THE new boss of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers will be building on lessons learned in her Bolton schooldays to make sure teachers have a stronger voice in the future.

Dr Mary Bousted, a former pupil of Mount St Joseph High School, is the first woman to be elected general secretary of the union.

Now she intends to use those skills - initially picked up in her school's debating society and drama group - to make the views of the ATL's 160,000 members very clear.

"I wouldn't say I always particularly enjoyed school, but I was always very aware that education was an integral part of my life," said Dr Bousted, who is following in the footsteps of her father, a former headteacher in Bolton.

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