A PROJECT which allows top graduates with no teaching experience to be plunged into tough schools will give a major boost to disadvantaged children in Liverpool, it was claimed yesterday.

The Teach First programme is set to be rolled out into some of Liverpool’s struggling high schools next year, and will be launched in the city on Thursday.

And a report by Ofsted, the education watchdog, into a trial of the scheme in London, has praised it for its positive effects

But some of the new recruits to the on-the-job training scheme struggled to cope with pupils’ unruly behaviour, Ofsted said.

Teach First is based on a similar scheme in America, and is operated as a charity in the UK. Tony Blair’s son Nicky is one of those taking part in London.

Piloted in London since 2002, Liverpool will be only the third city in the country to take up the Teach First scheme, also set to be introduced in Manchester this year.

The scheme gives graduates six weeks’ intense summer training before they are placed in schools where more than a third of pupils are entitled to free school meals, a statistic used by the Government to measure deprivation.

In return, the graduates have to commit to two years at their school before opting to carry on or leave the profession. Companies including Goldman Sachs, Sainsbury’s, Cadbury’s and Citigroup also provide business-related training to the Teach First participants

There has been concern in Liverpool that the graduates may be used to fill vacancies on the cheap, to the detriment of pupils’ education

But inspectors evaluating the Government’s Teach First programme found that despite “exceptionally challenging” experiences, many of the elite graduates made outstanding young teachers.

“Trainees were highly committed to Teach First’s aim of countering educational disadvantage and had a markedly beneficial impact on the schools involved.

“Although trainees found their immersion into teaching exceptionally challenging, around a half achieved the standards for qualified teacher status to an outstanding level.”

Inspectors praised the six-week residential training course that recruits undergo and suggested the idea could be extended to general teacher training.

Teach First encourages top graduates who would not normally enter the profession to teach for at least two years in challenging secondary schools in London, North West and the Midlands.

Liverpool’s National Union of Teachers representative Julie Lyon-Taylor said: “In principle, such a scheme as Teach First should be good news, but our members would like to see the issues of why teachers are leaving the profession, things like stress, addressed first.”

davidhiggerson