The NCPTA - How it all began
After the Second World War many PTAs existed as single units but joined together as regional federations; for example in Middlesex, Nottinghamshire, Cheshire and Birmingham. It was the Birmingham Federation who raised the idea of a national organisation and formed the National Federation of Parent Teacher Associations in 1956 holding an inaugural meeting in June of that year.
That meeting was chaired by Mrs Jo Hurdley but it was her colleague from the Birmingham Federation, Nicholas Gillett who is regarded as the founder of the National Federation - the forerunner of the NCPTA. As the editor of NCPTA’s Home & School magazine put it in 1981 on the occasion of the NCPTA’s Silver Jubilee “That we hold a respected place in European home-school affairs is due entirely to Nicholas Gillett’s vision and background support.”
Nicholas became National Chairman in 1959 and he was able to announce in the autumn of 1960 that HRH The Duke of Edinburgh had agreed to be President of the NFPTA, a position he held for five years.
There has been tremendous change in the world of education since those early beginnings but the NCPTA remains very grateful to our early Chairman and President for their guidance and commitment.
