Jamie's Dream School

[londonone]

20 in a class
No curriculum
TV Cameras

And they still piss around! Maybe people will start to get a real idea about how perhaps some of the students are in fact not vitims but the architects of their own downfall!

Andre Agassi (the ex-tennis player) has set up a school in a deprived area of LasVegas called Agassi Prep with great success www.agassiprep.org/

When a child is admitted they and their parents "make a commitment to excellence and follow a code of respect". If you look at the website it is amazing but may be a step to solving some of these issues. I think parents have to do some voluntary work for the school and the teachers have to be on-call for homework help!

Wonder if Jamie Oliver is trying to jump on Agassi's bandwagon

no, you wouldn't, but the imo fascinating thing here is that they are all on THE TELLY... and yet still cannae stop themselves acting like idiots.

their stated ambitions are to become famous/rich, and they have no qualifications but some apparent nous.

anyone of that age group has seen demonstrated time and time again that being cute on a reality show is enough to garner a job in television and achieve a certain tabloid fame... THAT is the real opportunity here, not the chance that they might get into a 6th form college.

and yet on the strength of what i have seen... not one of them has spotted this/is able to control themselves to take advantage of it.

that is AMAZING to me.

True Xenia but there are very few PRU places, and schools are judged on how many students are excluded. You often find a student sent to PRU is back in your lesson a few weeks later and sadly, with little improvement.

corns - I know the one you mean. He was sadly expelled for either drinking or stealing - can't rememeber which. Shame though as obviously a bright boy who fitted in well in many ways - academic and sporty but set up for failure by the TV company in many ways, as sent him to a boys catholic boarding school in rural somerset, still run by monks in parts. About as far away from his London experience as they could get. Not to mention that he was the only coloured boy in the school I think. in the right school he would have succeeded I think - but not so good telly of course!

Likewise with Dream school - I am sure the pupils weren't picked for their desires to turn their lives around through inspirational teachers but for car crash telly as someone else said! Shame - as I felt much more deserving pupils out there who have genuinely been let down by education rather than these kids, many of whom appeared to have no motivation or desire to learn.

something has gone horribly wrong for these children

But what DO we do about it?

I know from my own experience how horribly demoralising it can be to work with children like this, and to feel that you are making no difference at all.

At least JO is trying something (although I agree that a TV programme is about ratings, not genuine social experiment). I read an article a few years ago that said the problem was too much self esteem that demands respect from others without earning it, and not enough self respect that would prompt them to behave in a way worth of respect, but that doesn't offer any answers either.

I don't think they have either self esteem or self respect. Their parents have failed them.

I was thinking about the whole 'society' is to blame thing too. Blame is only useful if it leads us to a solution, so blaming society seems quite meaningless. These children have not starved, they have had a roof over their heads, they have been given the opportunity of an education that they cannot access - but why?

article here Jamie's a fan of Gove and somebody else...

i think that people's lives aren't shit enough without an education, tbh. which is emphatically NOT to say that we should make people's lves more shit, just that we are in territory where a couple of generations of people have not starved if they didn't work, which must be the first time in history that has ever happened. and no one seems to know what to do with that.

i think that people's lives aren't shit enough without an education, tbh. which is emphatically NOT to say that we should make people's lves more shit, just that we are in territory where a couple of generations of people have not starved if they didn't work, which must be the first time in history that has ever happened. and no one seems to know what to do with that.

'just that we are in territory where a couple of generations of people have not starved if they didn't work, which must be the first time in history that has ever happened. and no one seems to know what to do with that.'

And, in a couple more generations, that may no longer be the case.

well, yes, it may not be a problem for long.

it's like GB saying there is no more boom and bust, we assume that standard of living will keep getting better, but mine is already going to be worse than my parents, and my kids likely worse than mine. and all this education education education, well look how many kids hae degrees now, and debt to their necks, and can't get jobs. we're getting to the point in hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy where we will send off all our telephone sanitation engineers on a big spaceship and never want to see them agein.

and the rest of us will die from a disease formed in a dirty telephone....

Aitch don't forget the management consultants

We need to remember that there are children out there who want to learn, from all backgrounds. Sometimes they need help in learning to concentrate and listen. Just to counter all the comments about how difficult it can be teaching teenagers (and it can be - very!), but it can also be really enjoyable too.

Exactly itsalarf- this group is not representative of a typical class

I'm sure that the programme does eventually go on to be a success for some of the pupils at least. Two of the girls were on breakfast news and had gained lots from it - Angelique was raving about Alvin Hall.
Another point - resources. These 'star' teachers had access to amazing resources. It's not like that at all in the real world.

The constant chatting/texting/basically not listening or giving a crap is unfortunately not restricted to under-acheiving teens. I teach in a university and the place is full of them! It's got progressively worse in the 15 years I've worked in HE.

I watched it with my 16 yr old DS and tried to make him see what teachers are up against. He has admitted he has caused chaos like this in the classroom with the help of others. I hope it brought it home to him what he actually should be doing at school, listening and learning! Even he thought some of the kids were not appreciative.

this programme has inspired me to start coaching my 9 yr old for the 11+. Her brothers got to GS and it is certainly nothing like this.I wouldn't dream of sending myb DC to a zoo like that!

A lot of the lessons are available to watch on YouTube. Supposedly these are the full lessons. I'm watching Alvin Hall's maths.

I skyplused it, and watched it with my Y6 dd.

She was a little shocked, but could tell that some of the kids were really smart, Angelique came across particularly well. She was shocked about how unappreciative some of the children were for Rolf's art lesson. That was the lesson she would have liked to have been in most of all - she has not got a clue who Rolf is though, but could tell he was lovely.

I think that Jamie is probably less shocked by some of these kids than many on the programme as he has direct experience from setting up the Fifteen charity etc. To be fair to him he does know something about helping disaffected kids turn their lives around.

I couldn't work out what Jamie is trying to prove either, just maybe it is an experiment and we'll all find out a bit more about motivation, teaching and dis-engaged young people. Maybe we won't.

Oh dear I do feel sorry for teachers who have to go into school and teach kids like this on a day in day out basis.