Well, here is a new way to attract people to teaching. I refrained from posting this until after the 16^th February in order not to swamp them with entries for reasons made clear below.

Register your interest

Your chance to win a £1000 tech bundle

Submit your details by 5pm on 16 February to be in with a chance of winning a £1000 tech bundle or one of five £100 vouchers to support you in the classroom

Register your interest | Teach First

Here are the terms and conditions for Teach First’s prize draw competition, running from Monday the 7th February 2022 to Wednesday 16th February 2022.

The competition is hosted by Teach First of 6 Mitre Passage, London, SE10 0ER. The competition is hosted on http://www.teachfirst.org.uk.

The premise is a prize draw to win prizes and gain a better understanding of Teach First’s graduate and undergraduate opportunities. By entering and completing the registration form, you will be put into a prize draw to win a tech bundle worth £1,000 or one of five £100 vouchers. One winner will be chosen at random for the prize of a £1,000 tech bundle and five will be chosen at random for the prize of a £100 voucher. The winners will be selected no later than 5pm on Monday 28th February 2022. The prize promotion will open at 9am on Monday 7th February 2022 (“the Opening Date”) and will close at 5pm on Wednesday 16th February (“the Closing Date”). All entries must be received no later than 5pm on Wednesday 16th February.

….. Eligibility to enter: The competition is open to all residents in the UK aged 18 years or older at the time of entering your data. The competition is not open to employees of Teach First, their immediate families or households, or employees of agents or suppliers of Teach First who are professionally connected with the competition or its management. In entering the competition, you confirm that you are eligible to do so and eligible to claim any prize you may win. Teach First may require you to provide proof that you are eligible to enter the competition. Teach First will not accept competition entries automatically generated by computer, completed by third party or in bulk, incomplete, or multiple entries from one person / one email address.

According to the eligibility criteria – The competition is open to all residents in the UK aged 18 years or older at the time of entering your data. This didn’t seem to restrict it either to graduates or to those not already holding QTS. Of course, most people won’t bother to read the terms and conditions so mostly it will be those that see the advertising aimed at potential teachers, but it looks as if anyone could actually enter. Hence my delay in posting this.

I am not sure about how I feel about offering prizes to attract people to teaching. As a Charity, I assume Teach First are not using public money for the prizes and regard it as marketing spending. I know that this is seen as a legitimate way of attracting attention to your service; in this case becoming a teacher, but how would I feel if a university took the same approach? Proving all that join with a tech bundle is a very different thing.