STAFF have walked out of colleges across Hampshire and the wider country over a dispute with the government over pay.

Members of the National Education Union are striking after non-academised sixth form staff were left out of the government's five-and-a-half per cent pay increases in the post-16 schools budget grant.

Teachers,  including those at Winchester's Peter Symonds College, are taking action to ensure staff at those colleges receive the same money as their peers.

Read more: Sixth form college teachers to begin strike action in pay dispute

Spanish teacher Anna Whitt, 53, with district secretary for West Hampshire and school teacher Victoria Furness, 41 (Image: Charles Elliman) "It's a cock up, not a conspiracy," said Anna Whitt, a 57-year-old Spanish teacher at Peter Symonds who believes incompetence was the driving factor behind them being kept out of the pay deal.

"We can't know, can we? I'd like to think it was that, but it could have been put right by now. The NEU's general secretary said £15 million would put it right which, on the scale of the education budget, is a drop in the ocean."

According to the NEU teachers in academised sixth-form colleges have been incorrectly designated as being subject to the School Teachers Pay and Review Body (STRB) and so separate from their non-academised counterparts.

The union says sixth-form college teachers have their own longstanding and effective collective bargaining arrangements for pay with college employers, represented by the Sixth Form Colleges Association (SFCA), which the government's decision to differentiate between colleges has undermined.  

Graham Childs, 41, is the union representative for the college and said around 20 people would be on the picket line before going up to London and marching on the Department for Education.

The law teacher said: "I refer to us as the Cinderella Sector - we're always forgotten about and left behind. It's like our politicians don't understand how the education system works!"

Read more: Winchester University staff organise Iranian film festival

Peter Symonds College NEU rep. Graham Childs, 41 (Image: Charles Elliman) The government says an additional £300 million was outlined in the Government's Budget for further education, but has failed to respond to the NEU's query asking if this would be used for pay.

Graham said: "Most of that was already money we were expecting! The government have been very careful not to tell us that that money should be spent on pay rises."

 Victoria Furness, 41, district secretary for West Hampshire and a school teacher, said: "At my local comp. we've been given the five-and-a-half per cent pay rise.

"We're a feeder school for this magnificent college and it's just grossly unfair that our colleagues have been left out of the pay award. It's obvious Westminster just does not understand."