# Educating Essex



## Ms T (Oct 11, 2011)

I caught up with this C4 doc last night and it's absolutely brilliant, compelling TV.  I can't believe the access the camera's managed to get to the school using hidden cameras.

The most recent episode about a good boy gone "bad" because of his parents' divorce was devastating.

I *love* the head and the deputy head - they're both really inspiring.  And the deputy's rant about Michael Gove was just brilliant.

Highly recommended.


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## sim667 (Oct 11, 2011)

I've been watching this, and agree its been excellent.

Felt very sorry for the lad in the last episode. The head is brilliant, the deputy head is good, but when I was a teen his manner would have totally rubbed me up the wrong way.

The english teacher with curly hair is an utter cunt. Who does he think he is saying 'Goodbye scumbags' when the students leave the classroom.......


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## stavros (Oct 15, 2011)

I've been loving this. Surprised there hasn't been a thread about it before.

It is a bit limited in that you get the impression that the only staff are the head, his Mrs, Mr Drew and the saintly Ms Conley, the PE teacher who seems to be able to console any pupil. My parents (both secondary school teachers) are a bit in awe of Mr Drew over how he maintains his enthusiasm.


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## mrs quoad (Oct 15, 2011)

Amazed that it got ethical clearance!

THIS one's pregnant, THIS one's Grandad died, THIS one's basically failing.


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## ShiftyBagLady (Oct 15, 2011)

Yeah I was surprised at how much of the boy from last week's like was discussed and I felt a bit grubby about it tbh


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## ska invita (Oct 21, 2011)

Watched last night for the first time - very impressed with the overall behaviour levels. I can only guess that all the bad stuff got edited out. I'd love to see footage of my school days - plenty of  and 
after last nights episode i hate π too...


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## purenarcotic (Oct 21, 2011)

I think the head teacher in this is utterly inspiring.  He's fantastic at his job; I thought the little 'man to man' chat with the boy who was expecting the baby was excellently handled and a really lovely thing of him to do.


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## mrs quoad (Oct 21, 2011)

ska invita said:


> Watched last night for the first time - very impressed with the overall behaviour levels. I can only guess that all the bad stuff got edited out. I'd love to see footage of my school days - plenty of  and
> after last nights episode i hate π too...


Yeah.

tbf, though, something like 2 out of the 4 previous uns have focused on victimisation, bullying, dropouts, and failures.


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## past caring (Oct 21, 2011)

Did you lot think The Office was real?


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## purenarcotic (Oct 21, 2011)

ska invita said:


> Watched last night for the first time - very impressed with the overall behaviour levels. I can only guess that all the bad stuff got edited out. I'd love to see footage of my school days - plenty of  and
> after last nights episode i hate π too...



I was horrified by the behaviour lol.  So much talking and phone checking and the way the girls treated Ashley made me want to climb through the screen and tear them a new one.

But then I was a part of the geeky quiet kids who went to a nice school in the heart of suburbia so I expect my opinions are utterly skewed heh


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## ska invita (Oct 21, 2011)

purenarcotic said:


> I was horrified by the behaviour lol. So much talking and phone checking and the way the girls treated Ashley made me want to climb through the screen and tear them a new one.
> 
> But then I was a part of the geeky quiet kids who went to a nice school in the heart of suburbia so I expect my opinions are utterly skewed heh


Phones should be banned from schools - switched off when you come in, and confiscated if found on.


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## trabuquera (Oct 21, 2011)

Mr Goddard the head is a cast-in-gold hero.
Mr Drew the deputy (aka the evil enforcer) is probably one too, but his needling/dictatorial manner would have got right under my skin too when I was a teenager.

It's a fantastic bit of documentary making and all of the staff deserve medals. BUT I have to say - compared to a lot of what I've heard about from urban schools - the pupils' behaviour actually seemed pretty well disciplined to me. Haven't heard anyone swearing at a teacher yet - let alone having a physical go, or blatantly insulting them to their faces - and that is (from what I've heard) all too common in city schools these days.

And as a terrible procrastinator & web-time-waster myself I really do admire and sympathise with the teaching staff because they're having to swim SO hard against the general current of mass distraction and I-must-check-my-messages-right NOWWWWW mentality their students have grown up with. the sequence about clearing out all the students' computer data caches was LOLsome ... "Ok, so that's x MB worth of porn, a torture game and 42 different versions of Combat War. Not really your project work, is it?"


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## smmudge (Oct 21, 2011)

purenarcotic said:


> I was horrified by the behaviour lol. So much talking and phone checking and the way the girls treated Ashley made me want to climb through the screen and tear them a new one.



Last night's was pretty much how I remember secondary school. Some things never change!


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## ska invita (Oct 21, 2011)

trabuquera said:


> BUT I have to say - compared to a lot of what I've heard about from urban schools - the pupils' behaviour actually seemed pretty well disciplined to me. Haven't heard anyone swearing at a teacher yet - let alone having a physical go, or blatantly insulting them to their faces - and that is (from what I've heard) all too common in city schools these days.


not sure if its is urban - anyone know where in essex it is?


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## Jackobi (Oct 21, 2011)

It is Passmores Academy in Harlow.

Most of the staff are amazing, judging from the documentary, although I wasn't impressed with the ICT teacher stating how amazing it was that they had use of "a ICT room". It is how I imagined high-school staff to be, when in reality my school was run by tyrannical deputy and head masters, both of whom caned me within the first six months for, in my opinion, unjustified reasons. That was enough to fuck up my high-schooling.


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## wtfftw (Oct 21, 2011)

smmudge said:


> Last night's was pretty much how I remember secondary school. Some things never change!


Except they made up far too quickly and didn't drag everyone else into it.


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## Jackobi (Oct 21, 2011)

And no bundles either.


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## ska invita (Oct 21, 2011)

Jackobi said:


> It is Passmores Academy in Harlow.
> 
> Most of the staff are amazing, judging from the documentary, although I wasn't impressed with the ICT teacher stating how amazing it was that they had use of "a ICT room". It is how I imagined high-school staff to be, when in reality my school was run by tyrannical deputy and head masters, both of whom caned me within the first six months for, in my opinion, unjustified reasons. That was enough to fuck up my high-schooling.



lots of teachers are caners/ex-caners nowadays it seems to me.

All i know about Harlow is its a new town (built after ww2)


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## ATOMIC SUPLEX (Oct 21, 2011)

I can't beleive that kid with all the 'Yo blood' 'Me blood' shit.
Is that how kids talk?


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## ska invita (Oct 21, 2011)

ATOMIC SUPLEX said:


> I can't beleive that kid with all the 'Yo blood' 'Me blood' shit.
> Is that how kids talk?


you do live in croydon dont you ?


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## ATOMIC SUPLEX (Oct 21, 2011)

ska invita said:


> you do live in croydon dont you ?


I don't talk to kids above the age of five though.


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## smmudge (Oct 21, 2011)

ATOMIC SUPLEX said:


> I can't beleive that kid with all the 'Yo blood' 'Me blood' shit.
> Is that how kids talk?



It's "blud", actually.



wtfftw said:


> Except they made up far too quickly and didn't drag everyone else into it.



Yeah I just assumed they cut out several months worth of tedious bullshit.


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## gaijingirl (Oct 21, 2011)

I have on several occasions been called "miss blud"

I take it as a compliment...


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## Jackobi (Oct 21, 2011)

ATOMIC SUPLEX said:


> I can't beleive that kid with all the 'Yo blood' 'Me blood' shit.
> Is that how kids talk?



Yes. I think it is symptomatic of rap music, which is in tune with a lot of teenage boys' attitudes. The propensity of rap towards an 'I don't give a fuck' lifestyle suits their teenage angst, therefore they emulate 'gangsta' mannerisms.


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## ska invita (Oct 21, 2011)

ATOMIC SUPLEX said:


> I don't talk to kids above the age of five though.


joys of teenagedom await...


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## stavros (Oct 22, 2011)

ATOMIC SUPLEX said:


> I can't beleive that kid with all the 'Yo blood' 'Me blood' shit.
> Is that how kids talk?



That grated with me a bit too. he would have been but a toddler when the Staines Massif were at their peak;


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## sim667 (Oct 24, 2011)

"Yes blaaaaaad!" Get it all the time when I show them something they like.

And brapping too.

I really like the student welfare guy...... I think thats the type of job I'd like to have instead of teaching tbf...... But as the head says in the last one, a lot of those people will be going with the cuts.


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## Garek (Oct 28, 2011)

That teacher who does the reports and detention is a jumped up petty little cunt.


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## sim667 (Oct 28, 2011)

the deputy head? He's alright, him and the head just do the good cop bad cop thing between them


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## sheothebudworths (Aug 7, 2014)

I've just started watching this on netflix and am seriously enjoying the frequency of the  use of the word 'mate' when the teachers speak to the pupils   
What prompted me to search for and bump this thread in fact, was one of the lovely student support staff talking to a boy about 'birds' and finishing a (wholly fucking appropriate, imo...) speech with the excellent line 'onwards and upwards, mate' lol 
A really committed set of staff and what seems like a really clear, tolerant strategy to meet every student's needs, as far as they can - with all the work that entails - and with what looks like great morale amongst all of the staff, mate 

Anyway - idly thinking on - I searched for a thread.
There is a lot of talk on the programme (soz, I do know I'm 3 years behind  ) of their motto being that *no student will fail* - that they will all leave with enough qualifications behind them to give them the best possible options in life - and they do seem to very mindful of individual needs the children in their care have and to keep working at - and constantly reconsidering - ways to manage any problems where it's causing so much conflict that one child's behaviour is so unmanageable in a classroom environment that it's inevitably impacting on other students.

I'm still blabbing  - actually, what I'm interested in, is that this an academy school but one that calls itself a *cooperative* academy (the first of it's kind, at the time, apparently).

I think I was wondering how much the fact that it IS an academy influences the pressure they place on themselves that every child will leave with a batch of positive exam results (obviously it's a great ethos for a school to have - not to give up on any of their children)....but also, what difference the 'cooperative' bit makes to that (sounds like lots, in theory, iykwim)?  It's just not something I've heard of before.

I have this very firm idea that academies are _bad_ - so how do 'cooperative academies' differ from the bog standard ones (if they do at all)? And do you teachers feel they're significantly less awful than anything else?

Errrr spanglechick and gaijingirl (no pressure to respond, just the two teachers who came to mind - but you are on HOLIDAY, ffs   - so just if and when you feel arsed to answer  )


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## spanglechick (Aug 7, 2014)

tbh i don't know what a co-operative academy is, really.  the push to succeed for every child is common, but not exclusive to academies - the problem with academies come with their power to erode pay and conditions agreements,set their own curriculum etc - and be answerable to no - one except which ever politician is ed sec at the time.  and that means not so much that every child is helped to succeed, but that every set of data must be fabulous.  that's not always the best thing.   so the best thing for a kid might be arts and practical subjects, but at my school they wouldn't be allowed to take them if they were bright, because schools are measured on the numbers of kids completing ebacc etc.


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## Orang Utan (Aug 7, 2014)

Haven't seen this. Educating Yorkshire was ace though.


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## sheothebudworths (Aug 7, 2014)

spanglechick said:


> tbh i don't know what a co-operative academy is, really.  the push to succeed for every child is common, but not exclusive to academies - the problem with academies come with their power to erode pay and conditions agreements,set their own curriculum etc - and be answerable to no - one except which ever politician is ed sec at the time.  and that means not so much that every child is helped to succeed, but that every set of data must be fabulous.  that's not always the best thing.   so the best thing for a kid might be arts and practical subjects, but at my school they wouldn't be allowed to take them if they were bright, because schools are measured on the numbers of kids completing ebacc etc.



Yes, sorry - I sound like an imbecile - I KNOW that every teacher's motivation is to get the children they teach to be interested in their subjects, to learn and to enjoy learning, to understand....and then, _hopefully_, to pass exams.
It is the horrible *numbers* stuff that interferes with all of that....oh fuck, I can so imagine it (and actually, I can remember very obvious stuff being applied, differently, to the different ability groups when *I* was at school, too).

'Data', yeah all of that  although I take your point that the downsides of academies are more to do with fucking the teachers over - but therefore the children, too, obv - than they are an outright assault on *figures* etc (and maybe it's OFSTED type stuff I'm thinking of there ).



Oh but also - ok - not even you would be clear on what a _cooperative_ academy is  *strokes chin*


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## Orang Utan (Aug 7, 2014)

Sheo - http://www.co-operativeschools.coop/message/co-operative_academies
Sounds like a normal academy with an extra layer of New Labour/Tory _stakeholder _BULLWAFFLE.


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