‘Top talent doesn’t like to close off options’: The creator of Teach First is now revolutionising pre-school

Brett Wigdortz tells Andy Martin how his ‘tiney’ concept can attract a new generation of graduates

Wigdortz founded tiney in 2018 (Supplied)

I said I would never go into teaching,” says Brett Wigdortz. So, naturally, he went and set up Teach First. And now he’s launched tiney, a new tech-driven system of pre-school education and childcare.

When I spoke to him, he was sitting in a shed at the bottom of his garden in East Finchley. But he was born in Bruce Springsteen’s hometown, Asbury Park, on the New Jersey shore, an hour out of New York. Most of his family were in teaching. “I was a B+, maybe A- sort of student – good but not great,” he says. “Could do better was the usual report. I was an annoying kid in class.”

Growing up, he tried his hand at a lot of different jobs. He was a strong swimmer and became a lifeguard at the beach while at high school. And he qualified as a FIFA referee aged 16. Now he swims in the men’s pond at Hampstead Heath through the winter, but he did a masters in economics at the University of Hawaii (in Honolulu), where he recalls mostly surfing or playing water polo.