Kevin Courtney
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Kevin Courtney (born 16 August 1959)[1] is a Welsh former school teacher, and the General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers, the main teachers' trade union for England and Wales.
Early life
He was born in Pontypridd, now in Rhondda Cynon Taf, earlier part of Mid Glamorgan, and Glamorgan before 1974. His mother was a cleaner at Glamorgan Polytechnic in Pontypridd, which became the Polytechnic of Wales in 1975, and became the University of Glamorgan in 1992. He went to Trefforest Primary School and Coedylan Comprehensive, now called Pontypridd High School.
From 1977-80 he studied Physics at Imperial College London. In 1982 he completed a PGCE at Chelsea College of Science and Technology.
Career
He was a physics teacher.
National Union of Teachers
When teaching physics at Camden School for Girls, a comprehensive school, he joined Camden NUT. In 1998 he founded the NUT's School Teachers Opposed to Performance Pay (STOPP) campaign, to argue against performance-related pay. From 1990-2010 he was the secretary of Camden NUT. He became an NUT executive in 2006. He wants to have sats abolished. He has worked with the Anti Academies Alliance.
He became deputy General Secretary of the NUT in 2010. He became acting-leader of the NUT in May 2016 when Christine Blower stepped down as general secretary. He has been on the board of the Teaching Awards.
On 15 July 2016 he became the General Secretary of the NUT, in a vote where he received 70% support.[2][3]
Courtney is critical of funding cuts to education which he feels lead to larger classes and less well qualified people teaching children. Courtney said, "Whoever caused this economic crisis, it wasn't our five-year-olds in schools now,"[4]
Personal life
He lives in Stoke Newington, in the London Borough of Hackney. He married Polly Donnison in July 1989 in north-east London. They have a son (born December 1989) and a daughter (born November 1993).