Mayor of London delivers a Latin class with Teach First teacher

27 May 2010

A special guest teacher visiting St. Saviour's & St. Olave's School in Southwark yesterday (26 May 2010) had the full attention of his class when he delivered the 10am Latin class to students in Years 8-10.

Mayor of London Boris Johnson visited the secondary girls’ school to help teach a lesson on Roman chariots to a class of 15 students aged 13-15, where he found out for himself the results of an innovative scheme created by their teacher Ms Sophie Hollender. For the past year, students from Westminster School who are taking Latin at A Level have been volunteering their afternoons once a week to provide one-to-one Latin tuition to her class. The Mayor turned his hand to teaching before returning to City Hall to highlight skills-based volunteering opportunities.

As a teacher on the Teach First teacher-training route, Sophie has been teaching English at St. Saviour’s for the last two years. She devised the tuition scheme when she took over the running of the Latin club and decided to enable the girls to sit a GCSE in the subject after learning it for only two years. She says: “Both the girls and A Level students are working exceptionally hard towards their shared goal and both St Saviour’s and Westminster School have been incredibly supportive of this. The dynamic between the A Level students and the girls is fantastic, especially since they have discovered another interest in common apart from Latin - The X-Factor!’

Sophie is one 485 exceptional graduates who entered the teaching profession through Teach First in 2009 to work across 219 schools across five regions of England.  Aimed at attracting exceptional graduates who might not have otherwise considered teaching, Teach First places participants in challenging schools – where more than a third of pupils are eligible for free school meals or fewer than 25% achieve 5 A*-C including Maths and English - for a minimum of two years.

During their time in the classroom, participants complete an intensive Leadership Development Programme delivered in partnership with leading teacher training providers. In the first year trainees are supported by Teach First, partner universities and school mentors to achieve Qualified Teacher Status by the end of the year. Through their training, trainees are able to maximise their impact on pupil achievement in the short term and to have a broader impact on educational disadvantage in the longer term.

James Westhead, Director of External Relations at Teach First, says: “Sophie is a great example of the exceptional graduates that we recruit and who go through our two-year development programme. The unique partnership that she’s created between St. Saviour’s School and Westminster School means that students from both schools will benefit from working with each other.  This is just the sort of innovative approach our teachers are bringing to challenging schools across the country to raise their pupils’ access and aspirations.  We’re delighted that Boris Johnson visited Sophie’s classroom to see for himself the positive impact that she’s had on the class.” 

NOTES FOR EDITORS:

• For media enquiries please contact Anie Keshishian, Press Officer, Teach First, tel: 07786 038306 and email akeshishian@teachfirst.org.uk.
• Images of the Mayor’s visit are available on request.
• Teach First's mission is to address educational disadvantage by transforming exceptional graduates into effective, inspirational teachers and leaders in all fields. Teach First targets exceptional graduates who would not normally consider a career in teaching and places them in challenging schools – where more than a third of pupils are eligible for free school meals or fewer than 25% achieve 5 A*-C including Maths and English – for the course of a two year Leadership Development Programme.
• In 2009, Teach First gained 8th place on the coveted league of Times Top 100 Graduate Employers.