Charity aims to push region’s poorest schools to top of class

Teach First has recruited 93 new teachers to work in classrooms around the region including placements in primary schools in Yorkshire for the first time.

Seven graduates have been sent to five primary schools in Leeds while 14 new teachers are the first of the charity’s graduates to be sent to Hull secondary schools.

To be considered for Teach First training candidates have to have achieved at least a 2:1 degree and demonstrate leadership potential.

The charity’s goal is to send top university graduates into schools in challenging circumstances.

Since it moved into Yorkshire in 2009 Teach First has placed almost 200 staff in the region’s schools as part of its two-year leadership development programme.

It has plans to continue expanding with targets to recruit 111 graduates for jobs in Yorkshire next year and 125 more in 2013.

To win a place on the Teach First programme graduates must pass through a rigourous selection process and be willing to move to wherever there are vacancies available.

Charlotte McCormick, a development officer for the charity in the region said: “We are interested in expanding wherever the need is there. We are looking for people who can become leaders in education. They need to be able to demonstrate our key competencies which are humility, respect and empathy, interactivity, knowledge, leadership, planning and organising, problem solving, resilience and self-evaluation.

“We are neutral when it comes to the type of school we work with, whether it is an academy or free school or comprehensive. We want to be able work wherever the need exists.”

It is now working in schools in Barnsley, Bradford, Calderdale, Leeds, Rotherham, Sheffield, Hull, Kirklees, Doncaster, North East Lincolnshire.

Along with the seven new teachers starting primary school jobs in Yorkshire there will also be 46 primary teachers placed in London eight in the East Midlands and 15 in the West Midlands.

The charity will also place 338 secondary school teachers in London; 68 in the North West; 38 in the East Midlands; 103 in the West Midlands and 42 in the North East. Nationally there are now more than 1,000 Teach First staff working in schools.

Teach First teachers start their first jobs in the profession just three months after applying. Intensive training begins at the charity’s summer institute and graduates are also sent to the region they will be based in for three weeks. The charity works with both Sheffield Hallam and Leeds Metropolitan Universities to deliver its Yorkshire-based training.

“Graduates earn their PGCE in there first year of a two-year leadership development programme.

“They also have the option of doing a masters.”

Andrew Jamison is in his second year of the programme teaching at Dixons Allerton Academy in Bradford.

He said: “It is a very competitive process getting into Teach First and this was what appealed to me. I had not been to Bradford before but Teach First is a national charity and I think kids are kids wherever you go. The issues here, things like English being a second language, are the same as in the East or West Midlands or in schools around London.”

This year 18 graduates will be going to eight schools in Hull and Grimsby for the first time. Among them is University College London graduate Sophie McMaster, 22, who is teaching modern languages at the Archbishop Sentamu Academy in Hull.

She said: “I have been pleasantly surprised. Hull is much nicer than I expected having read articles saying it was the worst place to live in the country. The people are friendly which is not something I could always say when I was living in London.”

As part of the Teach First training the new teachers were sent to the city to produce a research project on why Hull’s pass rates in school are low.

Sophie said: “I wanted to go into this type of teaching job. It is something very personal to me.

“My father is from Belfast originally and grew up there during the troubles. He was one of only two people on his estate to get a scholarship to go to the best school in the city. I know without that education my life would have been very different. I think education for everybody should be top notch. But I don’t think Teach First teachers should give off the idea that we are saviours.

“My school is doing brilliantly. It has been judged as good with outstanding features by Ofsted. Teach First is about getting more graduates to think about teaching.

“Many top graduates wouldn’t even consider teaching yet if you go to somewhere like Japan teachers are revered in the same way doctors are.”