Teach First -Teaching adds up!
Recent Teach First Training Programme graduate, Neelam Rajput talks us through her teaching journey, and what working in teaching has taught her.
About
I’m a British Asian, born in Leicester, while both of my parents were born in India. Growing up I would have loved to have learnt and read more books at school that represented my culture and ethnicity. Apart from books by local author Bali Rai, I don’t remember us reading any books that didn’t include mostly White characters or were written by White authors.
I started joined the Teach First Training Programme in 2017.
I started joined the Teach First Training Programme in 2017. Before this I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do but since being in the classroom, I’ve found my confidence growing so much. I went into teaching so I could have a direct impact on the younger generation and with everything that’s happened in 2020, it’s made me even more driven to inspire my pupils.
This year has been difficult for everyone and schools have had a lot of challenges to weather. With COVID-19 leaving many young people out of school for months, many of them have had less access to books and other reading materials.
But alongside living through a pandemic, young people have also been witnessing an important moment in history. In response to the most recent Black Lives Matter movement, a brutally honest conversation around race has finally reached the mainstream. Something which I know could be strengthened with the right education.
I began efforts to diversify the English literature we teach in our Leicester school by providing our incoming year 7s with books written by ethnic minority authors. But books are expensive and with limited school budgets, I needed to set up a crowdfunder to get them – putting a lot of energy into plugging our plan on social media. Thanks to a lot of local support, including Bali Rai himself (who donated a dozen of his books) we soon achieved our £1,500 target.
The reactions from the pupils has been fantastic.
They’ve all really engaged with the books and enjoyed learning more about the authors’ wealth of backgrounds, thanks to the packs we provided. There’s not enough funding to replace books in the curriculum so we’ve been trying to think of other ways to diversify the books the pupils read. Since September we’ve been back in the classroom and I have started a book club with year 7 pupils where we can chat about the books we’ve been reading.
Based on my own experience,
I wasn’t hugely surprised to read Teach First’s latest report, which found that the biggest exam board does not include a single book by a black author in their English literature GCSE specifications, and only two ethnic minority authors. This means pupils can finish school without reading a single book by a person of colour.
I was drawn to the Teach First Training Programme...
because of their mission to create a fair education for all. Because of the schools that Teach First place their teachers in, I knew I would make a big impact on the lives of pupils from lower socio-economic backgrounds. When I was at school, coming from a working-class background, I found I didn’t always have as many opportunities as some of my classmates. I wanted to help the pupils in that situation now.
Apply Today!
For any young people from a BAME background who are thinking about teaching, I would just say: go for it! You can have such a massive impact on pupils and especially pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds. Britain is filled with different histories, cultures and perspectives, so it’s vital that our teachings reflect that. If we don’t educate our young people diversely, they won’t grow to become empathetic, well-rounded members of society – it could make the greatest difference for the next generation.