The UR Podcast: Recent Episodes
Catherine, Gabriella Jazz & Sophie
Welcome to The UR Podcast! Intended as a different way of information and update-sharing, we'll be releasing a new episode every few weeks. We'll be chatting all things education and Teach First, interviewing guests from across and outside the organisation and sharing updates & tips throughout the season. We hope it's helpful! We'd love any feedback or suggestions on any of the episodes or content - https://forms.gle/oMjJsHYDRiNUkD3h8
In our October episode we interview Alex, a 2016 ambassador who now works for Zero Gravity (see below for details on their work which aligns heavily to ours). Alex had a fantastic experience with his Recruiter, so this is bound to provide you with some mid milkround inspiration and some useful takeaways for cultivation - enjoy!
If you'd like to listen to this podcast in different parts, you can find the timings here:0:17 - Harry's intro1:16 - News with Lydia and Catherine10:31 - Jazz interviews Alex from Zero Gravity30:58 - Outro
---Talent is equally distributed across the UK, opportunity is not.
Zero Gravity’s free digital mentoring platform propels high-potential state school students into the UK’s top universities. With 20,000 hours of mentoring, 3,000+ Russell Group and 400+ Oxbridge offers for Zero Gravity mentees since 2020 - they're helping students from all four corners of the UK defy gravity. Know an undergraduate who is considering Teach First and is looking for some experience working with state-school pupils? Inform them of our work and we'll pair them with a current UK state school pupil who wants to reach a top university, doubling their chances of receiving an offer in the process. Head to zerogravity.co.uk for more info and click 'become a mentor'!
If you'd like to give any feedback, please do here. :)
In our September episode we hear all of your favourite parts / key takeaways from Summer training, Emily and Jazz chat through all things strategy and Catherine provides her top tips for milk round. Here's to a fantastic Autumn!
If you'd like to listen to this podcast in different parts, you can find the timings here:0:19 - Harry's intro1:48 - News14:15 - Recruiter sound bites from training (thanks to all of you who took part - we loved listening to them!)
16:29 - Emily & Jazz chat through strategy, questions include:
- How have you approached your strategy?
- Are there any key events or activity that'll be your key focus?
- Are there any key stakeholders you might be hoping to work with?
- Is there anything last term that didn't work that you're stopping?
- General strategy advice
32:51 - Campy's milk round top tips
If you'd like to give any feedback, please do here. :)
In this episode, the podcast working group interview Recruiters from Unit A, B, C and D in the UR team to explore their reflections for the 21/22 recruitment season. The team hopes this will help prepare the UR team for evaluations and strategies over the summer months.
The interviews consist of different questions, including what recruiter's key takeaways are, any common themes in their cultivation and anything they would stop doing after this season.
A massive thank you to Lydia, Sacha, Emily and Jo for their time in these interviews.
1:45 - News
10:35 - Catherine interviews Lydia (Unit A)
19:45 - Sophie interviews Sacha (Unit B)
26:31 - Jazz interviews Emily (Unit C)
38:39 - Jazz interviews Jo (Unit D)
If you'd like to give any feedback, please do here. :)
This episode covers the second and final part of our conversations with the School Partnerships teams, to get a bit more info about how they all operate. Along with our previous episode on Relocation, these episodes will hopefully go some way to supporting the upcoming touchpoint window, as well as improving our own understanding of how other teams work. Today's episode looks like this:
01:10 Sophie & the North East
03:33 Chloe in the South West
13:03 Katya in Yorkshire & The Humber
21:42 Vicky in the East of England
33:34 Charlie via Catherine in the SESC
36:35 Gabriella and the West Midlands
This week we start speaking with the School Partnerships teams to find out a little bit more about who's who and how they all operate.
We ask them about the support they offer our trainees as well as for top tips on how we can be working best with them in the run-up to SI.
Each region tends to do things slightly differently to one another so it's great to hear about those nuanced differences and will hopefully make the next few months for us a little bit more straightforward. This week we speak to the newly formed South Central team, the North West, the London team and the East Midlands. All of the other regions will follow in the next episode. Feedback is as ever always welcome :)
00:18 Intro
01:50 News
11:20 Jazz & Alex (South Central)
15:38 Lui & Michael (North West)
25:05 Lui (London)
28:52 Gabriella (East Midlands)
Jazz and Catherine take us through some of the news highlights from the past few weeks including a couple of feel-good LGBTQ+ stories to cap of a great LGBTQ+ History Month. The articles mentioned can of course be found on the Teach First Stories document.
We also hear from Charlie in the School Partnerships team about what they do to support Trainees with relocating to Y&H. Finally, Ambassador, Bethan, tells us what that relocating support and experience looks like from a Trainee's perspective.
There are some fantastic conversations here that will hopefully go a long way to supporting the upcoming touchpoints with anyone worried about moving to a new place. We hope you enjoy the episode - as ever please do share any feedback with us here :)
00:00 - Intro
01:53 - News
13:48 - Interview with SPL, Charlie (Y&H)
29:26 - Interview with ambassador, Bethan (Primary, 2019, EoE)
We’re talking all things strategy with colleagues from across UR. If you’re wondering if your strategy is along the right lines, or if you’re just curious about how others are tackling the Spring season, this one’s for you. Sophie and Catherine share their thoughts on the news too. Our podcast site deletes episodes after 90 days so if you’d like to hear any of the earlier episodes from the first series, please do give Lui a shout. Feedback is always welcome here and if you'd like to read the news stories, you can find them here.
0:00 - Intro
1:05 - News
11:50 - Lizzie's Strategy
18:45 - Beth's Strategy
24:55- Jazz's Strategy
32:35 - David's Strategy
42:45 - Thank you Kate!
In our final, festive episode of the year Lui and Kate talk through the news while Jazz interviews the School Engagement team to find out how they support the TF mission in schools and through collaboration with donors. We wrap up by hearing from some primary school pupils in the East Midlands talk about their love for their teachers. Some great compels to see you through touchpoints! As ever, all articles can be found on the OneNote here and please do share any feedback with us here.