Pt.1: What’s gannin’ on in the North East!

On Friday an agreement was made that looks as though drivers in the North East employed by the Go North East arm of the GoAhead travel group will secure themselves around a 25% pay rise by summer of next year. This agreement has been reached after significant industrial action from the drivers and unions involved – due to comprehensive pay and condition discrepancies between drivers in the North East of England and those across other subsidiaries of the GoAhead group.

A number of communities across the region are solely provided public transportation by Go North East (arguably the largest provider in the region), and for significant time periods since October these services were not running in any form. Some areas have supplementary travel from other providers, such as Arriva, however the scale of their operations were not able to sustain and provide appropriately for the increased demand they experienced.

One of the biggest effects of this strike has been on the young people in the region, particularly those within the post-16 educational, skills and training environment. This became the narrative that eventually cut through to the likes of FE Week and the BBC in the last fortnight, that the post-16 landscape, particularly FE college educated students are feeling the brunt of this industrial action – with students isolated from attending college for up-to-7 academic weeks this year (based on half-term schedules) – missing practical sessions, work placements, assessments, disrupting GCSE Maths and English resits and their preparation, but also more simply a breakdown of classroom routine and access to appropriate teaching and learning for many who have the greatest need for it.

Empirically speaking, given the Geography of the region, traditional school choices are often made from the viewpoint of convenience and locality – as well as factors such as faith. In data collected by Bristol University in 2017, all local authorities in the region see a greater than average selection of only a singular potential secondary school by parents for their child – the communities with a larger rural spread increasing in this percentage substantially. Whilst this data point alone does not suggest locality as a sole key factor, regional knowledge supports this, and furthermore it also suggests a lack of flexibility in arrangements that parents for their children in comparison to other communities.

 So when these strikes have hit, they have disproportionately affected students within the colleges in the region. Whilst traditional schooling will be geographically convenient (or have private transport secured), post-16 education, such as high quality technical and vocational programmes will generally be covered by the larger colleges – thus deliver for students across the region and not just an immediate local community. A number of communities, particularly those of low socioeconomic status are exclusively provided for by Go North East – leaving the young people stranded, unable to physical attend college – those who benefit from the structure and support the most.

Exam boards have sat on their hands – and suggest there is nothing they can do. No adjustments or extenuating circumstances. To compare to the scenario of 2021, where due to the post-Christmas lockdown (The 2nd Wave!), terminal examinations were cancelled, and end-point assessments reformatted and stylistically altered, due to 8 weeks of ‘remote learning’. There are a significant number of students who have had to have 6/7 weeks of ‘remote learning’. I’m not saying that we do what we did in 2021 – however it’s unacceptable to simply pretend the situation has not existed and doesn’t have an effect on the young people involved.

We’re two days back now. It’s great to see the buildings busier, noisier – young people being young people. I am selfishly relieved as a huge portion of workload, anxiety and stress has been lifted – I am delighted at not having to load up Microsoft Teams at the start of every lesson – struggling to monitor progress and issues in learners – one particularly challenging group of 21 often split almost 50/50 as to who is in class and who is connecting remotely.

So, yes, the bus strike is over.
But I am absolutely full of fear.

There are students who have had less than ideal learning circumstances, there are students who have essentially been isolated from the schooling community – and unlike COVID of “We’re all in this together”, these classroom communities have continued in-spite of them not being there. Friendship groups have altered, splintered, new groups formed. The psychological and emotional repercussions of this are going to be difficult to navigate and predict – before we even begin to address the lost learning, the anxiety of external examinations, practical skills – potential lost placements. Retention and risk of NEAT outcomes for learners  Routines need to be reformed, expectations reiterated. It’s December and we’re back to day one. Even if learners get through the year, there’s going to be the risk on pass-rates, high grades and the progression opportunities that come with this.

Furthermore, staff are running on empty in these institutions. Yes funding in FE has been stagnant from Governmental level for a long time, but wages across the sector are not even remotely close to comparative to secondary and primary (which was not the case when I first moved into the sector). Even before the most recent pay award to school staff, FE staff in numerous institutions could often only expect 2/3rds of the wage of the average secondary school teacher. Money isn’t everything, but when weighing up that this figure includes academic staff who could potentially sit in a secondary department of 7/8 with significantly less responsibility for more pay, and highly specialist technical practitioners who can make dramatically more within private sector and trade, in a less pressurised working environment.

We are at a breaking point of realistic expectations of staff within the sector. I resonate on this as I foresee the meetings where hierarchies roll down pressure on teams to ‘make sure pass rate is not affected’ around various (if not all) institutions in the region at some point in the coming months. But what can you realistically do? Time is finite, there’s no slack in the system, margins are stretched to an absolute limit as it is. As a sector we need money, we need support, we need time. More importantly the students need it too.

But for now, I’m simply looking forward to a full classroom. A working classroom.

One challenge is over.
And a new one just begun…

LINKS:

BBC article (19/11/23) – https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-67404126

BBC article (28/11/23) – https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-67546581

FE Week article (28/11/23) – https://feweek.co.uk/college-learners-forced-to-study-remotely-after-bus-driver-strike/

Burgess, S, Greaves, E & Vignoles, A (2017). Understanding parental choices of secondary school in England using national administrative data. https://www.bristol.ac.uk/efm/media/workingpapers/working_papers/pdffiles/dp17689.pdf