Coming full circle – from Teach First trainee to hiring future teachers

I was doing a master's in physics in London at Imperial College London, and, towards the end of the degree, I had to make some decisions. I was looking at either teaching or going into the energy sector. Then I found Teach First and the mission really resonated with me.

I realised that I’d get to do the thing that I love, which is physics.

And I’d be able to do that all day, every day, and try to engage other people in it. It was exciting. I also really liked the idea that with Teach First I wouldn't need to sit in a lecture theatre anymore and that the programme would give on the job learning. Of course you do lots of training, but most of your learning gets put into practice straight away and that really appealed to me.

Developing leadership alongside teaching

When I was training to teach, I had a lot of opportunities through Teach First to develop my leadership skills in different ways.

I was putting a huge amount of energy into becoming the best teacher that I could be, but I was also starting to understand the wider school context through a leadership angle.

I did different courses that were available through Teach First. I had an informal buddy and there was support around the programme itself that meant I was developing my professional confidence at a good rate.

By the end of the programme, I was second in department in my placement school. It was exciting. I was doing something that I loved and having an impact.

Growing influence

I then looked for other roles that were teaching and learning focused and I applied for a Lead Practitioner role in a different Teach First school. In this role, I was supporting new Teach First teachers, alongside other teacher trainees and recently qualified teachers, to develop their practice. This was a real privilege.

Later down the line, an opportunity came up for an Associate Assistant Headteacher role. So that was my first foray into senior leadership. It was nice to feel that my sphere of influence was widening bit by bit.

I'd gone from my classroom to a department to a whole school role within 6 years. So my career was moving rapidly.

After a few more years, I moved to another school as deputy headteacher for quality of education and CPD. There was lots more to do, but it was great and I was in a school that was still very much core to the Teach First mission.

I think the strongest teachers should be in the schools that need them most.

I had a challenging and exciting time where I developed massively and got to work with a lot of new colleagues.

Serving disadvantaged communities

That school is part of Consilium Academies and I really love the Trust because it’s very Teach First aligned. We serve a lot of different communities, and a lot of our schools have well-above-average pupil premium numbers. So a job came up at the Trust, which was for CPD lead, and I managed to get it. That job has grown to include driving teaching and learning in different ways, and I'm subject lead for science.

The Multi-Academy Trust (MAT) is geographically spread across the north of England, serving communities in regions affected by industrial decline including former mining towns where levels of disadvantage are often higher.

Overall pupil premium for the Trust is around 43% but varies greatly, from 29-59% per school. Whilst it's a broad range, when you compare that to national averages, it's significant.

We are here to make sure that all the pupils we serve get the absolute best education they possibly can.

We recognise that we are not where we want to be yet. There are improvements to be made across our academies, but we are not avoiding that reality, we are tackling it with integrity, and that’s what resonates with me.

Why rigorous training matters

When you’re placing trainees in schools, the quality of the support from the Teach First programme is strong.

The programme is rigorous, and we get subject specialists that have a genuine interest in what they want to teach.

And there is that ongoing relationship through two years rather than just one. It's important that trainees keep those relationships rather than support just dropping off after their initial teacher training year.

I've got some fantastic relationships with the development leads that work in the North East schools in particular. We can help those teachers to become the best that they can be. We want to support developing teachers to serve our communities.

The subject and phase specific training underpins a lot of what we need to do as a teacher. And if you lack that subject knowledge, you can really struggle to translate that or to break that down for the students. It's great that the Training Programme is subject specific because it allows you to go beyond subject knowledge into subject-specific pedagogies.

It’s important because the way I teach in science needs to be different to the way that someone teaches in English. There are general pedagogies that underpin all classrooms. But the way I model something in science is going to be different to the way someone models something in English.

And that's where the subject specific input on the programme is important because it gives the space to explore that properly. Rather than being left to the trainee themselves to do, it’s tackled head on and you get that support.

So we can develop that much more rapidly and robustly with Teach First trainees.

Growth over time

Within the Trust, many trainees have remained with us after their ECTE (Early Career Teacher Entitlement).

You can see over time how their confidence and classroom practice grows, and therefore student outcomes get better as well.

We've seen people move from trainees through into middle leadership. And it’s really nice to see they've strengthened their practice such that they're able to start influencing others in the team, as well as students. And they continue to serve these communities that need great people to serve them.

Across the Trust we’ve also nominated current support staff for the Training Programme because you've got someone who’s already engaged with your school and, in many cases, embedded in your school community. Who understands the context of your students, who knows the vision and the values of the school and the Trust and who fits that well.

When existing staff want to train as a teacher, it's great that there's then a route with Teach First where we can keep them within our school community where they're already serving our students in a brilliant way.

Sometimes I'll drop in to the lessons on a walk around in the school. And it’s nice to see practice develop over time. I'll see a small snapshot across the year. And they will look like a different teacher each time in the nicest possible way. It's so lovely to see.

Giving back

I used to laugh with people and say, if you cut me in half, I think I would be a stick of rock for Teach First, for what it's trying to do. Giving back is important to me. We've got to serve communities like this because it is a way to bring about change and development over time and to increase life chances and well, literally length of life. It's all linked together.

Bring passionate new teachers into your classrooms

Like James, place Teach First trainees in your schools and develop subject‑specialist teachers who are deeply committed to your pupils and communities.

Hire a trainee teacher

Train your support staff