Ahead of the Class with Julie Walters Tonight ITV1

[RTKangaMummy]

Ahead of the Class

Drama with Julie Walters

ITV1 9pm

Tonight

Oh god no! The school I work in is an absolute pleasure compared to the one on TV.

For example telling a teacher (or any adult for that matter) to Fuck off would get you a three day exclusion.

We get a fair bit of low level disruption and rudeness that would never have happened when I was in school in the 70s. For example last weel I stopped a girl from jumping on the back of another and 'play' wrestling her. The bell was about to go and the coridor would have been full of kids, so dangerous behaviour. She stopped and then immediatly started again. I stopped her and she started to turn and walk away as I was talking to her. Just your basic rude, silly, bad manners stuff.

We have the odd kids who's behaviour is much worse, but they are in the minority, just a pain for us to deal with and more of a pain for other kids to have to suffer.

Also in general the teacher where I am working like their job, and most of them are good at to too. We were one on 6 schools in the county pointed out for special praise from ofsted and we were the only 'bog standard' comp.

I'm lucky in my school

Thanks, that's reassuring . And glad you don't have to go through that kind of sh*t every day.

I taught at St Georges not long after Philip Lawrence was murdered..............I did maternity cover for two terms .
When I look back I wonder why on earth I stayed that long. I htink the programe took some of the behaviour a bit too far, especially the opening sequence with the kids on top of desk jumping around.
A few things were started before the head took over - the oneway system in the hallways and stairwells for example. Breaktime and lunches were scary - I'd stay in our dept staff room and wait until the bell - once I was in the corridor at a particulary manic time and was pushed over by one of the students - another teacher had observed the entire thing and ignored it, didn't help me up or say anything to the students. There was a great deal of apathy amongst the staff, they just didn't care anymore, but of course there were a few that wanted to make a difference. I credit my time at St Georges with making me a much stronger and more effective teacher - and it did lead me to special needs teaching which I really really enjoy.

Bloody hell, hana, respect to you!

If you could survive there then you must be one hell of a teacher!

I think that the 'apathy' thing can be so dangerous. You only have to let the little things go for them to quickly escalate into bigger things. I think that this is one thing that non-teachers don't always 'get'. They may well see asking a kid to do up their top button as needless nagging, when in fact it helps to keep a lot of other behaviours in check.

That said it must have been almost impossible to keep motivated in that work environment, for the teachers or the kids.

It's just a shame that the school this programme was filmed in actually underwent a turnaround in the manner shown on this programme (got in an inspirational head etc etc) but then they closed the school anyway. It was in Hackney.

I was wondering where it had been filmed.
Looking back - I think I stayed as long as I did simply because I didn't know that schools weren't ALL like that in inner London....I hadn't been in London for long and was just so pleased to be getting regular work as a supply teacher - I do think the agency should have warned me before I went there. All other schools that came after St George were, well, I guess a walk in the park! I was in a really really supportive department and that helped too - my classes were also smaller than average ( sceince) oh but were those practical lessons a nightmare!!!!

Oh hell, so that must have been a nightmare!

I also teach science and I walk on eggshells when I have my one 'difficult' class and they have a practical.

I get worn out by the 'count the stuff out, count it back it' stuff! Amazing what kids will nock isn't it?

Wow- I used be an LSA at St George's, hana! I worked there between 97-99. Did we overlap? I have very fond memories of many of the kids there but felt that the programme was less than realistic. Staff I kept in touch with did say that Lady Stubbs turned things around there tho.

I always call pupils children - I hate " students" cringe

was the slattery character an amalgam of all of the old guard staff?
i worked in a s chool with rowdy kids but was very well managed so they were all in their seats and geneerally learned.

I liked the wasy she changed the environment of the schoola dn noted the effect that had ont he staff/pupils

Scummy, all respect to you to!

I was interviewed by Marie although she left my school to go to St georges . I heard some rather bizarre things about her that made me doubt the programme. She was very eccentric which came acros in the programme but disliked immenesly by the staff. Apparantly the kids barely saw her and by coincedence lots of our more challenging students were away during OFSTED. However the school did seem to fall apart after she left and many of the scenes of beahviour were familiar.

I quite enjoyed this as I always like Julie Walters (despite the dodgy accent!). However, as it's such an interesting subject (I read excerpts from the book in the paper a while ago), I think I would have preferred to see it as more of a documentary type thing than a slightly cliched drama. It would be great to see how some of the school's ex pupils are doing now and whether they think Lady Stubbs really turned their lives around.