Educating the East End

[Lilka]

Anyone?

I thought Mr Palumbo was more interested in being seen to have the upper hand in his dealings with kids rather than the kids.

I thought the PE teacher was excellent in getting through to La
Marr the need for a plan B if football didn't work out.

Yorkshire seemed more child orientated than here

I thought he was calm and applied sanctions without getting angry. He didn't engage in a confrontation (which was clearly what Halil was trying to provoke in the isolation room) but at the same time didn't budge an inch in terms of expectations. A lot of kids are just crying out for someone to give them some firm boundaries so they know someone gives a shit about them. He seems like a bright boy who, like almost all the teens I've ever met, is essentially a good egg underneath it all. Firm boundaries aren't going to scar him for life, he's sensible enough to know, once he's calmed down, that it's for his own good.

bringing up his lack of father figure, however true ,was a little bit shitty tbh stereotypical views all round, he's obviously nice lad largely well brought up just needs to rein in the cheek,

Expectedly did you mean with Lemar or Halil? With Halil I actually thought they were talking more about the lack of a mother figure - and even Miss Hillman explicitly said that it's so important to have a relationship with their mothers.

Was a tough watch. Really hope he pulls it together, he's such a bright lad.

Lemarr CB, yy the alpha male was a bit presumptuous, although I didn't pick up 'unhealthy relationship' maybe that'll be educating the ozarks

I do hope your not poo pooing mr Polombo's Spidey senses! .

That's a relief, thought I'd totally missed something!

I thought the alpha male comment was just meaning he made he decisions at home, not suggesting there was anything wrong with their relationship.
Halil- "I want to be a good man"- bless him

Lol okay yea I do see what you mean there, also that that being a single parent is something that needs someone to step in to fill in the void maybe a bit insulting, .I totally agree there not qualified to make those remarks.

Well it's not right if he bears all the responsibility at home, but I thought it just meant he took care of the male jobs and was more of a help.

They do seem a bit quick to use psychology kinda language iyswim?
I would hope that he knew the family situation quite well, not jumped to that conclusion because there was no dad at home.

They're not a patch on Mr Steer and Mr Burton though are they?

Interesting to watch this, it's a local school for me and one we considered for DS1 (he doesn't go there though). Only seen the first episode so far, felt so sorry for poor Acacia and everything she had to deal with. Cringed when the teacher was talking about people dying, he obviously had no bad intent but it was the last thing she needed to hear!

that whole thing with halil and mr polumbo was such a huge overreaction , waste of time and resources.

Did you notice Lemarr's maths lesson .He answered a question or 2 and then was holding his head in his hands in sheer frustration at the slow pace of the lesson.
I thought the teachers were crap at handling HalIL.why did they say 2 mins to hand over the ball, and then when he did hand it over within the 2 mins they still phoned his grandad.
And he was suspended for stealing a phone out of school, and it later transpired that he had been completely cleared by the police of having any involvement.
And that head teacher just pick, pick,picked away.When he was clearly very upset crying with his head down on his arms,did she not get he was upset about his mum? He wasn't being intentionally disrespectful.She picked away at the most minor things, and escalated instead of defused at every opportunity.

I was slightly shocked on two occasions:

When Mr Polumbo decided on a whim that Lemar should come in on strike day and ignored the set out behaviour policy. My partner and I work in a school for boys with EBD, if we made up consequences on the spot the boys would (rightly) go nuts.

And again when the deputy head (I think) couldn't see that Halil was obviously so ashamed and upset at his behaviour and misread it as anger/disrespect. He was given about 5 seconds to look up and apologise. That just isn't long enough at 13/14.
I think the previous poster is right; it was all escalation and no descalation.

Also when Mr Polumbo went up to halil afterwards to rub salt in the wound. He was bent down right in the kid's face. So confrontational. Where I work that would get you a swift box to the side of the head.

I don't think Halil was crying about his mum; he was crying about the situation he'd got himself into. As the programme showed, underneath his big man act, he's just a pre-pubescent Year 8 prone to tears when angered. He was angry because, I expect, he felt getting his grandad up the school over a minor infraction was a massive overreaction - and it was. He's obviously a cocky little shit, and as soon as Mr Palumbo said "you have two minutes to hand that ball over" it was OBVIOUS he was going to dick around with it for 119 seconds before he handed it over.

But I guess the school are taking an ultra hard line with him because they felt he was skating a thin line between success and delinquency. Mr Palumbo redeemed himself a little with that speech about Halil being too proud to back down and viewing backing down/apologising as "weakness". That much was obvious.

I agree that the punishment after the two minute thing was harsh - the kid had done what he was asked, albeit not within the spirit of it.