Community champions

As a community champion, supported by The Ogden Trust, you will build and lead a local teacher community. Funding will be available for you to organise and facilitate opportunities in your region for secondary teachers to engage in activities that support the teaching and learning of physics.

You will work with our teaching and learning team as you learn to lead a community of practice that builds vital connectivity within your local physics teaching network. You will be encouraged to develop your own professional practice and to build on your classroom experience.

As an ambassador for the Trust, you will share the latest news and opportunities with your network.

How does it work?

Funding (£1,800) will be allocated to schools so that community champions are given allocated protected time (which will equate to approximately one free period a week) or a fixed term teaching and learning responsibility payment. Alternatively, the funding may be used to support cover costs to release a teacher for a set number of days per year as agreed with the school.

A small fund (£1,000) will be available to each community champion to facilitate activities in their local area; champions will have the autonomy to lead their network, but professional guidance will be offered by our teaching and learning team to ensure best practice.

The role of community champion will be agreed for a three-year period, but this will be reviewed annually.

Who can be a community champion?

A community champion must be a practising physics specialist teacher in an English state school with more than five years of teaching experience. The role will provide an opportunity to share and build on classroom practice; it will offer an avenue for professional development that enhances the role of classroom teacher.

We have recruited our first cohort of five champions and will focus on building communities in areas of socio-economic disadvantage and with high numbers of secondary schools. If you have applied to take part in the Lead Practitioner programme you should not apply to be a community champion.

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