After a brief and unhappy flirtation with the City, he opted for a PGCE, the postgraduate teaching training qualification that is not as widespread in the private as in the state sector. His first job was teaching history at a comprehensive, Windsor Boys, between 1999 and 2001. A conscious choice of a state school? “At that stage, it was. I thought it was important to be in the state sector and get a wide experience, particularly given my own background.”