2002 Highlights

• In September 2001 a McKinsey study looked into how businesses could help improve secondary education in London and found that great teachers could raise pupils’ results by at least 40%
• In January 2002, one member of the team, Brett Wigdortz, took a planned six-month leave of absence from McKinsey to develop a business plan for Teach First
• In July 2002, Teach First officially launched in Canary Wharf with a team of 11 committed employees led by Brett Wigdortz as CEO and Stephen O’Brien CBE & George Iacobescu CBE as co-chairs of the Board of Trustees

2003 Highlights

• We recruited 186 participants
• We partnered with 45 secondary schools; Haling Manor High School in Croydon was the first school to sign up for Teach First participants.
• Our first training partner, Canterbury Christ Church College (now University) hosted the inaugural Summer Institute.
• We entered the UK Times Top 100 Graduate Employers at 62nd, an employee reputation survey of over 15,000 final year students.

2005 Highlights

• We recruited 183 participants
• We partnered with 73 secondary schools
• We climbed to 19th in the UK Times Top 100 Graduate Employers
• Our inaugural ’03 cohort of participants graduate to become Teach First ambassadors
• Then Chancellor, Gordon Brown MP, announced the Government’s support of regional expansion in his budget speech

2006 Highlights

• We recruited 265 participants
• We partnered with 90 secondary schools
• We climbed to 16th in the UK Times Top 100 Graduate Employers
• The Teach First Ambassador community increased to 300
• The programme expanded out of London, opening a region in Greater Manchester
• Dame Julia Cleverdon DCVO, CBE was appointed chair of the Board of Trustees

2008 Highlights

• We recruited 373 participants
• We partnered with 151 primary and secondary schools
• Teach First was ranked 9th in the UK Times Top 100 Graduate Employers
• The Teach First Ambassador community increased to 635, joined by the first Manchester cohort
• HRH Prince Charles became the Patron of Teach First
• Ofsted reported that some of Teach First's participants were 'amongst the most exceptional trainees produced by any teacher training route.'
• The Greater Manchester programme expanded into Merseyside becoming the North West region. The Midlands region (by now the largest region outside London) split into East and West, making a total of four regions, including London
• A primary pilot launched placing 30 Modern Foreign Language teachers into London primary schools in challenging circumstances

2009 Highlights

• We recruited 485 participants
• We partnered with 220 primary and secondary schools
• We climbed to 8th in the UK Times Top 100 Graduate Employers
• The Teach First Ambassador community increased to 854, joined by the first Midlands cohort
• The programme expanded into a fifth region, Yorkshire
• Teach First won 2009 Charity Awards Education and Training Charity of the Year and was voted Most Popular Graduate Recruiter in the Public Sector at the TARGETjob Awards
• Credit Suisse EMEA Foundation donated a £1 million grant to enable Teach First to move into permanent, purpose built office space with a dedicated assessment centre

2011 Highlights

• We recruited 772 participants
  
• The Teach First Ambassador community increased to 1,575
  
• We placed 84 primary participants in five of our six regions for the first time
  
• Six new universities joined the National Initial Teacher Training Partnership (NITTP)
  
• Teach First's Initial Teacher Training provision judged to be 'outstanding' in all areas assessed by Ofsted