The lush surroundings of the university campus in Kingston Hill must seem a calm and tranquil haven compared with the political maelstrom Mary Bousted will enter as head of a national teaching union.

In August, the 43-year-old Kingston University academic takes over as general secretary of the 160,000-member Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL), Britain's 12th largest union.

Mrs Bousted, the head of the university's education department and former teacher, was elected to the top position in the traditionally moderate union last month.

The ATL is particularly popular with women and primary school teachers and she is keen to get their voice heard by the Government.

She said: "Teachers feel their professional voice and concerns have not been heard within the Government during the past six years.

"There are huge concerns about the way children are being taught.

"There are still big issues about the curriculum and testing regime. The members are concerned children are being stressed through an inappropriate, intrusive and reductive testing regime."

Mrs Bousted, who lives in Kingston, comes from a solid education background.

Her parents were teachers and four of her eight brothers and sisters are teachers.

She feels children should enjoy their lessons and teachers should not have their freedom to teach and engage pupils stifled by the strict demands of the testing system.

While recent pledges to relax the testing regime for seven year olds are welcomed, she wants to push it further.

Another issue which still needs to be resolved is the funding crisis which has been an issue in Kingston as much as anywhere else.

Mrs Bousted's daughter goes to a Kingston school and she believes the Government simply failed to calculate how much extra money schools would need this year in light of teachers' pay and National Insurance increases.

But on the issue of whether it is fair to divert money from authorities like Kingston to poorer areas in the north, she is more cautious.

She points out some areas of the country suffer extreme deprivation and need more money for schooling.

Drawing on her experience as a teacher in Liverpool, she added: "In Bootle, some of the schools I went into had security fencing and security cameras.

"They were very calm but you could see they were working in a completely different context. It costs more to educate children in some areas."

The cost of living for Kingston teachers is a more straightforward case.

"The issue is just as large for teachers in Surrey and Kingston. The cost of housing is astronomical. Outer London weighting isn't anything like enough."

She believes teachers need help in getting on the housing ladder.

Mrs Bousted says she has not yet had the media training that goes with the job but she is careful not to comment on issues such as private financing of schools.

She has had one question and answer session with the national press and believes they went easy on her because she was new.

May 30, 2003 10:00