Our Cultural Principles
We live by our principles. They underpin our culture and identity. And inform everything we do.
- We speak up: We’re open, honest and transparent. We speak our mind and expect the same from others.
- We take ownership: We don’t wait for permission; we get things done. We move quickly and learn as we go.
- We trust each other: We trust and enable each other to make good decisions through simplicity and clarity.
- We are focused: We concentrate on where we make the most difference.
- We are present: We seek to understand the experience of those we work with and for.
- We succeed together: We are one charity. We help each other succeed. All our employees are expected to model our principles and help others to do so.
Being an Inclusive Employer
Our challenge is to unlock the potential in all our children, not just some. To rise to it, together we’re creating a culture where everyone, from any background, can do their best work. That’s how we’ll build a fair education for all.
As an employer our aim is to create a place where everyone can perform, learn and contribute while having the confidence to be themselves. To do this we must remove the systemic biases and barriers that have become all too familiar within the workplace. For example, we’ve made significant changes to our employee recruitment and selection processes. Building on rules to ensure diverse shortlists, we’re making sure decision-making at interview stage is distributed with no one person having full say. And insisting that everyone involved in interviewing taking part in training on inclusive hiring practices – find out more about what we’re doing.
We’ve created clear policies and guidance to embed equity, diversity, and inclusion across the charity at key moments in a person’s life, including a Trans and Non-Binary Equality Policy, Menopause, Bereavement, and Serious Illness Guidance and more. This is underpinned by training and a programme of events to celebrate our diversity and better understand the experiences of those from historically marginalised and under-represented groups.
We believe it is crucial that we reflect the communities we serve, as our decision-making should involve and be held to account by those with the personal experience of the barriers we’re here to break down. Transparency is vital in our commitment to increase the representation of our workforce to better reflect the UK working population and the communities we serve. We publish all our employee demographic data twice a year and have targets for the representation we want to see in our workforce by 2024.
As such we particularly welcome applications from candidates who are disabled; Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic; Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Trans including non-binary, and related communities; and candidates whose socio-economic background reflects that of the pupils we work with.
Find out more about what we’re doing to improve our diversity and inclusion.
Working Flexibly
If you ask our people what’s great about working at Teach First, one word comes through strong. Trust. It’s so important to us that it’s one of our cultural principles.
We know our people and teams thrive when we trust each other to perform. No micromanagement or clock watching here! You get your work done in the way that works best for you, your team and your life.
Our agile way of working gives you flexibility. Need to start late, finish early or fancy a change of scenery? That’s fine, we focus on what you achieve, not presenteeism. And if you need a set and regular working pattern to support your life have a chat with us about flexible working options. Over 100 of us already have a flexible working agreement, with more than 70 different working patterns in place.
Supporting You to Do Your Best Work
Our mission is critical and the work’s important, but so’s your life. We’ve put together a benefits package that means you can live and work well.
We’ll give you 27 days holiday a year (excluding bank holidays). And that annual leave increases the longer you’re with us (up to a maximum of 31 days after 10 years’ service). Because it’s important for all of us to rest, pause and reflect, three of those days are taken by everyone during our Winter Shutdown. Outside of our Winter Shutdown you’ll also be able to flex when you use your bank holidays to best suit your needs.
We’ll also support you with a suite of paid time-away programmes for when situations in life call you away from work – including sick leave, wellbeing days, emergency time-off for dependents, carers leave, compassionate leave and bereavement leave.
We take the wellbeing of our employees extremely seriously. Many of our employees are trained Mental Health First Aiders so if you’re ever suffering from emotional distress there are plenty of people you can turn to – either for an informal chat or signposting to further support. We also provide access to a comprehensive Employee Assistance Programme offering a 24-hour counselling support service to all employees, their partners, and dependents.
We are committed to providing our employees with a workplace pension scheme that is competitive in the charity sector. For all employees, we have a Group Personal Pension Plan with Aviva. This plan allows employees to contribute a minimum of 4% of their qualifying earnings up to the maximum allowed within HMRC limits. And we will match your contribution, up to a maximum of 6% of pensionable earnings
To give you piece of mind, all employees are provided with life assurance at four times your annual salary, income protection (at 66% of salary for a maximum of 3 years) for those who are unable to work due to illness or injury, and private medical insurance with Vitality.
And through our flexible benefits options we offer access to dental insurance, health screening, discounted gym membership, travel insurance, cycle schemes, give as you earn and much more…
