Working inside Teach First’s playground of delivery partners

Vantage Teaching School Hub is based in Hull and East Riding, Yorkshire. Teaching School Hub status is designated to Saint Mary's College in Hull, which is part of St Cuthbert's Roman Catholic Academy Trust.

The trust has gone from strength to strength in recent years. We have grown significantly, doubling in size at the start of academic year 22/23, and St Mary’s was rated outstanding by Ofsted in December 2023.

In partnership with Teach First, we deliver the Early Career Framework (ECF) to over 700 early career teachers (ECTs).

We serve a really diverse regional area

Our Teaching School Hub area is diverse. There is the city of Hull, market towns such as Beverley and Driffield, a coastal belt and large rural countryside.

There are schools located in all of these areas, all with their unique identity, strengths and challenges.

We have a high proportion of small rural schools. 40 schools within the East Riding have fewer than 100 pupils on role – and many of those have fewer than 50.

Almost all schools in Hull are part of a multi-academy trust (MAT) and a large proportion of schools in East Riding are Local Authority maintained.

Partnerships lead to collective expertise and talent

What’s been important for us as a teaching school hub is to build partnerships like the one we have with Teach First.

Harnessing the power of those partnerships helps us to understand how we can better deliver programmes.

It’s also important to us that we reach out and understand the context of the schools we work with.

We want to connect with schools that are maybe less likely to engage because of the barriers they experience.

This has been critical in shaping what our programme delivery models look like.

When choosing a lead provider for the ECF programme, we took a close interest in Teach First’s long-standing track record of teacher development, particularly through ITT.

We have found the quality of the curriculum, and the opportunity to contextualise it to meet local needs, most helpful.

We also liked how the curriculum was sequenced and the inclusion of wellbeing modules.

We work hard to invite feedback

We like to hear when things are going well on our programmes, but we're particularly interested in the less favourable feedback. That's where the opportunities lie to improve and develop.

Our partnership with Teach First actively encourages us to work together to improve the programme.

For example, our year two SEND ECTs benefited from the programme content but they also felt it lacked some relevance in meeting the very complex needs of some the children that they work with.

With the support of local expert teachers and Liz, our quality assurance lead at Teach First, we’ve spent time unpacking what that practice might look like to develop effective models and supporting resources.

Participant feedback was also reflected in adjustments made to the programme delivery structure to reduce travel time and respond to capacity challenges some schools face.

We feel listened to by Teach First and that our voice is valued.

The Teach First playground of delivery partners

Beyond our productive discussions with Teach First, we also connect with other delivery partners.

It’s a little like a school playground at morning drop-off. Parents might connect with one another and develop helpful and supportive relationships with other parents.

In the Teach First ECF playground, we've made great informal relationships with other delivery partners. This has helped us to improve, refine and develop what we do.

We’ve also found the more formal steering group meetings a useful resource.

It’s an authentic partnership

Teach First has impressed us. Working with them feels like an authentic partnership.

While we deliver for Teach First, they recognise our expertise in what is relevant to our regional area. They trust us to inform ongoing refinements to the programme.

We recognise Teach First’s tenacity in overcoming some of the real challenges and complexities of the national ECF rollout.

But, above all, what we value most with Teach First are the relationships that we've developed.

Interested in partnering with us?

Find out more about becoming a Teach First delivery partner.