter.

I am suporting the strike even though I will never recover the loss in my salary due to the industrial action because I strongly feel that the top brass have got it all wrong. They are here today, gone tomorrow managers who leave behind a mess that teachers end up clearing!

Taking this action is very much against my personal financial interests as I'll never recoup the salary lost (even if the full pay award were to be made). I am doing this for the greater good, as I see and feel a huge amount of disgruntlement and low morale in the college. This is affecting staff most, but students are feeling it too, and it doesn't bode well for future enrolments in the college. Management needs to take staff demands seriously, and engage respectfully in negotiations with more flexibility, imagination and willingness to give some meaningful compromises.

College staff deserve a better deal overall. Unison stand in solidarity with UCU and NEU teaching staff here. Support staff are worse off. Incremental progression is non-existent and the pay scale is very narrow but the workload and demands have increased whilst they are pared down to the bare minimum.

I just heard about another student suicide from a year 13 student of mine and replied to her email immediately. It is paramount that management treat staff with the respect and pay they deserve. As others have noted, we are involved in education because we care and we want the best for our students. Roy - I implore you to remember the promises you made three years ago and listen to your employees.

We can not expect to make cuts on the scale that has happened over the last 3 years and still achieve equivalent, or improved, outcomes for our learners. Management policies on funding are currently reducing the chances of successful outcomes for our learners. Our learners are attending a college that seems to be falling further into chaos at the highest levels, while hard working teachers and lecturers work ever harder to try to keep the student experience as good as possible, but working under increasingly difficult conditions. This has always been a wonderful place to work, but the cuts in services and provision are putting our students' future outcomes at risk: a deeply unethical position.

My children came to this college and from this college my daughter went to Kings College my son worked at the college and love the college. Working in the LRC we have to support the students and at the same giving them encourage. The CMT and Senior Management including the Governors should be displayed in the college. I am worried about the future of WKC

Over the 20 years I've been at Candi 6th Form I have been privileged to work with outstanding colleagues and, until recently managers. Today at the CPD day I felt that same feeling of inspiration as part of the Teaching and Learning INSET which was optional and done through the lunchtime period. The rest of the day was below the standards I have been used to. From management I expect professionalism and good organisation, not decisions which seem to be made at the last minute. I also expect kindness from them which I have not experienced in the last 2-3 years. I want to be able to do my job effectively and yet management seem to get in the way e.g. by cutting the support I can give my students and the TLAD which will just be a bureaucratic exercise which will not improve outcomes. Please at least put this on hold, go back to the previous policy and negotiate a way forward with both our unions. Our students won't forgive us if their education continues to be disrupted in this way.

Most of our work is battling technology and chasing classists, monitoring registers despite us being trained educators and pedagogs. We are trained educators and want to use our brain and skills in the classroom, not to solve digital riddles or constantly tracking digital communications and using our personal phones for second verification systems . Professional development occurs through reflection, by having sufficient time to think, discuss issues with colleagues, share ideas, and study, not by being compelled to sit and interact with software in front of a screen such as that with the PDR. Effective operations occur when people develop a consistent habit to work with, not by being flung from pillar to post by constant changes. When drastic changes to staffing and new digital systems are implemented , equal opportunities for access to some of the work for disabled members of staff and learners , there it leaves little or no time and resources for adequate adjustments and support to be implemented for disabled members of staff.

Business verses Educators, that's what we've become. How can you say the learners come first, when you repeatedly run staff to the ground. Teach, enrol, teach, enrol. Admin tasks on multiple platforms which always have flaws, a 2 minute admin task can have you sitting at your desk having a meltdown 30 minutes on. Where's the planning and prep time for teachers? Then to insult us by offering a pay rise if we meet recruitment targets. In the 18 years I have been teaching, never have I felt so used and undervalued. We are broken and enough is enough!

I understand sometimes the need for cutting things lean-to-the-bone in order to get over difficult periods. However, prolonged periods of cutting close to the bone means after a while this becomes less sustainable- in order for people to do their jobs as effectively as they would like they can't run on empty for too long. When you start to cut into that bone, you start to knobble people and their structure starts to break. that is no good for anyone, not the person themselves or the teams/organisation they are part of, and that in turn, affects the service we are able to deliver. This isn't just affecting the teaching staff, but other sectors of the organisation. On top on the lean times, we also had a campus closure in the middle of a pandemic, for most of us, this was sudden and we spent prolonged periods afterwards just trying to get basic things like a decent room to work, storage of equipment and trying to work support the new academic year in chaos; in amidst huge changes to on-line working, without proper staff training. It's almost funny how ridiculous that was. One month I personally didn't get paid, and was told to sort it out myself from my manager when it was impossible for me to do that at the time. I could go on. PLEASE LISTEN!

I am so disappointed to now work for a business that does not value its work force, except through lip service. A business also that does not show any trust in the staff and their professional expertise.

The intense scrutiny of teachers as proposed in the new observation policy only undermines, and causes stress, to experienced and professional teachers with no benefit to outcomes.

The work load for lecturers just keeps increasing, this just causes anxiety and stress. This shows that management only pay 'lip service' to looking after staff's mental health! We are now being FORCED to teach another subject (more workload!) 'E.D.S' and this takes teaching time (30 hrs over ten weeks) away from the students' main programme learning. This now makes it unlikely that they will pass their main programme!

Our senior managers sell a building for 28 million pounds and claim poverty they insult us about being overpaid, they stir up hatred with our students claiming we are at fault for their poor educational environment. while the CEO earns £6000 a week plus.

Teaching is not just a job its a career. We are all working long hours, late evenings and weekends. We are doing it because we have passion for the job and our learners. We fully deserve recognition and a pay rise for our well deserved hard work. Hope our voices are well heard. To confirm our hard work please contact our learners and get honest feedback to confirm my statement. Don't let us down and we will make our department and our college an outstanding place to work and study. Thank you

Multiple studies show that increasing observations with the purpose of quality assurance has almost no impact on student outcome (you can infer it does not improve teaching), so why the determination to push through this policy?

I am on a Zero hour contract, it's not pretty, it's ugly, it's embarrassing and no body should be treated this way especially by a big employer as CCCG. I don't have a job security, I can't get a loan or even a mortgage on this contract because apparently I am unemployed.

We've been over loaded with work for years. Every year there are new systems, with little or no support. You are destroying my love of teaching. You are killing me with all your nonsense policies and you just don't listen! You never consult me and ask me what would work, but you go ahead with ill thought out schemes and I have to make them work. Enough is enough! It's time to fight back. I've never been so angry as I am now. You need to listen! You are the worst senior managers since I started this college in 1998 and have no understanding of what FE is about!

Better pay please. I’ve not had a wage rise in four years and still no contract for my CSW role after nine years service!