Photo Highlights

Paul Fletcher

Click on the image above to see Paul Fletcher teaching Year 9 Business at Knights Academy, London.

Classroom Updates

Today Year 10 pupils from Bishop Douglass School in London will be taught a Citizenship lesson by the Chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, Sir Trevor Phillips. Elsewhere across our Greater London region, Director at BlackRock, Jiten Samani and MD of RM Education Paul Fletcher will be sharing their experience and knowledge with pupils for Teach First Week 2011.

Sir Trevor Phillips OBE, Chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, taught not one but two lessons today at Bishop Douglass School in Finchley, London. Year 11 Citizenship pupils acted as ‘Jeremy Paxman-style’ interviewers to pose challenging questions to Sir Trevor on the concept of multiculturalism. Working with Teach First participant, Adam Thorpe, Sir Trevor also asked the class to examine two recent speeches on the topic by David Cameron and Nick Clegg and was keen to get them to think about where we should be similar to each other and where we should be different. Reflecting at the end of the lesson, he described it as “the most sophisticated conversation I’ve had about multiculturalism in five years.” He then went into a Q&A session with sixth-form Sociology students who quizzed him on a wide variety of issues ranging from positive discrimination to stop and search policies.

"The learning is as great for us as it is for them."

Sir Trevor Phillips on his classroom experience for Teach First Week 2011

Over at Bow School of Maths and Computing, Jiten Samani from BlackRock taught a Year 7 class the fundamentals of squares and square roots. Jiten began by explaining that maths is a type of code which mathematicians use to solve problems. He then explained that squares and square roots are simply a type of multiplication. He split the class into two groups and asked them some quick fire questions. The groups animatedly competed against each other and ended the lesson in a draw. Jiten then worked one-on-one with a couple of pupils to make sure they had understood the subject. Following the lesson, Jiten said he would remember the experience for a long time and it showed him what a great vocation teaching is.

"It was a fun lesson, I learnt my seven and eight times tables and a lot of new things."

Year 7 pupil of Bow School, taught by Teach First Week Guest Teacher Jiten Samani

Later that afternoon, Paul Fletcher from RM Education was hard at work teaching a business lesson at Knights Academy which focused on marketing. He introduced a new product – ‘TriSpecs’ – sunglasses which incorporate radio, bluetooth and mobile phone and asked the students in groups to think about the USP of the product; what the target market is and the mediums they would use to reach their market. The students presented their ideas in groups, which included the merits of advertising via social media, targeted pop ups on websites, the value of word of mouth and most of all the importance of selling sunglasses in summer!

"I loved the lesson - I was nervous at first but relaxed into it. The students were great - they really thought through the business problem and how they would tackle it. Some of the skills I use in my job are similar to teaching but not all my afternoons are as exciting as this! It's reinforced the huge respect I have for the great educators Teach First places in classrooms."

Paul Fletcher, MD of RM Education and Teach First Week Guest Teacher 2011

Schedule for Thursday 10 March

	Jiten Samani Director, BlackRock Year 7 Maths Hosted by Teach First participant Tom Evans

	Sir Trevor Phillips Chair, Equality and Human Rights Commission Year 10 Citizenship Hosted by Teach First participant Adam Thorpe

	Paul Fletcher MD of RM Education Year 9 Business Hosted by Teach First participant Ian McLean