Recruitment & selection

Teaching subject requirements

Teach First currently places its Leadership Development programme participants in to 13 national curriculum subjects at secondary level.

To teach in a secondary school your degree must be related to one of our National Curriculum subjects. However, if you have a grade A or B in Design Technology, English, ICT, Maths, Science or a Citizenship related A’ level you will be eligible to teach that subject based on the subject preferences of our schools. Please note Science requires two relevant A’ levels at grade A or B.

Participants on our Primary pilot programme will require a degree and/or A’ level in a modern foreign language.

Subject Knowledge will be assessed at the Subject Knowledge Audit stage of our process. This is to ensure that you have the required knowledge to teach this subject and to identify areas of subject knowledge that you will need to develop further before the Summer Institute and begin teaching in September. Successful completion of the Subject Knowledge Audit is a conditional part of your offer to join Teach First, and without it your offer will be withdrawn.

Should you join the programme Teach First will allocate you to a subject, in which you will teach at least 50% of your timetable in, in the following way:

• If you have a degree or A-level (at A/B grade) in a STEM subject (these are Science, IT, Design Technology and Maths) you will be allocated to one of these subjects. Please note you must have two science A-levels to be considered for this subject.
• If this does not apply to you but you have a degree in a shortage subject (these are English, Music, Modern Foreign Languages and Religious Education) you will be allocated to one of the subjects. Please note we are also able to accept an A-level (at A/B grade) in English Literature or Language to teach English.
• If neither above apply to you then we will match you with your degree and/or A-level (at A/B grade) subjects as best as possible with our anticipated demand for vacancies across the regions.

If there are particular subjects you would not be comfortable teaching we will take this in to consideration, you will be asked to list these at our assessment centre. A large number of our participants are required to teach another subject as well, this will depend on the needs of your school.

Please also note we recruit throughout the year and subjects can fill before our application deadlines. If you are only eligible to teach a subject that we are no longer recruiting for, a recruiter will have been in touch to talk about your options before the assessment centre. If you are successful at the assessment centre we will continue these discussions to find a suitable outcome for yourself and Teach First.

If you are unsure please contact faq@teachfirst.org.uk or call 0207 517 2738.