Baljeet Ghale

Baljeet Ghale, 49, became the 135^th President of the National Union of Teachers on Friday 6^th April at the Union's Annual conference in Harrogate. Baljeet is an Assistant Headteacher at Stepney Green Maths & Computing College, a boys' comprehensive in London's East End, a school she has worked in since 1989.

Born in Kenya, Baljeet came to Bounds Green in North London with her parents when she was eight. The family then moved to Cheshunt, Hertfordshire where she was educated at Cheshunt School. She took a B.Ed Hons degree, specializing in English, at North London Polytechnic (now Metropolitan University) and in 1985 an MA at King's College, London University.

Baljeet joined the NUT 30 years ago and has been a school rep, teacher governor, and president of her local NUT association. She became a member of the Union's Executive in 1996 and has attended the annual conference since 1991. Locally she has been involved in negotiating improvements in teachers' maternity pay and ensuring that only qualified teachers take whole classes.

Baljeet has chaired the sub-committee on anti-racism in education, the Conference Business Committee, and for the past 15 years the Black Teachers Conference. In Baljeet's words: "The Black Teachers Conference gives a voice to black members in the Union. It is an opportunity to network and will in future enable delegates to have a motion taken to the Union's Annual Conference."

Baljeet's first teaching appointment was at Aylwin School for Girls in Southwark. "The English department was full of strong women. They were exactly the role models I needed at the start of my teaching career."

From there she moved to Mulberry School for Girls in Tower Hamlets, the first of four Tower Hamlets schools.