The National Education Union (NEU) is a

trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ...

in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

for school teachers, further education lecturers, education support staff and teaching assistants. It was formed by the amalgamation of the National Union of Teachers and the

Association of Teachers and Lecturers The Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) was a trade union, teachers' union and professional association, affiliated to the Trades Union Congress, in the United Kingdom representing educators from nursery and primary education to further ...

in 2017. With 510,000 members, it is the largest education union in the UK and

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

Governance and administration

The NEU came into being on 1 September 2017. At that time a Joint Executive Council was formed with the existing structures of the NUT and ATL continuing to function as sections of the new union. Full amalgamation took place on 1 January 2019 and a new Executive Committee was elected. The existing general secretaries of the NUT and ATL, Kevin Courtney and

Mary Bousted Mary Winefride Bousted ( Bleasdale; born 15 September 1959) is a British trade unionist who is the Joint General-Secretary of the National Education Union (NEU) alongside Kevin Courtney. Bousted was formerly General Secretary of the teachers' ...

, will serve as joint general secretaries of the new union until 2023 when a single general secretary will be elected.

History

National Union of Teachers

The NUT was established at a meeting at

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public research university located in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of King George IV and the Duke of Wellington. In 1836, King's ...

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

Elementary Education Act 1870 The Elementary Education Act 1870, commonly known as Forster's Education Act, set the framework for schooling of all children between the ages of 5 and 12 in England and Wales. It established local education authorities with defined powers, autho ...

. 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.

Association of Teachers and Lecturers

The origins of ATL go back to 1884 when 180 women met to create the Association of Assistant Mistresses (AAM). These women worked in schools founded for higher education of girls. Their concern was primarily for the pupils. However, in 1921, the AAM appointed representatives to the newly formed Burnham Committee on Salaries in Secondary Schools The Association of Assistant Masters in Secondary Schools (AMA) was formed in 1891. Its purpose was to protect and improve the conditions of service of secondary teachers. Between 1899 and 1908 it played an influential part in obtaining security of tenure for assistant teachers through the

Endowed Schools Act A financial endowment is a legal structure for managing, and in many cases indefinitely perpetuating, a pool of financial, real estate, or other investments for a specific purpose according to the will of its founders and donors. Endowments are o ...

. In 1978 AAM and AMA merged to form the Assistant Masters and Mistresses Association (AMMA), with a membership of approximately 75,000. The name was changed in 1993 to the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL).

National Education Union

The NUT and ATL agreed to pursue a merger during their Special conferences held on 5 November 2016. A ballot of members of both unions took place between 27 February and 21 March 2017. The results were announced the following day and resulted in 97% of NUT members and 73% of ATL members who returned their ballot papers supporting the merger proposals.

Logo and corporate identity

A logo for the new union was launched on 30 June 2017. The logo features a

starburst MicroPro International Corporation was an American software company founded in 1978 in San Rafael, California. They are best known as the publisher of WordStar, a popular early word processor for personal computers. History Founding and early su ...

pentagons In geometry, a pentagon (from the Greek language, Greek πέντε ''pente'' meaning ''five'' and γωνία ''gonia'' meaning ''angle'') is any five-sided polygon or 5-gon. The sum of the internal angles in a simple polygon, simple pentagon is ...

with the name of the union written at the centre. Despite being a

proper noun A proper noun is a noun that identifies a single entity and is used to refer to that entity (''Africa'', ''Jupiter'', '' Sarah'', ''Microsoft)'' as distinguished from a common noun, which is a noun that refers to a class of entities (''continent, ...

, the name is stylised in the logo in all lower case letters as ''"national education union"'' rather than ''"National Education Union"''. The union uses the strapline "together we'll shape the future of education".

Fred and Anne Jarvis Award

Named after former NUT General Secretary

Fred Jarvis Frederick Frank Jarvis CBE (8 September 1924 – 15 June 2020) was a British trade union leader. He was President of the National Union of Students (NUS) from 1952 to 1954 and General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) from 197 ...

(who died in 2020) and his wife Anne (who died in 2007), the Fred and Anne Jarvis Award was established by the NUT in 2007 and presented annually, originally to individuals other than NUT members who campaigned for all children and young people. From 2019 the award has been presented by the NEU.

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control 2017 establishments in the United Kingdom Education trade unions Teacher associations based in the United Kingdom Trade unions based in London Trade unions established in 2017 Trade unions in the United Kingdom Trade unions affiliated with the Trades Union Congress