TeachFirst - anyone have TeachFirst students or did it themselves?

[CrispsForTea]

Hi everyone,
I'm in my final year of a Biology degree and I'm thinking about doing the TeachFirst scheme. For anyone who doesn't know much about it, it's basically a two year scheme (second year is an NQT year) that places graduates in schools with a lot of children from underprivileged backgrounds. You get 5 weeks' intensive training in June and July and then you're basically a teacher, as far as I can tell (the kids don't even know that you're not qualified). After the two years, you can either stay in teaching or leave, and you finish with a PGDE (basically a step closer to a masters than a PGCE), QTS and a completed NQT year.

I was just wondering if anyone had any experience with the scheme and could tell me exactly how brutal it is, if any mentors notice a difference between conventional PGCE students and TeachFirst students, how much choice you get regarding subject and location etc.

Thanks in advance!!

I have met 4 teach first students. Only one made it through the 2 years.
It is incredibly hard as 5 weeks isn't enough to get to grips with how things work and it appears you are just thrown in the deep end, great if you are ready for it and you have a nice school but that's not often the case.
On a pgce you have another teacher with you the whole time, able to give advice and instant feedback, teach first are literally on their own from day 1, having had 5 weeks training without a child present at all.
Go in with open eyes and the right attitude and it could be perfect. As someone who did a 'traditional' pgce years ago I would not have lasted as a teach first student.
Sorry,but you asked for the truth!

There was a programme following four Teach First Graduates in Channel 4 a while ago. It was interesting to see how the different personalities coped. It was certainly not for the faint hearted!

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03plzvt Actually I think it was this one on BBC 3. Might be bits of it on YouTube?

I'm a Teach First ambassador. Did it in 2013. At my school, we have had eleven teach firsters thus far and I currently mentor two who are NQTs. It can be tough and your experience largely depends on your school. You have to be very resilient and motivated. It's a good route into teaching though. PM me if you have any specific questions.

I've mentored TF before.

Some are really strong and they tend to be proactive, motivated and resilient. They are a delight to work with.

Others can't manage, like any training provider.

There's also a group (moreso than other training route I've worked with) who seem to have this arrogant attitude that being TF makes them better than other teachers and have this saviour superhero narrative going on. They're the ones who really want a fast track career and then a job in a think tank where they can correct the world's teachers with 3 years experience.
They are irritatin and it's obvious they're more interested in making a name for themselves than actually teaching

I might be wrong but I think the bursary for a biology PGCE would more than outweigh the money you’d get by training on the job with TF. I worked with them for four years and thought very highly of their participants, but as a PGCE tutor working for a university I don’t think that ‘in at the deep end’ is a good way to train and I don’t believe that giving socioeconomicalky disadvantaged students unqualified teachers (which is effectively what year 1 of TF does) is in any way good. Money should be going into giving these students the best, highly experienced and qualified teachers, imo.
TF don’t give you much choice, often, over subject or geographical area- we had a maths trainee who wanted to teach history, and an English trainee who wanted to teach primary, for example. That was another issue for me as I really believe that passion for teaching a particular subject or age matters!
My experience of schools/Headteachers is that opinions vary widely, but I think that TF as a route is better established (an anecdotally, better run/a better experience) in London rather than the rest of the country.
It’s relatively hard to go wrong with a proper university and school partnership PGCE, I reckon- though I may be biased!
Teaching can be an amazing career- good luck!

You get 5 weeks' intensive training in June and July and then you're basically a teacher, as far as I can tell (the kids don't even know that you're not qualified)

Hmmm, I can’t begin to think why the scheme has such large numbers of drop outs!

I think it’s a truly crap idea which is unfair on the student teacher and unfair on the existing numbers of school staff who have to spend hours of their already crammed time supporting them and picking up the pieces/mopping up the tears. It’s mostly unfair on the children though, who deserve a qualified teacher.

I would recommend a PGCE every time.

When I trained, some older teachers were about sniffy about my PGCE as a fast route. The B.Ed was the one they thought was better. Could you take a salaried route instead? It would be interesting to know how drop out rates compare between the PGCE and teach first routes

No need for the added pressure of a salaried route when the bursary for Biology is so high.

retention rates for Teach First are lower than other routes into teaching, forty percent of Teach First participants stay in teaching after 5 years compared to much higher percentages (ranging from 62-70%) coming through PGCE and GTP programmes.

I’m rather surprised either figure is that high to be honest!

Thank you everyone!! I had a feeling that the presentation I went to today was rather sugar-coated.

@TellMeDinosaurFacts yes I've just worked out that I'd get an extra £4k for the first year if I did the conventional PGCE (if you take the £9,000 off for the tuition fees), so really doesn't seem worth the extra stress that TeachFirst seems to come with!

I had a place in 2010, so things might have changed more recently, but I couldn’t take it up because I got pregnant and Teach First withdrew my offer when I told them (I’d done assessment centre, interview, knowledge audit & signed contract).

My degree was in history and politics and I was due to start teaching citizenship, although at interview stage they tried to persuade me to teach English, which seemed a bit mad as I had no experience or knowledge of the curriculum what so ever.

It looks tough! You need to be extremely resilient and willing to give your life to the job in the first year, was the impression I was given. I had no say over my location. I think a lot of it is down to your school and your own determination to make it work.

@MsAR I wouldn't be eligible for the salaried route as I think that's more for career changers and TAs wanting to become teachers, so I don't have the experience. Thank you, though!

There is also the schools' direct scheme.

Omg Invisimamma is that even legal? I thought you weren't allowed to discriminate like that based on pregnancy (although I guess it's not always easy to prove that it's why they withdrew the offer!).

I was too overwhelmed by my own circumstances at the time to fight it. I couldn’t have done it with a newborn anyway, deferring a year probably wouldn’t have helped.

But I think it was legal because it’s not actually classed as employment, it’s a training scheme and I hadn’t started yet. I found out I was preggers in May and due to start on the summer, ds was born October.

I got a lovely job a few weeks later (not teaching but working with vulnerable young people) and I’ve never looked back. Teach first wasn’t right for me.

I did Teach First 6 years ago and am still a teacher.

Yes, you are thrown in at the deep end but this means that you become better much quicker than a normal PGCE because you gain experience quicker. So at the end of the first year your are far more confident in the class room than having done the PGCE.

It was very tough and you do have to be resilient but if you're going into teaching for the right reasons then you will be fine.

The other advantage is you get additional leadership training which you wouldn't get with a PGCE which is very useful CV-wise.

Thanks Biscay - the leadership training did catch my eye, as well as the summer internships that are available to you as a participant.

you become better much quicker than a normal PGCE

Or you sink much faster...

Or you sink much faster...

Depends on the support you get which admittedly is a bit pot luck depending on your placement school.

Actually my experience of tutoring or overseeing the tuition of about 40 TF participants was that a handful of exceptional trainees “got much better quicker”, most got just about good enough to survive and didn’t get anywhere near as good as they would have been able to get on a conventional PGCE as they didn’t have the time or input, and the rest failed (and probably would have been successful on an alternative route).

I think the teach first approach can work, but it's only as good as the school you get placed in. My school has a v strong track record with TF trainees, but I think it only works as the school has very strong and established training and mentorship programmes in place. But even still I agree with previous posters who say it's a tough programme and not for the faint hearted.

I have mentored two TF trainees and both have gone on to become successful teachers, committed to the profession. However from my limited interaction with TF/ tales from the trainees, it definitely sounds like a somewhat cultish organisation. There's a lot of bullshit to contend with eg having to have a 'vision' and then timewasting fiddle faddle about how you will achieve this 'vision'

There's a lot of bullshit to contend with eg having to have a 'vision' and then timewasting fiddle faddle about how you will achieve this 'vision'
I think that appeals to the sub group of TF trainees who want rapid promotion out the classroom, jobs in think tanks etc.
Too much pushing on 'leadership' abd superhero bullshit when people haven't even developed their craft as a teacher yet doesn't sit well with me. Someone I know who did TF was 2nd in dept of a core subject in their NQT year. I'm not entirely convinced on that

As others have said though it is very school dependent.

When Teach First was small and London-centred I think the whole vision thing, and the idea that these top graduates would teach first then do something else was fine. We do need people with classroom experience working in politics, journalism and so on.

But now they are getting much bigger and are becoming a major training route, I have more of an issue with it. We don’t want loads of trainees only seeing teaching as a stepping stone to greater things, it’s hard enough keeping trainees in teaching as it is. Experience is more valuable than academic excellence.

Too much pushing on 'leadership' abd superhero bullshit when people haven't even developed their craft as a teacher yet doesn't sit well with me.

I completely agree.