Brett Wigdortz, the Teach First chief executive, today announced that he is moving on from the organisation he founded 15 years ago. But the man behind the charity that has helped to transform the image of teaching in this country is not going quietly.
He has used a TES interview to voice his concerns about the government’s national school funding formula, which he fears could undo the progress made by some schools because it shifts money away from cities to rural areas.
“Many [London] schools I talk to are worried about their funding being cut and how they’ll be able to continue to provide services at that level,” the 43-year-old says.
Of the great changes in education that he’s witnessed over the last 15 years, the rise of London is one of the most significant.
“When we started Teach First, London was the lowest-performing area of the country,” he says. “We sometimes forget about the miraculous improvement of London schools.”
Wigdortz says his best moments at Teach First have been visiting schools - usually in London - that have been transformed beyond all recognition since he first visited them a decade ago, and knowing his teachers had a part in it.
Meeting him at the charity’s austere headquarters in the capital, Wigdortz tells TES that if he could go back in time to 2002 to give his younger self some advice, it would be a warning that his Teach First stewardship was going to last “a bit longer” than he was expecting. It was only ever supposed to be a six-month leave of absence from his managementconsultant job for the American, who now also has a British passport.
‘Often people stay too long’
Both Wigdortz and Teach First have come a long way in the intervening years. The charity, which parachutes bright graduates into tough schools, is now the UK’s largest graduate recruiter and one of the most influential players in education. So why leave now?
“I think personally I’ve done what I could do and what I wanted to do at Teach First,” he says. “It felt like a really good time to now hand it over to the next person, who can take it to the next stage.
“A lot of charities I’ve seen founded that have grown, the transition has often been very fraught and difficult - and often people stay too long.”
During his 15 years of leadership, Wigdortz has transformed Teach First from an idea at the fringes of policy to a huge organisation commanding cross-party support - and a key part of the modern educational establishment. Has his decision to call it a day been influenced by the fact that Teach First is no longer quite the outrider it once was?
“I think that’s right,” he muses. “I think probably my leadership style is much more that of an insurgent.”
I think probably my leadership style is much more that of an insurgent
Wigdortz has had the ear of ministers of all political colours at Teach First, and in that time he has seen eight education secretaries come and go. Asked who his favourite was, he safely plumps for Lord Adonis - a former schools minister, but never a secretary of state.
When Wigdortz came up with the idea for Teach First, it was Adonis who first answered his call while working as a Downing Street policy adviser, so the choice makes sense. But isn’t there an actual education secretary he can pick out?
Wigdortz laughs and shifts in his seat. “I’m not going to pick out one secretary of state. What’s great is, I would say most secretaries of state have really cared about education.”
Most? So some were more interested in climbing the greasy pole? “There have been one or two like that,” he laughs again, but he won’t be drawn any further.
Wigdortz takes a similarly diplomatic tone when asked about Theresa May’s planned grammar school expansion, which Teach First opposes. Asked what message he would like to send the prime minister, he advises her to be as “fact based as possible” in her policies.
Disengagement ‘the big issue’
The highs that Wigdortz has experienced in his time at Teach First are coupled with the bitter knowledge that there are “very few schools” outside London that have made the same progress he has seen in the capital.
He says that the EU referendum result came as no surprise, with “areas of the country with the lowest-performing schools overwhelmingly voting for Brexit”.
Wigdortz sees education as a key component of the lack of opportunities that caused leave voters in those areas to feel let down. “Going to schools outside of some of the big cities and talking to some of our teachers made me think there’s a lot of kids and parents out there who feel really disengaged,” he says.
We forget about the miraculous improvement of London schools
He believes reversing this disengagement is the “big political challenge of our time” and that education - and Teach First - will have a key role to play.
Likewise, if Britain is “going to make its way in the world independently” after Brexit, its education system needs to be firing on all cylinders, he adds.
But Wigdortz insists he’s an optimist. “I can’t think of any school I visited 14, 15 years ago that isn’t better today,” he notes.
“I visited schools where you were scared for your safety, where it felt like it was much more a containment unit for kids. I don’t think those schools really exist anymore.”
As for his own future, he insists he doesn’t know what he’s going to do next, but he’s taking a leaf out of the Teach First book: “One of the central tenets of Teach First is the idea that it’s just not necessarily right for everyone to do the same job their entire lives.”
Wherever he turns up next, he says he will continue to be an “insurgent”.
