News / Education
College teachers strike over ‘punitive’ working conditions
A chorus of car horns could be heard outside St Brendan’s Sixth Form College on Thursday morning as passing drivers expressed their support for an ongoing teacher’s strike.
Teacher members of the National Education Union (NEU) are on their fifth day of strike action, with one more day scheduled soon. The strike is being held in response to concerns around workload and working conditions for teachers in the college.
The NEU and St Brendan’s teaching staff have tried to resolve their issues with the college earlier,
is needed now More than ever
Those involved are asking for a more flexible remote working policy during non-teaching hours, reductions in marking workload and improvements to the sickness absence policy which they say is currently “punitive”.
Day three of strike action at St Brendan’s Bristol! Members standing firm ✊ pic.twitter.com/Tgf88UwHaY
— NEU South West Region (@NEUSouthWest) June 11, 2025
Bev Forsythe, a biology teacher at St Brendan’s, described how there’s a “national recruitment and retention crisis,” adding “we lose good teachers because the pay hasn’t gone up with inflation”.
She continued: “We lose good teachers over stress.
“It’s really positive to see so many members prepared to tackle it locally and we hope that we can inspire more action to tackle this nationally as well.”
Forsythe assured that teachers involved in the action recognise the disruptions associated with these strikes .
“We’ve tried to engage with the college to resolve these asks and we put a lot of thought into what we’re asking, so they’re all things the college could provide”, said Forsythe.
Teachers as St Brendan’s on the fifth day of strike action – photo: Kate Onley-Gregson
She added: “We delayed strike action in term five because that’s when students prepare for exams and to allow the college more time to resolve this. So we’re really disappointed to still be out at this stage.
All the things we’re asking for are things that would improve working conditions for teachers and support staff, and that would in turn improve learning conditions for our students.”
NEU Bristol’s branch and district secretary, Tom Bolton insisted that despite multiple meetings with the college management there had been “very little progress”.
He added: “Following our last meeting with the College they did produce a new response to the set of asks that members would like to see implemented, but members decided that this did not go far enough to postpone any strike action”.
Bristol24/7 has contacted St Brendan’s for a comment but they have not replied at the time of writing.
Main photo: Kate Onley-Gregson
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