Teachers at Capital City College continue to strike over their missing pay award, blaming the dispute on the CEO’s unwillingness to compromise.
A-level Teachers at Capital City College’s sixth-form centre in Angel have taken strike action against their employer on the 10,11,15,16 and 17 October; this follows one day of strike action at the end of September and with more to come.
Following the General Election, the government awarded teachers across the country a 5.5% pay rise. however, sixth-form teachers at the 32 non-academy sixth form colleges across the country did not receive this pay award.
This led to teachers at the 32 non-academized sixth-form colleges striking, including the teachers at Capital City College’s sixth form centre in Angel.
After these strikes, the government awarded the teachers at the non-academized sixth form colleges a 4% pay rise, the £50 million one-off pay award was provided to sixth forms by the Government to pay teachers.
However, sixth-form teachers at Capital City allege they did not receive their full 4% pay rise.
The National Education Union’s (NEU) joint branch-secretary for Islington, Pippa Dowswell, said: “Teachers at Capital City sixth form centre were forced to take 2.5% along with the rest of the further education college.”
Which has led to a dispute between the teachers and higher ups at Capital City college group.
Dowswell added: “The main demand of the strike is that they get that 4% backdated for last year just as all the other colleges got.”
She said: “The other issue is about the maintenance of terms and conditions for future staff and promoted posts because they have been told that new staff and promoted posts will be on FE lecturer contracts and not on sixth form college teacher contracts.
“FE contracts are on less pay and worse conditions.”
One anonymous teacher taking part in the strikes said: “We had hoped that after the first day they might decide to come and talk to us because obviously we don’t want to go on strike.
“We don’t want to hurt the students. We are teachers after all, and our job is to teach students and give the students a good chance in life.
“But they made it clear in the middle of the dispute that they have no intention of negotiating with us, they’re prepared to see the strikes and dispute go on and on and on.”
The teacher added: “We’re being cheated out of our pay award so we can have our pay frozen and reduced and our conditions of service also changed.
“And no reason has been given for this especially as the government actually gave the money and we know that out of that £51 million, £800,000 was given to the college to resolve the dispute so we’re asking what happened to the £800,000.”
A spokesperson for Capital City College said: “At CCC we have A level teachers at our Angel and Kings Cross campuses, as well as a large number of teachers who teach technical, vocational and professional subjects across our other ten campuses.
“We decided in 2024/25 to make the same annual pay award to all our staff across CCC, where historically those teaching A levels at Angel had received a higher award.”
The teachers represented by the NEU claim that the CEO of Capital City College, Angela Joyce threatened to derecognise the union if the teachers did not agree to the lower pay award offered and contract offered during the previous summer holiday.
Under the proposed pay awards, Sixth Form teachers currently employed by the college would keep their current salaries, however, if teachers decide to apply for promotions, their contracts would change to reflect the same pay conditions as Further Education Lecturers at CCC.
Additionally, newly recruited sixth-form teachers would have the same pay conditions as FE Lecturers.
The teachers on strike have said this model of change in-pay structure would leave teachers on worse conditions, with contracts for FE Lecturers being less stable and paid worse, leading to a loss in £10,000 annually for teachers.
Under the proposed changes, teachers in roles like Head of Physics, which comes under the more senior role of Head of Science, would avoid promotion over fears of a pay cut.
The teacher taking part in the strikes said: “The CEO has been messaging the parents and students, saying we’re greedy teachers that are paid £51,000 a year and want more, but that’s not what it’s about, we want the national pay conditions that teachers are given which has been the policy for 30 years since the college was founded.”
They added: “In the last 15 years, it’s been cuts after cuts after cuts, I pay for my own blu tack, I pay for the batteries to go into clocks, I feed the students sometimes in the afternoon because they are always feeling hungry.
“Where has the money gone? Maybe you should ask the CEO who’s on £221,000 a year plus bonuses.”
Since the strikes have been taking place since last year, this has largely impacted the current year 13 students.
One Year 13 student Maryam Ahmed said: “The strikes have meant that we’ve had to do more independent work so we’re more behind than other schools.
“We’re a few weeks behind in the curriculum and it means you can’t really ask for much help, so there’s some things that we just don’t understand.”
Maryam added: “I do support the strikes because I think that the teacher’s should get paid properly.
“Not just me, all the students, we all support the teachers because we really want them to get paid properly, and they deserve to get paid the right amount.”
The anonymous teacher added: “We’ve had nothing like this in our history and there is a clear correlation between the nature of the dispute and the new CEO arriving, and it’s very clear that she would just like no unions to exist and for her to make decisions that no one questions and that’s not how education works.”
Dowswell alleged: “An awful lot of money is being spent on things that are unnecessary, for example there’s been £8 million spent on lawyers.
“One of the reasons why is an attempt to stop the strike action for the college using legal means.”
The NEU have said they will continue to push against the proposed changes because of the possible detriment to students learning because of the effect the new conditions will have on the quality of future teaching.
If their demands are not by the end of the current ballot period in March 2026, the NEU has said they will hold another ballot.
The NEU and teachers have alleged that a change in Leadership from the current CEO could help solve the dispute.
Dowswell said: “We need someone who is willing to negotiate rather than rule by diktat.
“Someone who doesn’t attempt to be a dictator, someone who feels — whose views are that education is teamwork, it’s collaborative — let’s do everything in the best interests of our students.”
A capital city college spokesperson said: “In 2024/25 the Government provided every college with a one-off payment to support 16–18-year-old learners in colleges.
“We gave all our staff, excluding the leadership team, a one-off payment in July 2025 using these funds.
“We continue to work constructively with our recognised trade unions.
“As part of this constructive working, a new trade union recognition agreement was put in place to reflect that CCC is one further education college, and all recognised trade unions have signed this new agreement.”
Featured image credit: John Siblon
