Leadership Development Programme

The Leadership Development Programme consists of three strands. These focus on developing participants' leadership skills so that they can become effective classroom leaders, and leaders in all fields long-term. Participants teach in schools facing challenging circumstances for a minimum of two years and work with pupils to raise their achievement, access and aspirations.

Outside of the classroom, participants attend a range of mandatory and elective components over the two years which are designed to develop their leadership skills.

Teach First works with a variety of key partners to deliver this programme. Teach First is part of the National Initial Teacher Training Partnership (NITTP) which supports participants towards becoming qualified teachers. This partnership consists of each of the universities which participants work with to gain a Postgraduate Certificate of Education (PGCE) during their first year. Click here to read more about NITTP. Other partners include Imperial College Business School, Beyond Now, and a number of Masters institutions.

The three strands of the programme:

Leading Learning

Leading Learning is the core strand of the programme and introduces participants to the principles of effective classroom leadership in order to raise the achievement, access and aspirations of the pupils they teach. Participants integrate theory, practice and analysis to demonstrate a significant improvement in pupil learning.

This strand incorporates six weeks of intensive teacher training at Teach First's Summer Institute, two years teaching in a school in challenging circumstances, completion of a PGCE, as well as attendance at a number of sessions which are designed to develop and improve their classroom practice. In the second year, participants will work closely with a Leadership Development Officer, who will help them develop their vision for making a profound impact on pupils' achievement, aspirations and access.

Leading People

Leading People focuses on developing participants' abilities to lead people. This is a supporting strand of the programme, because the skills participants develop apply both to the school context and to any other organisation. Components of this strand include workshops on managing yourself, managing teams and managing stakeholders as well as the opportunity to have a professional coach who works with participants to help them learn from and overcome their leadership challenges.

Leading Organisations

Leading Organisations is designed to facilitate participants' knowledge about how organisations work, the challenges they face and what they can do to make an impact from any level. Again, this is a supporting strand because the skills it enables participants to develop relate to any context.