Gloucestershire Association Divisional Secretary, John Pemberthy writes:
"The NUT is the largest teachers' union in Gloucestershire representing teachers in Primary, Secondary and Tertiary establishments, as well as supply teachers and Soulbury-paid members across the county."

The National Union of Teachers is the only union which takes into membership qualified teachers (and those on courses training to become teachers) exclusively. All the other classroom teacher unions include non teachers, which affects their focus. The Gloucestershire Association of the National Union of Teachers serves its members in many ways.

It represents their collective views, as well as the policies of the Union nationally, to the LEA, School Governing Bodies, the press and the media;

it is the only teaching union which allows into membership teachers from all sectors of education from newly qualified teachers to head teachers, supply teachers to advisers and therefore speaks for the whole profession and not just one section of it;

it is the only union which employs its own team of solicitors, in all regions of the country, who specialise in the law as it affects education, teachers and their pupils;

it acts as a source of information and expertise for members to call upon other issues such as salary scales, threshold, sick leave, maternity leave, part-time contracts, job sharing, pensions - in fact, the whole range of education and employment law so important to teachers in their daily working lives;

it provides advice and training for professional development;

it supports and represents individual members facing professional difficulties;

it provides the opportunity to meet socially with fellow teachers from other schools and settings;

it campaigns for a better deal for teachers and their pupils.