A touch of class
EDUCATING GREATER MANCHESTER
C4, 9pm “SCHOOL days are the best days of your life” – yeah, right.
No matter how much we might all enjoy watching the brilliant Educating … series, there can’t be many of us who would want to swap places with any of those pupils and actually go back there. Can there?
It was hard enough years ago, without social media or camera phones and all that involves. It’s good to see some things never change, though.
Drawing rude pictures of men’s private parts on the back of a dirty van has been done since ever there were dirty vans.
But pity poor headteacher Mr Povey, who has to haul the culprits to his office for a bawling out – and is clearly finding it all LOLs himself.
He is head at Harrop Fold Secondary in Salford, Greater Manchester.
A school that had been known as one of the worst in the UK but is now turning things around, thanks to teachers like Mr Povey and his two brothers.
Alongside them are special educational needs teacher Miss Pierce, Head of Year 7 Miss Bland, languages teacher Mr Hamdaoui and scary-looking Mr Chambers, who is Head of Behaviour. This first episode focuses on 11-year-old Rani, who has only recently come to the UK after he and his family fled Syria.
Struggling to cope with life in a new school, and with his English not brilliant, he’s being bullied and finding it hard to make friends.
Fortunately, along comes Jack, another Year 7 pupil, who thinks people should just be kind to each other.
Seeing Rani change over the school year, thanks to support from the staff and his new best mate, is properly heart-warming.
Lovely stuff.