We had a catch-up with Simon Quick, Contracts and Procurement Manager at Teach First. This brilliant charity is fighting to make sure every child from every background has a decent shot at education. We find out how they’re doing it, what they love about DeskLodge, and what they have planned for the future.
What do Teach First do?
Teach First is a charity fighting to make our education system work for every child. Potential is equally spread across our country but young people from disadvantaged backgrounds don’t start with the same chances and inequality continuous throughout childhood. Teach First works with schools to help change the system. We do this by:
Helping people develop into great teachers
Supporting talented teachers to become inspiring and effective leaders at every level;
Connecting schools to networks of support so all schools can make an even bigger difference.
What sort of growth have you had here at DeskLodge?
We’d started to out grow our old office with Bristol becoming a popular spot for people moving out of London. The varied working spaces have allowed people to come back to the office post lockdowns in a way that has worked for them.
How did the pandemic affect Teach First?
We were lucky and had already adopted agile working - allowing colleagues to control how, when and where they worked but working from home five days a week still came as a shock! We had to adapt other ways of working, particularly given how much time we spend in schools. Like others, Zoom and Teams became the norm(with ‘is that an old hand raised?’ a regular question!).
What are your plans for the rest of 2022 and beyond?
We have a two week organisation wide winter shutdown to make sure everyone has a proper chance to recharge their batteries, most of our plans are to get to that and switch off from work for a couple of weeks!
What’s been the best thing about working from DeskLodge?
Everyone has been so friendly and welcoming! We’ve quickly become the envy of the other regional offices!
Describe YOUR DeskLodge in 3 words?
Super friendly welcome
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