Harsh lessons

Four self-made millionaires who flunked school go undercover at crisis comprehensives in an eye-opening new Channel 4 series

Who’d be a teacher, trying to control teenagers who are more interested in their phones than Pythagoras’s Theorem? Not Kate Stewart. ‘ I’d rather work in McDonald’s,’ she says. ‘It’s unbelievable the conditions teachers work under. Everything is restrictive. You try to do something different and the government won’t let you. Then there’s safe-guarding pupils. I’m flabbergasted how much of it isn’t about teaching.’

Kate, 36, was never going to be a teacher. She was expelled from school in Liverpool at 15 with no qualifications. By 17 she was pregnant. Yet against the odds she set up a beauty business, making her first million by the age of 26. Oh, and she’s had three more children and wants them to have the education she didn’t. ‘When they won’t get out of bed, I’m dragging them out saying, “I’ll take you to school myself.”’

Now Kate is taking part in a four-part Channel 4 series called The Secret Teacher, which puts four self-made millionaires who did not excel at school in gritty comprehensives around the country, where they go undercover as teaching assistants. Their true identity is revealed at the end of their episode. The goal? To see if their own experiences of the school system can provide any lessons for today’s children.

For the four taking part, the six-week experience was deeply personal. ‘I was terrified,’ admits Kate. ‘My experience of school was so bad. I was that nightmare pupil. I didn’t turn up a lot. I was more likely to be found smoking in the bushes than at classes. They told me I’d never make anything of myself.’

After working at a Sheffield school, how does she look back on those days? With horror. ‘It made me want to see my old teachers and say, “I’m sorry”. I must’ve made them want to drink a bottle of gin every night. When you’re that age you don’t consider the impact your actions have. You’re so self-absorbed.’

It’s a similar story with Paul Rowlett, 37, who goes into a school in Hertfordshire. He left school with one GCSE a nd joined the Navy, but it wasn’t the right fit. ‘I don’t take direction very

well,’ he admits. He was sacked from a string of sales jobs, but found his niche at a stationery firm. He now runs Everything Branded, a company that specialises in branded products and turns over £28 million a year.

Paul was petrified going back to school, but he wanted to find ‘a kid who reminded me of me at that age. I always had schemes on the go then – selling tuck, carwashing, window- cleaning. I’d bring clothes in to sell, but instead of that side being encouraged I got into trouble for it.’

The schools are in the ‘challenging’ bracket and Kate finds herself breaking up a fight, while Paul ends up sitting in a class of 60 pupils. ‘A teacher had quit so two classes were being taught together,’ says Paul. ‘Half the kids were on their phones messaging each other to meet in the toilets, then asking to go. How can you teach in that environment?’ What an eyeopener the series is. All the entrepreneurs do find children who remind

Paul with pupils Courtney and Loui them of their younger selves. At the end of the process they’re free to reward pupils, and the school. Paul ends up paying for a private tutor for one 15-year- old girl, Courtney, who clearly has potential, and he offers ‘cheeky chappy’ Loui, 15, a job. He also promises funding for the school’s business department. ‘It was really emotional seeing the response when I told the kids who I was,’ he says. ‘They didn’t believe it. They saw that someone just like them could be a success.’

Kate says the show was lifechanging. ‘I went in wondering if I could help one person,’ she says. At the end, she offered someone a job. So could every school benefit from having a successful business person in the ranks? ‘Definitely,’ says Paul. ‘Because we were those kids.’

The Secret Teacher, Thursday, 9pm, Channel 4.