Empowering teachers, growing leaders

Small beginnings, big strides forward

Our two teaching school hubs are based at Kingsbridge Community College and Colyton Grammar School.

Early on we decided to come together to form the South West Institute for Teaching, which is known as SWIFT.

We wanted to create an easy and coherent route to accessing professional development, for teachers and for schools.

Since doing that, we’ve created opportunities for staff to develop expertise in a wide range of areas.

Now we cover over 500 schools across Devon, Cornwall, Plymouth and Torbay.

A good working relationship

We’ve been working with Teach First on the National Professional Qualifications (NPQs) for four years.

Their experience of reaching out to disadvantaged areas, and overall knowledge, underpins the programmes at every level. This helps us to meet the needs of the teachers we work with.

Teach First also really listens to us, a regional provider.

We have many small primary schools in this region, and some only have 50 pupils.

They have very different challenges, and the staff are under different pressures compared to bigger primary schools.

When we discussed what wasn’t working for us, such as needing more content on Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) added to the programme, or the different needs of a small rural primary school, Teach First’s curriculum development and delivery teams were responsive to this feedback and implemented these changes.

Also, our main point of contact, Sophie, has been brilliant. It’s a true partnership. We feel like a valued partner, and that’s down to the individuals we work with at Teach First.

Shared confidence in delivery

We chose Teach First as our lead provider because of the renowned, high-quality programmes it offers. The programmes are effective and highly evidence based.

Our tailored approach and contextualised programmes meet our teachers’ needs.

The face-to-face days are interactice, and this gives the teachers and leaders in our region the opportunity to network and work with each other.

We use a range of facilitators so that programme members are exposed to a range of organisations and different styles, such as executive leadership level.

It’s important that they have experience of different models of leadership.

The online aspect of the delivery model means it is accessible for our schools, especially for those in rural areas.

Also, Teach First’s ethos aligns closely with our own. It’s about trying to improve the outcomes of all students but really focusing on those areas of high disadvantage.

Teach First is an organisation that has built a high degree of trust with schools over the years and schools trust Teach First to be in it for the right reasons.

And that gives people a lot of confidence in us choosing to work with them in the first place.

Building reflective practice

You can learn all the theory and pedagogy you want, but you need to be able to implement it successfully. The NPQ programmes include a heavy focus on implementation.

Our teachers say it’s had a great impact on their pupils, schools and federations. The courses allow them to be reflective.

We see so much growth in leaders, and they progress in their careers because of the programmes.

Our two flagship conference days are also incredibly valuable to our programme members.

From the most recent conference we had, when asked if the experience was valuable, our programme members have rated the day a mean score of 4.8 out of 5, which just speaks for itself.

We really like the structure of the Teach First programmes. We feel supported to customise the courses to suit our schools’ contexts and programme members.

Empowering our teachers

Our teachers like the fact that our programmes fit around their busy schedules.

Teachers and leaders are incredibly busy and yet they can engage with the NPQs around their existing schedules.

It also allows them to have an impact straight away, whether that’s in the classroom or in their leadership roles.

They value the new knowledge that comes in, but also the opportunity they get to reflect.

One of our deputy heads, Amy, did her NPQH in 2022. She was so impressed with the content that she was inspired to pursue headship.

She wanted to make sure that all elements of practice had a strong literacy thread running through them.

She now has 27% of staff who have either passed or are currently enrolled on an NPQ.

That speaks to the high-quality experience that the staff are having.

Why choose Teach First?

We really appreciate the flexibility that comes with working with Teach First.

If you want a values-led organisation who listens to what you say and works hard to meet your needs, then you should look at Teach First.

We see Teach First as an organisation that is working for the benefit of the education system as a whole. And that is really motivating.

Interested in partnering with us?

Find out more about becoming a Teach First delivery partner.

Interested in our NPQs?

Find out more about our full suite of NPQs.