The newly elected general secretary of the NASUWT teaching union says he is “shocked at some of the things that teachers put up with”, including violence and unpaid work.

Speaking to Tes, Matt Wrack - who led the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) for two decades - contrasts firefighters’ ability to switch off after a shift with the “open-ended” expectations placed on teachers.

“I’m shocked at some of the things that teachers put up with. I’m shocked at the violence that teachers suffer,” he says.

A lot of the public would be surprised “at the scale” of the pupil behaviour challenge that school staff face, Wrack adds.

After taking on his new role, he is calling for better teacher pay and school funding, and more scrutiny of multi-academy trust CEOs’ salaries.

Tes interviewed the union leader after his election win last week, which followed a legal challenge to the NASUWT executive’s initial decision to confirm him in the role.

Wrack’s ‘complicated’ leadership bid

Wrack admits that he did not think he would get the job after being prompted to apply by union colleagues.

“I didn’t realise it was going to get as complicated as it did, to be honest,” Wrack says of the headlines sparked by his move.

Referring to his lack of experience in education - which was highlighted by some critics - he says he comes from a “family of teachers”.

“I have lived in households where the school year routine has been part of the pressures of life. Ofsted inspections have been part of the pressure of life. Even forced academisation, in one case,” Wrack says.

Action against Ofsted plans

Settling into his new job, he has a lot to catch up on before a busy autumn term: Ofsted’s finalised plans for new report-card inspections, the government’s review of curriculum and assessment and the White Paper on special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) reforms are all due for release in the first part of the academic year.

On Ofsted’s planned changes to inspection, Wrack’s views align with those of his fellow education union leaders.

“It is very frustrating that [education secretary Bridget Phillipson] has not delayed Ofsted’s report cards,” Wrack says, adding that the NASUWT has “discussed options” but is “yet to make a decision” on how to further oppose the inspectorate’s proposals.

One option the union is considering is asking members who are Ofsted inspectors to leave their posts - a move already mooted by the Association of School and College Leaders and the NAHT school leaders’ unions.

“It doesn’t seem logical that Ofsted hasn’t published its response to the consultation but is already putting in place how it is going to train people for a new regime,” Wrack tells Tes.

‘Immense’ workload burden

Teacher workload is an issue that Wrack feels “lots of people outside of education don’t appreciate”. “The burden of unpaid expectations on teachers is pretty immense,” he says.

“For firefighters, at the end of a shift, you shut down and that’s the end of your day. This is not the case for teachers.

“People need to understand that it’s not an open-ended demand where teachers can just be asked to do anything at any time, in any circumstances - there are parameters,” the union leader says.

Teachers ‘don’t rush into industrial action’

Teachers were offered a 4 per cent pay rise for 2025-26 - a deal that was accepted by the NASUWT “after a sober assessment”, according to Wrack. “Teachers are never going to want to rush into taking industrial action, and I think the union took a sensible decision about that,” he explains.

Asked how the government could better value teachers, he highlights increased funding as his priority.

“The biggest recognition that the government could give to the importance of teachers would be to put some money into education,” Wrack says.

“It is all very well saying you value someone, but if their pay has fallen for the past 20 years and has not recovered, they are in overcrowded classrooms, they have not got support networks, there is a big recruitment and retention problem, then they are going to leave the profession.”

Concern over MAT CEO pay

Wrack also says he has been struck by the “fragmentation” of the school sector - particularly the rise of the multi-academy trust system. “I have gone through the fragmentation of the fire service to some degree, but it is nothing like the scale we have in education,” he says.

Referring to the freedoms of academy trusts, he says some MATs can be “regimented” about teaching approaches, angering and frustrating teachers “who are professionally trained”, while this is far from the case in other MATs.

On the issue of MAT chief executives’ pay, Wrack does not go as far as the NEU teaching union in calling for a limit, but he does express concern.

“The fact that you have this privatised system running a huge chunk of public services in the provision of education is quite shocking. Some people are making quite significant salaries out of that, and it doesn’t compare well to what you expect of a public service ethos,” he says.

“The government needs to look at where public money is going into education. The taxpayer should have an opinion on whether CEO pay can just grow forever.”

‘I have always been an activist’

His predecessor as NASUWT general secretary, Dr Patrick Roach, is a familiar face to Wrack. The pair sat on the general council and executive at the Trades Union Congress, of which Wrack is a past president.

However, Wrack suspects his style of leadership will be different.

“I have the background and views that I have, but you can see from some of the comments made about me by ministers that some people don’t look forward to engaging with me.

“I have always been a political and trade union activist, so I will bring that to the leadership.”

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