Top graduates to teach in disadvantaged primary schools

Teach First has announced it is to place teachers in primary classrooms for the first time this September.

The charity is known for recruiting and training top graduates to work as teachers in England's most challenging secondary schools.

Up to 80 teachers of the UK's brightest graduates will be placed in primaries this year, Teach First says.

Eventually the charity hopes 5% of all teachers in primary schools in challenging circumstances will be Teach First teachers.

The decision follows a pilot, funded by Proctor & Gamble, which saw 50 teachers placed in 27 London primaries.

Teach First founder and chief executive Brett Wigdortz says: ""We are committed to addressing educational disadvantage, and to do this we need to engage with children as early as possible. That means placing inspirational teachers in primary schools in challenging circumstances.

"We recognise the very specific needs of primary pupils and have taken great care to ensure our teachers will receive the best training available, including a thorough grounding in key skills such as literacy and numeracy teaching, how to engage parents in their children's learning, and encouraging positive behaviour for learning."

Teach First currently operates in six English regions – the East Midlands, London, the North West, the North East, the West Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber – and has placed 2,250 teachers in more than 250 secondary schools.

To qualify as a Teach First primary school, more than half the pupils must live in very deprived areas (the lowest 30% of the Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index).

Source: Press Association, The Guardian website, Wednesday 30 March 2011 08.20 BST