It comes days after ministers agreed to give sixth form colleges and general FE colleges a £50 million “one-off” grant to help fund teacher pay awards between April and July 2025.
The Sixth Form Colleges Association (SFCA), which dropped a judicial review claim against the government after this agreement was reached, increased its pay recommendation for 2024/25 from 2 per cent for the whole year to 3.5 per cent for September 2024 to March 2025, increasing to 5.5 per cent from April 2025 onwards.
But this is still short of the pay award being given to schools and academised sixth forms who are implementing a 5.5 per cent wage increase for the full 2024/25 academic year after the government gave them £1.2 billion in September.
Unions have rejected this offer for colleges on the basis that it would constitute a two-tier pay award.
Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union, said: “Our sixth form teachers working in non-academised colleges started 2025 on below-freezing picket lines, as they showed their determination whatever the weather to reject a two-tier pay system.
“We should not have entered the new year with this glaringly obvious injustice still in place, and it is well past time that the government put the necessary funding in place to guarantee the same pay award for every college teacher.”
Kebede added: “We will never accept a situation in which college teachers in non-academised colleges are paid less than their academised peers for identical work. It is absurd and blatantly unfair to under-fund sixth form colleges in this way, risking lasting damage to longstanding collective bargaining arrangements.”
NEU announced in November it achieved a 97 per cent vote in favour of strike action in 32 of the 39 sixth form colleges balloted.
Bill Watkin, chief executive of the SFCA, said he was “extremely disappointed” that NEU has announced further strike action before formal pay talks have concluded.
He told FE Week: “Pay rates for sixth from college teachers (excluding annual incremental progression increases) have increased by 18 per cent since September 2022. We have made a pay offer that amounts to 4.3 per cent across the year and is well above the rate of inflation.
“We cannot make a 5.5 per cent pay offer for the whole year, because the government has not provided funding for the whole year. Students will pay the price for this through further disruption to their education.”
Watkin added: “The government could stop the strikes immediately by providing sixth form colleges with the same funding to support a pay increase that they have provided to schools and academies. We urge them to do so without delay.”
The 32 sixth form colleges taking strike action:
Aquinas College (Stockport)
Barton Peveril Sixth Form College (Eastleigh)
Bolton Sixth Form College
Brighton Hove and Sussex Sixth Form College
Cardinal Newman College (Preston)
Christ The King Sixth Form College (Lewisham)
Christ The King Sixth Form College Aquinas
Capital City College – Angel (Islington)
Greenhead College (Huddersfield)
Henley College
Hills Road Sixth Form College (Cambridge)
Holy Cross College (Bury)
Itchen College (Southampton)
Joseph Chamberlain Sixth Form College (Birmingham)
Leyton Sixth Form College
Loreto College (Manchester)
Luton Sixth Form College
Notre Dame Catholic Sixth Form College (Leeds)
Peter Symonds College (Winchester)
Richard Collyer, The College of (Horsham)
Scarborough Sixth Form College
Shrewsbury Colleges Group
Sir George Monoux College (Walthamstow)
St Brendan’s Sixth Form College (Bristol)
St Charles Catholic Sixth Form College (Kensington)
Another union has launched a ballot for strike action in sixth form colleges – claiming that principals have “no excuse and no justification” for not matching the school teacher pay award.
Around 1,800 members of NASUWT – The Teachers’ Union will vote from today until February 10 on whether to hit the picket line.
It follows seven days of strikes so far from more than 2,000 sixth form college members of the National Education Union in a row over pay.
NASUWT’s ballot comes just days after the government announced it would release £50 million in April as a “one-off grant” to help fund a wage increase in standalone sixth form colleges and general FE colleges.
The cash is being stumped up following a judicial review threat from the Sixth Form Colleges Association, which was made after the government decided to hand £1.2 billion to schools and academised sixth form colleges to fund a 5.5 per cent pay increase in 2024/25.
Standalone sixth form colleges and general FE colleges were given no such subsidy until last week’s deal.
The £50 million agreement enabled the SFCA to increase its pay recommendation for 2024/25 from 2 per cent for the whole year to 3.5 per cent for September 2024 to March 2025, increasing to 5.5 per cent from April 2025 onwards.
Patrick Roach, NASUWT general secretary, claimed that standalone sixth form college employers have spent the past months “advancing spurious arguments to justify not passing on an acceptable pay award to their teachers”.
Patrick Roach
He said: “The employers’ organisation, the Sixth Form College Association, cannot justify advancing a divisive proposal of paying teachers in non-academy colleges less than their colleagues teaching in 16 to 19 academies for doing exactly the same job.
“We will not accept such unfairness and inequity and nor will we accept a situation in which any teachers are denied the pay award they are entitled to.”
Roach said industrial action can be avoided in any college that commits to implementing a 5.5 per cent award backdated to September, adding that employers “have no excuse and no justification for putting their interests ahead of recognising and rewarding hard working and dedicated sixth form college teachers”.
SFCA chief executive Bill Watkin hit back.
“We are extremely disappointed that the NASUWT is now balloting for strike action in advance of completing the ongoing formal pay talks, and is blaming sixth form colleges and SFCA for not somehow conjuring even more money for teachers’ pay without getting any more money from the government,” he said.
“NASUWT should be working with us to secure additional funding from government, not further disrupting the education of sixth form students who have already experienced seven days of strike action this academic year.”
Watkin added that the new pay offer for standalone sixth form colleges, which is above the current rate of inflation (2.6 per cent), was made “despite funding for students in sixth form colleges being 26 per cent lower than spending for students in secondary schools”.
T Level results data for individual colleges will be made public this year for the first time – but an overall attainment measure for the new qualifications has been delayed.
Officials have been working on an overall results measure since before the technical courses were introduced in 2020 – with plans to roll it out in 2023/24 once the third cohort completed.
The previous government signalled that this measure would show a school or college’s “attainment in each of the technical qualification (TQ) elements of the T Level, separately; showing average point score per entry for each TQ element, also expressed as a grade”.
The Department for Education shared this data directly with schools and colleges as part of a data checking exercise in October 2024, and the measures were supposed to be published on the Compare School and College Performance (CSCP) service in early 2025.
But the department said today that “on review, and following stakeholder engagement”, it has decided to “pause the publication of the planned T Level attainment measure to allow time to develop an overall result measure”.
“This is to give a fairer representation of T Level attainment, given the changes made to how overall grades are derived since the original plans were announced,” an update to the DfE’s accountability policy for 16 to 18 education said.
The department will look to introduce a measure which captures overall T Level attainment “in future years”.
Until the new measure is available, the DfE has committed to publishing provider-level data on T Level attainment on ‘Explore Education Statistics’ “for transparency”.
This will be an extension to existing reporting on overall T Level results that show the proportion of students receiving distinction*, distinction, merit, pass, partial achievement and unclassified grades in each element of a T Level broken down by pathway.
The DfE said: “As with data published on T Level results day in August, this will show for all T Levels taken within a provider, the count, percentage and cumulative percentage of each grade, including a breakdown by pathway.
“This data will first be published in spring 2025. It will be shared securely with providers in advance, in January 2025, using View Your Education Data (VYED). The data will not include average point scores.”
It is unclear whether the provider-level data will include figures showing retention or whether providers will be held to account for particularly low results.
More than 350 schools, colleges and training providers currently deliver T Levels.
When I was teaching economics and business studies to college students in the early 1990s – two decades before the smartphone was introduced – the internet was barely making a ripple for most learners, nor the wider workforce. I never envisioned the scale of the transformation the internet and technology would have. Our world has been irrevocably shaped by these changes, transforming the way we live, work and learn. Fast forward to today, we are at the beginning of a new dawn in technology, with AI set to revolutionise the way we work – and the skills we need.
Today, the Prime Minister has unveiled his AI Action Plan which will lay the foundations for how we will harness AI to turbocharge growth and boost living standards for all. The breadth of AI’s potential is something we should all be really excited about as we look to deliver our Plan for Change. It can revolutionise the public sector, including in education, helping our teachers save time and focus more on interactions in the classroom. AI can enhance productivity and help in our goal of driving economic growth and putting more money in people’s pockets.
But as Skills Minister, one of my key priorities is ensuring that our workforce is prepared for the challenges and opportunities it presents. That’s why we are already taking necessary steps to futureproof our workforce.
Through Skills England, we will build the highly trained workforce needed to deliver the national, regional, and local skills needs of the next decade, setting people up to succeed in an increasingly technology-driven world. It will develop a clear assessment of the country’s skills gaps and work closely with the Industrial Strategy Council to bring businesses, training partners and unions together with national and local government to plug these gaps. We will continue to support skills providers, including in higher education, to increase the number of AI graduates, teach industry-relevant skills and develop appropriate training.
This isn’t just about addressing immediate challenges, but about creating a long-term approach. That’s why we’re working with the British Academy to assess how a roadmap for AI skills policies in England could be developed – looking at historical parallels such as the digital and industrial revolutions as well existing and emerging challenges. We have hosted a roundtable bringing together experts in social science, economics and humanities to consider the future of AI and skills.
From that, we know that in periods of fast-paced change, learning can quickly become outdated, so adaptability and lifelong learning are key. As AI transforms the workplace, people will need to regularly update their skills to remain competitive. I am personally committed to ensuring that everyone, whether they are entering the workforce for the first time or seeking to retrain, has access to the support they need to succeed and thrive.
But everyone has to mean everyone. An AI skills roadmap must include underrepresented groups and confront the digital divide in society. As it stands, only 22% of people working in AI and data science are women, and we know true innovation is only possible when it draws on a broad range of perspectives, which is why I am today pleased to announce two new research projects as part of the British Academy’s Innovation Fellows scheme that will address disadvantage in AI. They will look at tackling inequalities in the field, setting out how we can ensure underrepresented groups are not left behind and have equitable access to opportunities to achieve and thrive.
AI offers us a chance to break down barriers to opportunity and unlock the potential of every person in the workforce. With the right skills, the UK can lead the way in harnessing this transformative technology to create jobs, boost productivity, and improve our lives. It’s fast-paced and everchanging, but I won’t take my foot off the pedal playing my part in ensuring people have the tools to succeed in a world powered by AI.
Clare Scattergood’s job title underplays the myriad roles she performs at her small independent specialist college in Birmingham – designated safeguarding lead, cake maker, pot washer, flood water mopper-upper, gardener, mental health first aider, fire marshal and budget holder, to name a few.
Her roles at Victoria College, which is part of a charitable federation with Cherry Oak and Victoria Schools, give her tremendous highs and heart-wrenching lows. Her learners’ medical challenges mean their lives are sometimes tragically cut short.
The college is one of about 100 specialist colleges providing education for the increasing numbers of young people with SEND against a backdrop of council cuts.
The sweet-toothed Scattergood, who has led Victoria College since 2018, ran a cake-making business and was an FE catering lecturer before specialising in SEND. She tells Jessica Hill what a busy Monday looks like for her.
Clare Scattergood, Victoria College
6am
I don’t sleep very well and might be awake in the middle of the night, calculating how many minutes of education a student has missed. My role is very much that of a swan gliding on water. I float around college trying to look calm, but my feet are furiously paddling underneath withflutters of anxiety. I can’t let my staff see that because then they will feel it, and students will feel it from them. So no matter what’s going on, I have to be that swan.
After checking my emails over a cup of tea I drive to work, bringing the cakes I made over the weekend with me to share with my staff. I phone my daughter for a chat on the way.
Clare Scattergood, Victoria College, writing on her board
7.30am
I arrive to find the binmen have made a mess while emptying the bins, and get the cleaners to pick it up.
I then make a note on my board of any staff absences I’ve been emailed about. I have an assistant head who is a qualified teacher, another teacher, five higher level teaching assistants and 12 teaching assistants. You could cut most of them in half and find Victoria College through the centre. They’re absolutely brilliant.
We teach 26 students aged 19 to 25, with another currently waiting for transport to be arranged. We’re working really hard to develop volunteering opportunities for them because our students aren’t of the skillset to enter employment when they leave. In their final year with us, they’re out on work projects.
Yesterday, a group got to sit in sports cars with VR headsets on at a careers conference. Sadly, the venue’s overhead hoist wasn’t working in the disabled toilets, so they couldn’t receive personal care. Accessible amenities are an essential part of a successful trip, but sometimes problems are out of our control.
Clare Scattergood having fun with a learner
7.45am
Leading a small college means I’m involved in everything from feeding students at lunchtime to jumping in our minibus for trips out. In our weekly hydrotherapy sessions, I help get students changed and do their personal care. My motto is never to ask anyone to do something I’m not willing to do myself.
The office phone starts ringing to inform us of staff and student absences. The first half of last term was horrific, we had six to eight staff off at a time. We can’t easily get supply in because we’re so specialised. A regular teacher can’t teach what we provide.
Lack of staff continuity has a huge impact on our students. We’re looking for the tiniest signs of communication from them – the move of an eyelid to tell you if they’re uncomfortable. If staff are not in that same lesson regularly, they don’t see it.
9.45am
My favourite part of the day is meeting students on arrival. They come from across Birmingham, Dudley, Wolverhampton and Warwickshire. Securing funding for placements is a big challenge. Birmingham City Council is effectively bankrupt and most local authorities are having to make quite severe cuts.
One student had been due to start in September, but the local authority wanted her to attend a cheaper provision for “better use” of their resources. Her family went to tribunal, and she joined us in November.
Last academic year, I had nine tribunals scheduled. Two months into this year, I already have five. The delays in the system are massive. I have tribunals already scheduled for next academic year – too late for the education these young people require this year.
In one case, a local authority suddenly reduced a student’s provision here from five to three days a week. It makes me really frustrated because I now see a very depressed young lady who is not communicating or eating, and I see the effect on her family.
She’s a higher-needs learner who communicates her feelings with her eyes. Adult social care is meant to meet her needs on the other days, but it isn’t available.
Clare Scattergood, Victoria College
10.15am
I cover a lesson for a teacher who is off sick. I love teaching. It’s a non-verbal drama class with predominantly visually impaired students. There is lots of tapping heads, squeezing shoulders and massaging hands to get the students familiar with their bodies and intensive interaction. If they’re vocalising, we vocalise back to build that communication up.
In senior leadership meetings, after we have gone through the drudgery of finance, the window of insight that my staff provides into our teaching and learning always makes me smile.
Clare Scattergood, Victoria College, gathering evidence for a tribunal
11.30am
I’m back at my desk, gathering evidence to write a witness testimony for an upcoming tribunal.
I make a note of the class size of the group that young person would be going into and what aspects of their needs we could meet, based on their education, health and care plan.
It’s not a copy-and-paste job; I have to be very precise. It takes about four hours to complete. The tribunal takes place online in front of a judge and two specialists. It’s daunting for me and for the families involved.
The paperwork for my last tribunal case was 232 pages long, which I read twice beforehand to prepare myself.
I advocate for my students a lot because, with the lack of social workers and SEND advocacy organisations closing amid lack of funding, some families don’t have anyone else for support. Much of the focus of SENDIASS (Special Educational Needs and Disability Information, Advice and Support Service) is on schoolchildren.
Clare Scattergood with her executive headteacher Gary Coffey, Victoria College
Victoria College memorial to remember students who died
12.30pm
I eat a salad with homemade hummus, cottage cheese and pumpkin seeds – it compensates for all the cake.
I meet a staff member who’s been off work to discuss the reasons and if they’re OK now, as part of the return-to-work process.
As it’s her second time off work this term, I have to then arrange her first formal attendance meeting.
I’m then focused on my admin duties, which might involve reviewing our quality improvement plan, preparing for a trustee meeting or doing an audit.
Displayed behind my desk while I work are the pictures of former students who have passed away. We also have a memorial garden to remember them. My job is so joyous, but it can be heartbreaking when students die. They’re still very much part of us.
2pm
I give some feedback to a teacher for a lesson observation I did yesterday. The lesson involved work experience on community land in Bournville that we’re maintaining for the Canal & River Trust, where canal boats park.
We’re planning to grow some vegetables there and make it into a beautiful community garden.
I can’t just observe lessons; I feel the need to get involved. So, yesterday, I had students feel worms in my hand. It was chilly, but the students told us through their communication switches (which they press to record a message) how much they loved being out in nature.
Exploring worms on a day out at Victoria College community land in Bourneville
2.30pm
We’re currently overdue an Ofsted inspection, so I’m preparing staff by stopping them in the corridors and asking them questions without forewarning. I love my job, but I have moments after Ofsted have been when I think: “I don’t want to go through that ever again.” When you’re leading a small provider, Ofsted criticism feels very personal.
We’re currently graded ‘requires improvement’, but we’re so close to good and have been making lots of improvements lately. A bad result affects not just staff but students, as the college could be closed. Where would those students go? It’s a very stressful prospect.
Clare Scattergood, reaching for the Ofsted handbook at Victoria College
3pm
Our nurse discovers that a student with diabetes has a blood glucose reading of over 22 mmol per litre so she needs to go to hospital. It’s a four-hour wait for an ambulance, and when it arrives the nurse goes with them to help with communication. One time recently, a hospital consultant wouldn’t let our nurse into the room with a student who can only communicate with their feet. Without the nurse’s help, the doctors couldn’t know what that student was saying. There’s a lack of understanding across society for our students’ needs. It’s horrific when people talk over them and just think that they don’t know anything because they’re not speaking.
Another staff member has to transport the student’s wheelchair to the hospital in our minibus because ambulances are not designed for their moulded wheelchair.
Staff wellbeing activity at Victoria College
7pm
I head to a body pump fitness class after work, then head home for dinner, a coffee and a catch-up on socials.
After watching Bake Off or perhaps a murder drama series (my favourite recently was Confession), I play a couple of games of solitaire online before heading to bed.
My job is so different to that of a large college principal who might be based in their office and in meetings all day. My days are incredibly varied. I can’t imagine ever doing anything else.
The government will release a chunk of the £300 million announced in the budget this academic year as a “one-off grant” to help colleges fund teacher pay rises.
Around £50 million will be made available to general FE colleges and sixth form colleges for the period April to July 2025, a message from the Department for Education to the sector today, seen by FE Week, said.
It comes days after FE Week revealed the Sixth Form Colleges Association had dropped its judicial review claim against the DfE over last summer’s pay snub after ministers “agreed to provide funding” to support a wage increase in 2024/25.
Today’s message to colleges said: “The autumn budget provided an additional £300 million revenue funding for further education for financial year 2025 to 2026 to ensure young people are developing the skills this country needs. Details on allocations will be made available later this term, and we are providing a high level outline of plans now.
“The government is committed to increasing opportunity for young people, and we know the population of 16 to 19 year olds in learning is increasing, so this funding will be distributed specifically in support of 16 to 19 student participation.
“Approximately £50 million of this funding will be made available to general further education colleges and sixth-form colleges for the period April to July 2025. This one-off grant will enable colleges to respond to current priorities and challenges, including workforce recruitment and retention.”
The DfE added that the remaining funding will be made available in 16 to 19 funding rates for academic year 2025 to 2026, with the “aim of ensuring that all 16 to 19 providers are funded on an equitable basis from 2025 to 2026”.
Last summer the new Labour government announced it would hand £1.2 billion to fund a 5.5 per cent pay rise for school and academy teachers, with nothing for standalone sixth form colleges or general FE colleges.
National Education Union members have gone on strike for seven days so far since then to protest.
The £50 million deal enabled the SFCA to increase its pay recommendation for 2024/25 from 2 per cent to 3.5 per cent for September 2024 to March 2025, increasing to 5.5 per cent from April 2025 onwards.
The Association of Colleges previously said its members can only afford a 2.5 per cent pay award this year. FE Week has asked the organisation whether this recommendation will be revised in light of today’s announcement.
‘A significant step in the right direction’
Bill Watkin, Chief Executive of the Sixth Form Colleges Association, said: “Following protracted discussions with the Department for Education we are pleased to have reached an agreement on future funding. As a result, we have agreed to withdraw our claim for a judicial review.
“Since the start of this process, it has been our contention that all colleges, irrespective of their designation, should be supported in the same way as schools and academies. All are state-funded institutions that educate young people and employ hard-working teaching staff that do an incredible job.
“While the additional funding we have secured for 2024/25 will not enable colleges to match the pay award in schools and academies, it is a significant step in the right direction.”
David Hughes, chief executive of the Association of Colleges, said: “Colleges will be looking forward to seeing the detailed information of what their allocation will look like in February before they make any decisions on how they will be able to utilise it for both this year and next. They will also be keen to know about any in-year growth plans and their adult allocation for next year.
“The £300 million is a welcome boost for 16 to 18 funding, but because of demographic growth it is clearly not enough to restore the funding lost since 2010.”
The DfE said it is now “preparing the operational detail” of the 16 to 19 funding rates and formula and the allocations timeline for the 2025 to 2026 academic year.
“We aim to publish more information as soon as we can and will provide a further update by 13 February 2025,” the department added.
For FE, the first six months of the new government were soured by our almost-immediate deprioritisation. With late confirmation of which qualifications would be defunded, the weak positioning of Skills England and ongoing VAT injustice, the snubs have come thick and fast. Leaving FE staff out of an above-inflation deal for school teachers prompted 11,000 to sign a petition just weeks after the election. Our sector’s influence on government is clearly lacking. So I suggest these five steps to fix FE pay:
1 Know our audience
Sadly, making an issue purely about public-sector pay right now is unlikely to move decision-makers. And, theoretically, colleges can pay what they want. The reason they can’t match schools is because pre-16s are funded on the assumption of 39 weeks of 32.5 supervised hours, while 16- to 19-year-olds are funded for just 33 weeks of 19.5 hours.
Students in school sixth forms benefit from cross-subsidisation from the funding of 11- to 16-year-olds, while the disproportionately economically-disadvantaged learners in FE colleges are short changed twice; first by their secondary schools using their funding to prop up uneconomic sixth forms they don’t get into, then by the government’s inadequate funding of 16- to 19-year-olds’ education.
In my experience, the education teams at the Treasury and at 10 Downing Street are keenly motivated by social justice (far more so than the listless DfE), so swapping out the ‘teacher pay gap’ language for ‘disadvantaged-student funding gap’ will find a more sympathetic ear.
2 Know the detail
Talking about a ‘pay gap’ is simplistic and allows an easy dodge. Most school-teacher contracts are for 1,265 hours a year, reflecting the pre-academisation standard conditions. Some academies have 1,500-hour contracts. FE contracts are often less than 900 hours a year, because of that gap in funded hours.
Crudely raising annual salaries would mean college hourly rates exceeding schools, which isn’t politically realistic. We need more funded hours in the 16- to 19-year-old sector. We’re an international outlier in how meagre they currently are, so let’s appeal to Whitehall’s international competitivity.
3 Make a business case
It’s a cliché that our academic year is structured around an outdated agrarian calendar. It’s more accurate to say it’s structured around the convenience of moneybags awarding organisations. We know the damage that learning loss does, and I haven’t met anyone who doesn’t think post-16 transition needs attention. But for the convenience of awarding organisations we insist that every summer from age 16 onwards is counted in months rather than weeks.
We need to put students first and insist that assessment deadlines and exam dates come in July, not May. The additional teaching hours would support transition, reduce learning loss, and would provide the funding to increase FE pay, with Treasury seeing a tangible return.
4 Remove easy excuses
Imagine the conversations that might be had between ministers and civil servants behind closed doors when the issue of equal pay between FE and schools arises.
“Do they have the same level of qualification?”
“Some.”
“Well can we just give a pay rise to those?”
“That would be a headache.”
“Ah well. We tried.”
I got my Qualified Teacher Status through an on-the-job route. With the availability of such routes and teaching apprenticeships, there’s no reason we can’t aim for FE teaching to become a level six profession and kick away another excuse on pay.
5 Be honest about choices
As a former Education and Skills Funding Agency man, I would confidently match former Academies Minister Lord Agnew and offer a bottle of champagne to any college where I couldn’t find an efficiency. I am also a former college manager and very familiar with the perennial requests for smaller class sizes. Wouldn’t it be refreshing if we could just be honest and say that the cost of smaller class sizes is teacher pay? The cost of inefficient timetabling, for example offering both Functional Skills and GCSE for study-programme resitters, instead of just GCSE, is teacher pay. The cost of excessive representative-body membership fees is teacher pay.
Even with these steps, there’s no quick win. Fundamentally, 16-19 education needs billions invested in significantly more funded hours. But I am confident that these steps would start addressing the real barriers behind closed doors. So let’s rebrand our placards and remind this Labour government that FE serves the working-class students they should be putting first.
Tracks is a CPD (continuing professional development) initiative that was launched at Barking & Dagenham College (BDC) in September 2023. The idea was to take a step away from a more traditional, potentially didactic CPD model, and introduce more autonomy and freedom for practitioners to develop their pedagogical practice through action research in a way unique to them and their learners.
Tracks invites teachers to focus in on one area of their practice and carry out a small-scale action research project to develop their practice through inquiry. Teachers have complete autonomy and are able to focus their efforts on any aspect of their practice they feel is most beneficial to them. The only requirement is that their project is focused on pedagogy and that by the end of this, they are able to record the impact that it has had on their practice, and on learners.
Teaching staff at BDC are split into ten Tracks cohorts who meet once a month to discuss their progress and barriers, and set themselves targets for the month ahead. Each Tracks group is facilitated by a member of the Teaching & Learning team. Facilitators provide support and guidance while also making connections between teachers where projects overlap, to create a more collective approach.
The findings
Tracks completed its first full cycle at the end of 2023-24 with 112 action research projects completed. Each project was initiated by staff individually and tailored by the practitioner to drive development and innovation.
Action research projects ranged from teachers developing their practice through the use of AI, experimentation with audio recorded feedback, embedding a ‘compassionate pedagogy’ with high-needs learners and community photography projects in which learners projected their photography coursework onto local landmarks and housing estates in their London borough. One project even saw 12 learners write and publish their own novels in just one week. With the support of external organisation White Water Writers, these GCSE English resit learners’ books are now proudly displayed in our English department and library.
The students felt motivated and encouraged after taking part. We had a book launch day which learners’ families attended and felt incredibly proud of their achievements.
Although most staff embraced the freedom and autonomy that Tracks provides some staff did find the autonomy somewhat overwhelming, finding it difficult to decide on a particular action research focus to fit their own practice. So we created opportunities for teachers to share their projects to the wider college community, including in weekly all-staff Teams calls and in various CPD events, to celebrate the work that was being done and model what Tracks projects could focus on. This became self-sustaining, as through sharing their work many teachers found encouragement and received feedback that grew their projects further.
Feedback from staff about Tracks as a CPD model and a concept has been overwhelmingly positive. Staff have reported feeling inspired by the freedom and autonomy inherent to Tracks and have made connections, both within BDC and externally, that would not have been made otherwise.
CPD impact
Tracks has had a transformative effect on CPD which is prioritised more than ever. Our monthly CPD events are embedded in the college calendar and curriculum areas cannot timetable classes to coincide with these time slots. Active engagement in CPD through action research is now woven into the fabric of what it means to be a teacher at BDC and development is synonymous with practice.
Furthermore, BDC is now much more integrated into the community of FE colleges who value action research as a viable professional development model. Closer links have been established with the ARPCE (Association for Research in Post-Compulsory Education) and the Research College Group (RCG). Through this, Tracks is extending beyond BDS. Practitioners from multiple colleges nationwide have signed up to take part in an external Tracks group, launching this month.
We want to continue growing Tracks, and promote action research as a CPD model which empowers staff to take ownership of their practice in a supportive and collaborative environment.
This article was co-authored with Dr Michael Smith, faculty director of apprenticeships & quality, Barking & Dagenham College
Professional Development Co-Director, EducationScape
Start date: January 2025
Previous Job: Senior Professional Development and Learning Manager, Skills and Education Group
Interesting fact: Jo is an adventurous soul who thrives on exploration. She’s crawled through Vietnam’s Cu Chi Tunnels before zipping through Ho Chi Minh City. She’s also journeyed across Sri Lanka, climbing Sigiriya Rock and riding “the world’s most beautiful train route” from Kandy to Ella.
Karen Plowman
Professional Development Co-Director, EducationScape
Start date: January 2025
Previous Job: Head of Professional Development and Learning, Skills and Education Group
Interesting fact: Karen has a flair for the stage, from her pantomime days in her youth to a surprise moment of fame on a cruise when a performance was unknowingly streamed across the entire ship.
David Phoenix
Vice Chancellor, The Open University
Start date: July 2025
Previous Job: VC and CEO, London South Bank University Group
Interesting fact: When not focused on helping create educational opportunities, David still maintains his research as a molecular engineer looking at the design and delivery of new drugs.
