Meet ‘Tough Young Teacher’ Oliver Beach

A Birmingham graduate is one of the stars of a BBC Three programme that lays bare the realities of teaching in London’s inner-city schools.

Glaswegian Oliver Beach, who features on Tough Young Teachers, is one of six trainee teachers who signed up to Teach First, which launches  top graduates into “challenging” schools.

In the first episode, Beach, a member of Newton Mearns Hebrew Congregation, used unorthodox methods to engage students, including playing classical music as they walked into class and reading quotes by Marilyn Monroe.

Beach, 25, who teaches business studies at Crown Woods College in Eltham, told the Jewish News: “Seeing despondent pupils fighting against their own apathy and achieving good results is very rewarding.”

• Tough Young Teachers is on Thursdays at 9pm on BBC Three.