National Education Union

National Union of Teachers

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.

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.

1891 saw the formation of the Association of Assistant Masters in Secondary Schools (AMA). 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.

Then 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 autumn conferences in late 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.^[4]