Teach First

Pictured left to right: Professor Susan Price, Reuben Moore and Sir Alan Langlands.

Leeds universities unite to win Teach First’s annual residential training event for the city.

The University of Leeds and Leeds Metropolitan University, have successfully bid to bring one of Teach First’s residential training events worth £5.5m to the city in 2014 and 2015.

The MEETinLEEDS sales team has been working with the events team from Leeds Metropolitan for almost two years in order to secure Teach First’s Summer Institute, a huge event which, in previous years, has taken place at the University of Warwick. Partners First Direct Arena, and accommodation providers Unite, Downing and Grey Star, will provide additional venue space and bedrooms for the delegates’ 28,000 bed nights.

It is the first time the universities have collaborated so closely on an event, and it is hoped that this will provide a model for attracting further large-scale events in the future.

Vice Chancellor of the University of Leeds, Sir Alan Langlands, says:

“This closely-knit collaboration between ourselves and Leeds Metropolitan University has been absolutely crucial to the success of this bid. We have learnt that together we can achieve great things for Leeds, as neither partner would have been able to secure this event without the help of the other. The Teach First Summer Institute will be a vibrant addition to the city’s conference calendar.”

Teach First is a charity with the vision that no child’s educational success should be limited by their socio-economic background. The charity’s mission is to end inequality in education by building a community of exceptional leaders who create change within classrooms, schools and across society. Teach First achieves this by finding and training graduates with leadership potential to work in schools serving the lowest income communities in the UK.

Reuben Moore, Teach First’s Director of Leadership, has been impressed with what he has seen so far:

“As we continue to recruit more participants and ensure that all of them are able to make a difference to young people, Leeds Universities provide the perfect setting both in terms of the capacity that the universities have, and for their location in the heart of the city – a fact that allows us to work closely with those in the community, including local businesses and schools.

“Venue finding agency VFI explored over 45 different cities for us, and in terms of scope for development and ease of access, we are delighted to say that Leeds came out on top.”

From 19 July to 02 August, over 3,000 graduates will attend Teach First’s annual residential training event where they will be provided with seminars, tutorials and social activities to prepare them for teaching in schools in England and Wales from September.

Lurene Joseph, Chief Executive at Leeds and Partners, is excited about the possibilities this brings for the city:

“Teach First’s decision to come to Leeds is great news for the universities and the wider Leeds economy. More than 2,000 people visiting the city will be a tremendous boost to our retail, cultural and food and drink sectors.

“We are delighted to be working with Leeds Metropolitan University and the University of Leeds to drive added value in the tourism marketplace. This will be supported by forging further links with VisitEngland and VisitBritain to bring forward key campaigns to position Leeds as one of the top UK conference destinations.”

The conference and events team at MEETinLEEDS are looking forward to welcoming Teach First to the campus next year.