TEACH FIRST

Registered charity 1098294 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · Wikidata: Q7691159 · Wikipedia

Teach First is a charity working for equality of education throughout England and Wales. In order to work towards this the charity is building a movement of leaders who are changing lives within classrooms, schools and across society.

Objects

TO ADVANCE THE EDUCATION OF THE PUBLIC

Area of benefit: NOT DEFINED

The charity’s charitable objects and area of benefit, quoted from its governing document as held on the Charity Commission register.

Causes: Education/training · Human Rights/religious Or Racial Harmony/equality Or Diversity · website · Get email alerts

Registered contact address: Greenwich, London, England (from the postcode on the register)

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that the charity returned to an underlying operating surplus in 2024/25 after restructuring costs, though a total deficit was reported due to non-recurring expenses. Per the trustees' report, free reserves of £5.8m are currently below the stated policy target range of £9.4m to £14.1m, but the Board is confident in the charity's ability to continue operating effectively into the foreseeable future.

Automated summary of the FY2025 accounts; the evidenced findings below carry the verbatim passages.

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by Grant Thornton UK LLP. Discloses 3 of 6 completeness components.

In its annual return the charity told the Commission it is also regulated by: Estyn: Her Majesty's Inspectorate For Education And Training In Wales; Ofsted (Office For Standards In Education). This is the charity’s own declaration; it is not a rating and has not been verified by the Commission or by this site.

Policies the charity declares

In its annual return the charity told the Commission that it has the policies listed below. This is self-declared: it is not verified by the Commission or by this site, and it is not evidence of how a policy works in practice.

• Bullying and harassment policy and procedures
• Campaigns and political activity policy and procedures
• Complaints handling
• Complaints policy and procedures
• Conflicting interests
• Engaging external speakers at charity events policy and procedures
• Financial reserves policy and procedures
• Internal charity financial controls policy and procedures
• Internal risk management policy and procedures
• Investing charity funds policy and procedures
• Paying staff
• Risk management
• Safeguarding policy and procedures
• Safeguarding vulnerable beneficiaries
• Serious incident reporting policy and procedures
• Social media policy and procedures
• Trustee conflicts of interest policy and procedures
• Trustee expenses policy and procedures
• Volunteer management

From the charity’s annual return (Part A, self-declared)

Answers and figures the charity gave in Part A of its annual return to the Charity Commission. They are self-declared: not verified by the Commission or by this site. Only positive answers and figures are listed; items not listed are simply not shown.

Source: this charity’s annual returns on the Charity Commission register.

Public fundraising profile: JustGiving — Teach First (matched by registered charity number).

Leadership, per the charity’s website

• James Toop — CEO (source)
• Maurice Helfgott — Chair (source)
• Emily Commander — Executive Director of People & Governance (source)

Listed on the charity’s own website when we last crawled it; roles may have changed. Pay-band disclosures above are anonymous statutory disclosures and are not attributed to any named individual.

Public-sector contracts awarded

From the official Contracts Finder and Find a Tender notices (supplier matched by exact registered name). Contract income is distinct from grants.

UK research funding (UKRI Gateway to Research)

• IP-MATCH: Integer Programming for Large and Complex Matching Problems —

Property (HM Land Registry)

4 registered titles in England and Wales held by the charity’s company or corporate body (0 freehold); recorded price paid £864k. All charity-held property. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright, OGL v3.0.

Trustpilot: Teach First scores 2.5/5 from 5 reviews (source) — reviews usually concern the charity’s shops or services, not its charitable performance.

Public profiles (found on the charity’s own website): facebook (31,056 likes) · instagram (17K followers)

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 31/08/2025)

Reported reserves equal ~1.3 months of spending — in the bottom quarter for charities its size (median 4.6 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Charitable activities (90% of income) — components as reported reconcile to the return’s total income; not from the accounts narrative.

Per its annual return, cost of raising funds: 3.1% of total income — below the median for charities its size (3.7%) (benchmarks).

Trustees · trustee networks

• Djamila Leila Andrea Boothman
• Helen Weir
• Humphrey William Battcock CBE · trustee of 2 other charities
• Luke Dunstan Sparkes · trustee of 1 other charity
• MAURICE HELFGOTT
• Nabila Jiwa
• Nicholas Robson Owen · trustee of 1 other charity
• Paul Robert Geddes
• Prof Carole Samantha Twiselton · trustee of 1 other charity
• Tom Harbour

Trustee list from the Charity Commission register (current, not historical).

Operates in: Throughout England And Wales

Income and spending

Common questions

Known funders

Grants to this charity found in funders’ own accounts filings.

Funders of similar charities

Funders whose accounts show grants to charities similar to this one (and no recorded grant to this charity) — a starting list for fundraisers.

Charities like this

Semantically similar by activities and financial character, from our analysed corpus. Compare with Teach for Tomorrow.

• Teach for Tomorrow income £536k
• TEACHBEYOND income £186k
• THE DIFFERENCE EDUCATION LTD income £1.6m
• FIRST GIVE income £908k
• TEACH2TEACH INTERNATIONAL income £198k
• GET FURTHER LTD income £1.6m

Side by side with its peers

Each row is that charity’s latest analysed filing; every value is quote-backed on its own page.