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Tim Rothwell

Tim Rothwell (’08) Ambassador
Studied Geography, Cambridge
Taught Geography
Now Assistant Brand Manager, P&G

It’s the little things that suddenly become such great victories for you; getting a difficult kid to sit down for a whole lesson, getting a whole class to be quiet while you’re explaining what they’re supposed to be doing. More and more you begin to feel like you’re actually making a difference to individuals within the school. It’s an incredibly powerful feeling.

In my second year I tried to get a lot more involved with wider elements of the school community. The way I did that was to try and work out how I could make an impact, not only to help the school in its wider sense, but how that could then knock on to helping me engage with some of the pupils that I was having difficulty with. What I ended up doing was something I never thought I’d see myself doing, which was coaching an under-13 girls’ football team. Obviously it had its challenges. I thought that this was the one demographic within the school that I was really struggling to identify with and make an impact with. But once they saw me in a different environment, and helping them and taking them down to Leyton Orient, they really began to engage more in lessons and we were able to talk about things outside of just the regular classroom.

One of the other big parts of the programme, aside from the teaching, is all the experts that come in and talk to you through the Leadership Development Programme. A light bulb moment for me was going to the business school in the summer and having somebody talk to us from a marketing background. That’s where I began to take an interest in that side of things and that’s where I thought maybe it’s somewhere I’d like to move afterwards. That wouldn’t have happened if it hadn’t have been for Teach First. I certainly wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing now.

Teach First is more than just two years in the classroom. It really develops all sorts of different skills and resilience is really the big one. There’s not much now in my current job that can knock me or faze me, just because of all the different highs and lows that I’ve gone through in the last two years.

There are still many things for you to do as an Ambassador, and I engage in the Higher Education Access Programme for Schools, so I have mentees within schools in London that I go and visit about every six weeks and help them try and get into university. Equally I did a lot of work helping the students who are applying to Oxbridge. So I try and help students that wouldn’t have otherwise had the opportunity.