Teachers are continuing an exam-season walkout over plans to ditch A-levels and make up to 43 redundancies at a college known for offering “second chances”.
Staff at Hackney Sixth Form Campus in east London began four weeks of strike action on June 12 after parent group New City College (NCC) proposed reductions due to the centre’s 67.6 per cent achievement rate.
NCC, which took over the college formerly known as BSix last summer, told staff last month that scrapping A-levels would improve the “quality of the NCC offer” and a reorganisation of staffing would align the college with NCC’s “matrix” structure.
But National Education Union (NEU) members said low achievement rates were a consequence of the sixth form’s model of keeping course entry requirements low to give students a “second or third chance”.
And they claimed the college’s previous management would move struggling A-level students onto other courses after a year to ensure they could stay in education.
BSix had an income of around £9 million before its NCC merger and Hackney Sixth Form Campus now has about 1,100 students.
It was founded in 2002 in response to a local inspection that recommended opening more 16 to 18 provision. It remained a standalone sixth form college through two local reviews but began to encounter financial troubles from 2015-16.
NCC had a group A-Level achievement score of 80.4 per cent in 2023-24.
Improve quality
NCC management argue many students living in Hackney choose to study at one of the borough’s 12 other sixth forms and 78 per cent of Hackney Sixth Form’s students travel from a wide area across north and east London.
In a document sent to staff, bosses said: “The historical low-entry requirements for an A-level programme at BSix have made this travel to learn pattern feasible, but the alignment of entry requirements to NCC expectations has reduced the overall current A-level learners to just 25 per cent of the total student cohort.
“It is imperative we deliver high-quality A-level provision across all NCC campuses to ensure our learners have positive and sustained destinations.”
‘Corporatisation’ of education
Striking NEU members want to defend their college’s “second chance” model and have accused NCC of reneging on pledges made during the merger that it would protect course options at the sixth form.
David Davies, joint district secretary of Hackney NEU, said: “This is the corporatisation of education, the epitome of exam culture and the lowest common denominator.
“Rather than give kids a chance, don’t take the risk – funnel them through an exam factory where it’s about economies of scale.
“BSix has held out until now. National underfunding is the main problem.”
Merger promises
Before the merger formally completed in August, public consultation documents suggested the Hackney college would see “a strong depth and breadth of course options retained”.
They added the merger would “protect” a strong college-based A-level offer in Hackney, developing an “arc of post-16 academic excellence across east London” that would include BSix, Havering Sixth Form and Attlee A-level academy in Tower Hamlets.
Chairs of both college boards also recommended the move, arguing the sixth form had “much to contribute” to NCC, including its ‘good’ Ofsted rating, “excellent pastoral care” and “broad curriculum”.
Matrix structure
NCC management rejected NEU demands to retain A-levels or negotiate further on redundancy packages.
The 43 potential job losses are part of the college group’s wish to align Hackney Sixth Form Campus with its wider “matrix structure” to “improve efficiency and performance”.
Teachers, curriculum managers, learning support and safeguarding staff are at risk in the shake-up. Meanwhile, 23 new posts will be created, FE Week understands.
Strikes during exams ‘disrespectful’
In a briefing to staff, seen by FE Week, NCC chief executive Gerry McDonald complained the picket line outside the college was “unnecessarily large” and called the exam-period timing of the strike “disrespectful to students”.
He said: “Striking is a legal right. Making students cross a picket line to take a national exam with a background of chants and horns is wrong”.
When FE Week visited on Tuesday, around 30 people, mostly adults, were outside, making occasional chants of “save BSix” and “save our college” as students and staff arrived. Managers, including McDonald, watched from inside the gates.
The crowd then moved to the opposite side of the busy Hackney roundabout, where a loudspeaker was set up for a rally that included a speech from journalist and former student Gary Younge.
Striking staff are understood to be planning a protest from an open-top bus next Friday.
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