Ambassadors in Action: Jamie Feilden
From the Teach First Ambassador Newsletter May 2008
What led you to join Teach First?
Teach First was entirely different from any other graduate opportunities I had looked at. It offered responsibility and challenge from day one. I think as an ‘03 I was attracted by the fact that there was an element of risk in joining and the success of Teach First was largely dependant on us.
Did teaching in an inner-city comprehensive live up to your expectations?
Teaching at Haling Manor stretched me more than anything I had ever done before. The challenge certainly lived up to and exceeded my expectations. However, I soon found that I loved being part of a school. I particularly enjoyed the pastoral and extracurricular elements of the job. The pupils were endlessly challenging but with such sharp wit that you could never take yourself too seriously or fail to laugh.
Describe your career path since you left your school.
I left the school after my second year and joined the Graduate Recruitment Department at Teach First. I spent a great year recruiting in Scotland and the North East. I then took a sabbatical to cycle from Kampala to Cape Town. On returning I couldn’t resist the lure of Teach First and came back to work here before taking another sabbatical to start work on a project I am developing which takes inner-city pupils to farms. I am currently a Senior Officer at TF managing a team of seven who are responsible for attracting around 2000 people to apply this year. I plan to leave Teach first at the end of this year and work full time on establishing the farm.
Describe your current social change initiative.
The project aims to educate and engage pupils from challenging urban backgrounds through an intensive experience of living and working on a farm, one radically different from their urban lives. Pupils are fully immersed in the day to day running of the farm and have the opportunity to take part in art and group work. All meals are prepared communally using produce grown and harvested from the farm, and all participants, facilitators and children sit down to meals together. In the pilots we’ve run, during the week there has been a marked improvement in pupil’s behaviour and increased levels of cooperation, confidence and empathy along with a significantly developed receptiveness to learning. In the past six months pupils from Marylebone High School, Loxford School, and Cardinal Pole have attended week long visits. During the summer, Teach First Participants will be doing an internship to develop the concept and the aim is to officially launch in September 2008.
What led you to set it up?
While teaching at Haling Manor in Croydon I realised how little contact pupils had had with livestock and how limited their knowledge of agriculture was. In the summer term of 2005 I took two two-week old lambs to the school and the pupils looked after the lambs for the full term. Having lambs in the playground diverted attention away from fighting and provided an exciting new project and focus for many of the pupils. They were responsible for the dayto- day husbandry and in an informal way learnt huge amounts about tending to livestock. Having left the school I decided that pupils would benefit from a week-long trip to a real farm to experience the day to day activities and become truly immersed in an agricultural setting. This led me to take the four groups to the farm and from September I hope to be up and running full time.
How are things going so far? Any future Cock-Up Club material?
Things are going well although I am still at the early stages. I guess the major cock-ups to date include a child falling off hay rick (twice!) and groups of pupils accidentally killing a lamb. We did have a good funeral though.
Has it been rewarding?
It has been so rewarding to see the transformation that takes place during the week. Pupils ‘soften’ throughout the week and you see a lot of the front disappear as they spend time in a cooperative and safe environment. It is incredible to see pupils open up and start to take responsibility for their behaviour. In general pupils become more relaxed about showing enthusiasm and positivity to each other, staff and in their approach to activities. How have the Teach First experience and the
Ambassador Programme aided your work?
Teach First has given me a grounding in starting to understand some of the reasons that pupils exhibit challenging behaviour. Beyond the classroom Teach First has offered a supportive network of people who have inputted into the project.
What advice do you have for someone who may be interested in setting up something similar?
I would say that so much is possible with the support of your peers on Teach First and all the other stakeholders involved in Teach First. Make the most of this support.
