National Union of Teachers

NUT

Full name	National Union of Teachers
Founded	1870
Members	295,124[1]
Country	England Wales Channel Islands Isle of Man
Affiliation	TUC, EI
Key people	Christine Blower, General Secretary Kevin Courtney, Deputy General Secretary Gill Goodswen, President
Office location	London, UK
Website	www.teachers.org.uk

The National Union of Teachers (NUT) is a trade union for school teachers in England, Wales, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.^[2] It is a member of the Trades Union Congress. The Union recruits only qualified teachers and those training to be qualified teachers into membership and currently has over 295,000 members, making it the largest teachers' union in Europe.

Activities

Members of the NUT demonstrate at the G-20 London protests in 2009

The NUT campaigns on educational issues and working conditions for its members. Among the NUT's current policies are:

• Fair pay for teachers
• Work-life balance for teachers
• Against academies
• Abolition of National Curriculum Tests (SATs)
• One union for all teachers

Like most unions, the NUT offers legal protection to its members.

The NUT has established two financial services companies for teachers, Teachers Assurance in 1877 and the Teachers Building Society in 1966.

History

The NUT was established at a meeting at King's College London on 25 June 1870 as the National Union of Elementary Teachers (NUET) to represent all school teachers in England and Wales combining a number of local teacher associations which had formed across the country following the 1870 Education Act.^[3] After toying with the idea of changing the name to the National Union of English Teachers, the name National Union of Teachers (NUT) was finally adopted at Annual Conference in April 1889.

In 1919, in response to an NUT referendum approving the principle of equal pay, a ginger group, the National Association of Men Teachers (NAMT), was formed within the NUT to further the interests of male teachers.^[4] The NAMT changed its name in 1920 to the National Association of Schoolmasters (NAS) and seceded finally from the NUT in 1922. The secession came about indirectly following a decision at the NAS Conference that year to prohibit NAS members from continuing to also be members of the NUT after the 31 December 1922.^[5] The NAS is now amalgamated into the NASUWT, the second-largest teaching union in the UK.

The NUT first established its offices at 7 Adam Street, Adelphi, London WC on the appointment of the first full-time Secretary in 1873. In 1889 it moved its headquarters to Bolton House, 67/71 Russell Square, London WC. In 1915, it moved its headquarters to Hamilton House, Mabledon Place, London WC1H 9BD, where it has remained ever since,^[6] except during the Second World War, when the NUT rented Toddington Manor in Gloucestershire in order to avoid air raids.

Striking teachers and public sector workers march down the Kingsway, London, flanked by police on June 30, as part of the 2011 United Kingdom anti-austerity protests.^[7][8]

General Secretaries of the NUT

The General Secretary is the leader of the NUT. Since 1989, the General Secretary has been elected by the union's membership, with each term lasting five years.^[9]

• Christine Blower, 2008–present (acting until May 2009)^[10]
• Steve Sinnott, 2004-2008 (died in office)^[11]
• Doug McAvoy, 1989-2004^[12]
• Fred Jarvis, 1975-1989^[13]
• Sir Edward Britton, 1970-1975^[14]
• Sir Ronald Gould, 1947-1970^[15]
• Sir Frederick Mander, 1931-1947^[16]
• Sir Frank Goldstone, 1924-1931^[17]
• Sir James Yoxall, 1892-1924^[18]
• Thomas Heller, 1873-1891^[19]
• William Lawson, 1870-1873^[20]

See also

• National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers
• Association of Teachers and Lecturers
• Education in the United Kingdom

References

1. ^ http://www.certoffice.org/links/pdf/235T_2010.pdf
2. ^ http://www.teachers.org.uk/resources/pdf/NUT-Rules-2008-09n.pdf
3. ^ Tropp, A (1957). The School Teachers. London: Heinmemann.
4. ^ Simons, RA (1972). The Schoolmasters: The History of the NAS and of Education in its Time. London: NASUWT.
5. ^ Tropp, A (1957). The School Teachers: the growth of the teaching profession in England and Wales from 1800 to the present day. London: Heinemann.
6. ^ An Interim Catalogue of the Papers of the National Union of Teachers
7. ^ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2010086/Public-sector-strike-Union-leaders-insist-walkout-best-response.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
8. ^ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2010086/Public-sector-strike-Union-leaders-insist-walkout-best-response.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
9. ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2004/apr/14/schools.politics1
10. ^ http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6012965
11. ^ http://education.guardian.co.uk/obituary/story/0,,2271494,00.html
12. ^ http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/nut-veteran-bows-out-as-he-came-in--all-guns-blazing-559945.html
13. ^ http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=qps14mSlghcC&pg=PA87&lpg=PA87#v=onepage
14. ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2005/jan/07/guardianobituaries.obituaries
15. ^ http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/gilbert-bryden-642073.html
16. ^ http://www.informaworld.com/index/758505707.pdf
17. ^ http://www.informaworld.com/index/739655318.pdf
18. ^ http://www.tssa.org.uk/about/single-or-return/table46.htm
19. ^ http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=q-9LxdX7N9AC&pg=PA110&lpg=PA110#v=onepage&q=&f=false
20. ^ http://www.teachers.org.uk/node/8515

External links

Organized labour portal

• NUT
• NUT YouTube channel