What's the story?

This isn't a tale to be proud of. In the UK, the link between low socio-economic background and poor educational attainment is greater than in almost any other developed country. Nearly 50% of children claiming free school meals achieve no GCSE passes above a D grade (Cassen and Kingdon)

Educational-related inequalities have an impact throughout a child’s life. Education is linked with happiness and wellbeing and also mental and physical health and life expectancy. The more you learn, the more you earn. You are more at risk of spending time ‘not in education, employment or training’ if you have no qualifications.

Education matters to society – it is linked to crime rates and to the economy.

Read more about the causes and consequences of educational disadvantage.

What's our story?

It doesn’t have to be that way. Demography doesn’t have to be destiny. This attainment gap so entrenched in our society is not inevitable. Change is possible.

At Teach First we are working in partnership with others to ensure that no child’s educational success is limited by their socio-economic background. We believe that the scale of change needed will only be achieved through the collective effort of leaders in classrooms, in schools and throughout society. Each must challenge and change the status quo child by child, classroom by classroom, school by school, community by community until educational disadvantage becomes a work of fiction, not fact.

We start by recruiting people with the potential to be inspirational teachers who embark on a rigorous two-year Leadership Development Programme. Through this they develop their teaching and leadership skills needed to raise the achievement, aspiration and access to opportunities of pupils from low-income communities. Beyond this they are motivated to tackle educational disadvantage in the long term as Teach First ambassadors.

What's your story?

Teach First cannot solve this problem alone. We work with individuals, schools, universities and businesses to achieve our aims. You too can play your role in creating a happy end to this story.