Interview with Amy Lingfield, Director of Partnerships at Teach First

“As a national organisation, we value immensely our partnerships with delivery partners, such as SWIFT, to develop a self-sustaining and improving system.”

Amy Lingfield is Director of Partnerships at Teach First before her previous career in communications and employee engagement at Instinctif Partners in the City of London, where she worked with clients including, Thomson Reuters, Aviva and Marriot Bonvoy.
 
Amy was drawn to working for Teach First in seeking to make a difference and to have an impact, and was particularly drawn to the focus on disadvantage and a commitment to a fair education for all. In her nearly ten years with Teach First, Amy has always worked in Partnerships and has enjoyed the roles of School Partnerships Manager, Regional Partnerships Manager, Head of Regional Partnerships London and Head of Regional Partnerships South.
 
As part of Amy’s career change from the City, she completed the Teach First Leadership Development programme and worked in schools in Lewisham before joining Teach First and is grateful for this understanding that complements working for a national provider.
 
SWIFT is pleased to work with Teach First for the delivery of the Early Career Framework and the National Professional Qualifications as part of the Golden Thread of teacher development. 

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1. From your own background in business and education, what top three qualities do you bring as Director of Partnerships that Teach First?
From my background in both business and education, I believe the top three qualities that I bring to the role are firstly, the strategic collaboration. I know how to bring businesses, communities and schools together in a way that in my opinion, creates an impact focus.

Secondly, I think is leadership and education.
As an ambassador of the Teach First Leadership Development Programme, I understand the daily challenges that accompany the rewarding career of teaching in the classroom and I wish to ensure that our partnerships are truly built to support teachers and leaders.

Thirdly, I think would be a results-driven innovation, that draws on my business experience to build sustainable high impact initiatives that are focused around disadvantage that makes a difference to our partnerships and the education sector.

2. What do you consider to be the benefits of working with a delivery partner, like SWIFT?
As a national organisation, we value immensely our partnerships with delivery partners, such as SWIFT, to develop a self-sustaining and improving system. We can bring our national reach, our influence, our relationships and expertise in recruiting, retaining and developing teachers and leaders alongside the latest research and work with partners like SWIFT to contextualise for their schools appropriately.
 
SWIFT are the absolute experts within their context as Teaching School Hubs and are committed to the schools they work with. The Team brings a wealth of experience to ensure the Teach First products that we are developing as an organisation are exemplary and best serve the schools that need them most.

Our colleagues at SWIFT are very committed to providing the best possible experience for their schools and to ensure that we, at Teach First, are facilitating this experience and are providing open and honest feedback to us on a regular basis.

3. What has been most personally rewarding about working SWIFT?
Personally, I have thoroughly enjoyed watching the benefits of our collaboration on many aspects, including for example, ITT accreditation, working in partnership to improve our systems and processes at Teach First.

Certainly, for me, working on the review process provided an opportunity to take a step back and to enjoy and reflect on how far our partnerships have evolved and also to look to our future working together; which felt like a big turning point for our partnership in driving forwards. There is also clear alignment between our organisations in that we are both striving to provide a high-quality service for our schools.

On a personal note, I believe that SWIFT colleagues, Jen Knowles, Fiona McNeile and Martin Smith are already committed and focused to driving our partnership forwards to achieve our mutual aims and goals. For us, our SWIFT colleagues always have their schools and Multi Academy Trust partners at the forefront of their mind in decision-making and it is a genuine pleasure to support them in serving their community.

4. What do you believe to be the current challenges for teaching recruitment faced by Teach First?
Essentially, I think there are a breadth of challenges facing us, but lots to hope for and aspects that are starting to change. In particular, I think there are two current challenges, in the Graduate recruitment market into teaching and how this plays out in disadvantaged schools.

I believe there is a need for more flexible working in teaching and am pleased to see this is starting to shift. However, I think due to the structured teaching school terms, there has been a lack of flexible working available and the breadth of the job can sometimes be perceived as unattractive for Gen Z whom we wish to attract into the profession. Pay and often, location are also important, as the cost of living is so high, and many more students are choosing to stay at home and do not necessarily want to move. Therefore, getting to a school location can be tricky for them.

In our experience, disadvantaged schools generally face more recruitment difficulties with specific challenges for schools serving disadvantaged communities that are often exacerbated by funding challenges; which can sometimes impact on workload in those schools. I believe we need to see more funding and support for disadvantaged schools and communities to support both recruitment and retention in disadvantaged areas.
 
In terms of the Graduate recruitment space into teaching, competition for candidates remains tough in a relatively buoyant market with a career in teaching perhaps not the most popular profession choice amongst Graduates. It can be perceived as quite stressful, and not very well paid when compared with other Graduate jobs. Hence, attracting Graduates into the market and therefore new entrants into the market is challenging and many of the most sought-after Graduates may choose to pursue other careers. Gen Z typically value making a change in their career, but not necessarily at the expense of their financial or mental health.
 
But I still believe teaching is a rewarding and worthwhile career and I empathise with and commend teachers in the classroom inspiring the next generation of teachers.

5. What are your hopes for the future teacher training and how do you see Teach First evolving in this space?
Once again, I think for us at Teach First, it is a focus on disadvantage.
We want to see better funding and more support for schools, which could stimulate working in disadvantaged schools as an attractive place to work.

I think we also want to be working closely with our Delivery Partners, such as SWIFT to be looking at how in partnership we are able to support schools so they are not more disadvantaged within their geographical context with an enriched offer.
 
I think it will also be important that we see the continuing professional development offer bedding in, so that more future teachers will recognise the genuine development opportunities within the sector and start to see the dynamic career trajectory from an early stage.

Finally, I think the changes in the apprenticeship space will provide a valuable opportunity, and we are excited at Teach First about this new avenue into teaching that should provide openings to attract a new market of entrants into the profession and should certainly develop and grow more teachers from within their communities.

We thank Amy for her uplifting interview and for being our valued partner.

Interview by Jude Baylis, SWIFT Executive Assistant

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