National Union of Teachers

National Union of Teachers (NUT) is a trade union for school teachers in England, Wales, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. 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

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.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. 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.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. except during the Second World War, when the NUT rented Toddington Manor in Gloucestershire in order to avoid air raids.

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.

Christine Blower, 2008–present (acting until May 2009)

Steve Sinnott, 2004-2008 (died in office)

Doug McAvoy, 1989-2004

Fred Jarvis, 1975-1989

Sir Edward Britton, 1970-1975

Sir Ronald Gould, 1947-1970

Sir Frederick Mander, 1931-1947

Sir Frank Goldstone, 1924-1931

Sir James Yoxall, 1892-1924

Thomas Heller, 1873-1891

William Lawson, 1870-1873