Alanna is the co-founder of Rivers Coaching. Having trained as a Maths teacher, through Teach First, in a school in a very deprived part of south-east London.  There she was exposed to seeing talented teachers being over-worked and under-supported. As a result, she saw many teachers leaving the profession. Several of those that remained were jaded by the system, and often had very low expectations of the children they taught. She was horrified to find out this was happening across several schools in London, especially those facing the most challenging circumstances. Ultimately, the children were being failed by a flawed system. So, in the November of 2012, Alanna approached her friend to set up Rivers Coaching; a value-driven social enterprise that supports teachers, working in the most deprived areas of London, in the classroom on a one-to-one basis over a year. These teachers have a dedicated coach and are supported in creating and executing a vision and highly aspirational goals for their pupils. Shackleton’s funding has supported Rivers Coaching in running a second more extensive pilot across 6 schools, working with over 30 teachers reaching over 750 children directly. This enabled Rivers to demonstrate the power of coaching in raising standards in teaching as well as learning.

Award Date: May 2014