Brief biography:
Mary represents the interests of members to the Government and a wide variety of other stakeholders. As the education union, ATL leads the debate on key educational issues with strong policy positions on, for example, assessment and curriculum changes, school accountability and school structures.
Mary contributes regular articles for newspapers and education journals, and appears frequently on national media. She sits on the executive committee of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), is chair of Unionlearn and was a member of the Acas board.
Mary previously worked in higher education at York University, Edge Hill University and Kingston University where she was head of the School of Education. Prior to this Mary was head of English and an English teacher in comprehensive schools in north London.
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Career
Mary Bousted taught English from 1982 to 1987 at Bentley Wood High School in Harrow. From 1988 to 1991 she was Head of English at Whitmore High School in Harrow.
From 1991 to 1995, she was a lecturer at the University of York, becoming Director of Initial Teacher Training from 1995 to 1997.
From 1997 to 1999, she was Head of Secondary Education at Edge Hill College, (which became Edge Hill University in 2006), then at the School of Education at Kingston University from 1999 to 2003.
She became General Secretary of the ATL in 2003.
In July 2010, Bousted was awarded an honorary doctorate by Edge Hill University.
Bousted also served until August 2023 on the General Council and Executive Committee of the Trades Union Congress, where since 2019 she (jointly alongside Kevin Courtney) was lead member on issues of digital change.
In September 2016, she was elected as President of the Trades Union Congress for 2016/17
