Three is a Magic Number Our School

Each September, half a million children begin

the most important year of school so far...

-..Year 7.

-Boom!

CBBC have rigged this secondary school with loads of cameras

so you can see exactly what happens...

..as they make new friends

and get into trouble.

If you wish to find out how strict I can be,

then break the rules I set down.

I'm not spotting make-up there, am I?

But what they learn here...

IN FRENCH: A, B, C, D, E, F, G...

..will stay with them forever.

Hello, there. I'm Mr Thoburn and I'm a science teacher here.

If you've ever wondered what secondary school is like,

here's your chance to find out.

This is Our School.

HE BURPS

How can you do that?

This time we follow best mates Harry and Owen

as they move up to secondary school and we see

how friendship can help overcome all sorts of new challenges.

It is important to have a best friend.

Because best friends, you can tell them everything.

You have to be loyal, kind and funny.

You need someone save your space in line.

You have to look out for them and hang out with them.

Best friends, you can stick together

and you can do lots of fun things together.

A good best friend would be somebody who gets on with you.

Have you got your schoolbag ready?

No. Off you go, quickly.

It's the start of the new term

and the boys are about to get their first taste of life in Year 7.

I think my life will change dramatically because

I'll get to meet new people, see what they're like and learn a lot more.

-Right, you've got everything?

-Yeah.

I'm really excited because

you get to meet other people.

-Good luck.

-Bye!

-Bye.

Bye.

Just stick with me.

They're on their way to their form group, 7AG,

with teacher Mr Glendenning.

Guys, I'm going to give you five seconds to find a seat.

Five...

Four...

Three...

Two...

One...

Half...

Quarter...

But before he can take the register,

there's something very important that Harry needs to tell him.

-Yes, Harry?

-Your flies have come down.

Right, thanks for noticing that.

-Right!

-Well, someone had to let him know.

Sh...

Harry and Owen met when they were just three years old.

We've been friends since Year 1

in our primary school where...

Where I couldn't fasten my shoe

and he came to help me.

Doing everyday things like tying shoelaces

are harder for Harry than most.

I have Cerebral palsy

that affects me walking and talking.

But it doesn't affect the close friendship he shares with Owen.

We have the same sense of humour

and we know each other, like...

Really, really well.

Hard to get a friend like that -

he's, like, one of a kind.

-You are!

-Thank you.

In the move up from primary to secondary,

one of the big things on everyone's mind is making new friends,

but for Harry, that might not be so easy.

Making friends is quite hard

because they don't understand me,

they haven't got used to my voice.

Harry's dad also knows that it could be tough for him.

When you're a child,

anything that makes you a little bit different stands out quite a lot.

So we were a little bit concerned about how

he would fit in with a mainstream school.

Well, let's find out, shall we?

I win!

And just in case you haven't got it yet, this is a BIG school,

with 1,500 students,

80 classrooms, two canteens, a football pitch

and tennis courts. Not bragging, just being factually correct.

Bonjour, la classe, bonjour!

-CLASS:

-Bonjour.

In French, the class are learning numbers

and they're doing it with a sing-along.

This is the best table!

# Trois, quatre, cinq, six, sept

# Huit, neuf, dix

# Onze, douze, treize, quatorze, quinze

# Seize, dix-sept

# Dix-huit, dix-neuf

# Vingt. #

Maybe Harry should think about a career in stand-up comedy.

Harry, who's your hero?

I don't have one but I look up to tall people.

LAUGHTER

Looking up to tall people?

That joke's older than me, Harry.

Meanwhile, Owen's impressing his classmates with his Russian accent.

Hello my friends, today it is atheist Russia

and we are going to be doing the PPS.

And at the end of the lesson, the boys get to leave class early.

Because it takes Harry longer to get around school,

he needs to avoid crowds,

and that also means skipping the lunch queue.

It puts him a bit on an advantage.

Instead of going in line with people, like, pushing about,

because people push about and you'd get flattened, correct?

Yep.

An early dinner also means there's more time to muck about...

..and to catch up about school.

Made any new friends?

Yeah, a kid called Adam, have you?

Not in our form group.

I reckon that we should try and make some more friends, yeah?

There's still plenty of time for that.

Next up, a brand-new subject - drama.

We're going to do a little experiment to begin with, OK?

Teacher Mr Smith has picked Harry and four other students

to perform in front of the class.

You can't get past these chairs,

I want you to imagine that there's a fence, OK?

You lot on that side of the fence

are going to be photographers.

You lot are stars of the film.

OK?

You're going to go and you're going to walk down here,

walk all the way down...

back round and back up into that corner.

OK? Three, two...go on, walk down your stars, go!

Walk down your stars.

CHEERFUL CHATTER

OK, stop, please.

Stop.

They've strutted their stuff on the red carpet,

but Harry is embarrassed and gets upset.

What's the matter? Are you all right, Harry?

Are you OK? You just sit down and let Sir talk to you for a second, OK?

No problem.

No problem.

Teaching Assistant Mr Rigley and classmate Libby are there to help.

-No-one's said anything, have they?

-No.

Do you not like doing that?

You don't like walking up and down?

OK, that's fine, I understand that. I'm the same, I hate acting

and standing up in front of people, it is quite hard to do.

So you don't want to do that again? No. Right, that's fine.

Sir's very understanding, he will understand that, yeah?

-Let's go in for the last minute.

-It can be scary performing

in front of your class, but Harry eventually re-joins them.

Trying out new subjects isn't the only thing

that the Year 7's are finding tricky.

-Oh, my gosh.

-There's lots of it...

-They give you too much.

-..it's annoying...

Difficult.

..and they'll be moaning about it for the rest of their school lives.

Very challenging.

We're getting loads more homework than we did at primary.

Homework, homework, homework.

From the first week I was really scared,

I was like, "How am I going to finish all of this?"

It's due in on really different days.

It's one of the most important things to get right.

I just wish I could give it all to my brother

because he's done it all and it's like,

"There you go, there's my homework, I'll collect it tomorrow."

If I don't get it in then I am literally going to get shouted at.

And there's all sorts of excuses when it's not handed in.

My best excuse would be my niece has drawn all over it.

Try and keep your homework somewhere safe

so I don't have to get someone to translate it for me.

I've brought it in, but it's, like, half-done.

Why is it only half-done?

Well, I was eating my tea...

That's not an excuse.

I know a new one - my lizard ate my homework.

That looks like it's been through the digestive system of a cat.

Since starting at secondary,

one of the things Owen's been struggling with is his homework.

You have, like, three pieces of homework

and then they go and push another two pieces of homework on you

and then that's now five pieces of homework to do,

which is dead annoying.

In French, teacher Mrs Houchen is expecting homework in.

Attention, s'il vous plait. Can I see all of your homework?

-Yeah, there you go.

-Well done, tres bien!

Homework, please, ladies. Did you find your book?

Oh, dear, I'm not sure Owen's done his.

Homework, please.

Owen?

My homework's not in my bag.

I put it in my bag this morning and now it's not there.

Let's have a double-check because I'm wondering if that's the case.

No, it's definitely, definitely not in there.

Do you think this might be because we haven't done it, Owen?

I get some homework where it's like,

I'll get seven pages of homework and I'll get one where it's one page.

I know how you feel, I really do. It's a tricky old business

when you come to secondary school

and you've got a lot of homework to do. I was in the exact same boat.

-I'll give you a last chance saloon, it's called, OK?

-OK.

-Do you understand that?

-Yeah.

And if you don't get it to me on Monday,

you will get a detention, that's how it works.

Looks like it could be a busy weekend for Owen.

Despite a few wobbles,

the boys are settling in well and starting to make friends.

This is especially good news for Harry,

who was worried about meeting new people.

I feel like everyone knows me.

Like, literally, I'm walking past people

and they say, "Hi, Harry."

-Hi, Harry!

-Hiya.

Yeah, he's fine.

THEY LAUGH

Yeah, I'm fine.

There's one classmate that the boys have really hit it off with, Iman.

What I like about Iman is he's really funny.

Konichiwa!

Konichiwa!

He's the form joker.

Yes! Yes!

Like, he jokes around all the time.

Wasp, wasp, wasp!

You just hear him laughing at the back of the classroom.

Iman likes to fool around in class but out of school

there's something he's deadly serious about...

..combat sport MMA,

or mixed martial arts.

I saw this YouTube clip or something

and then these two, big, massive...

These big guys were like...

and then my dad goes, "What are you watching?"

and I was like, "This is good."

You have to train. If you don't train,

you're not going to go anywhere.

He's got ambition for the future.

I'm going to put my head down, pull my socks up

and like, hopefully I'll be a fighter, hopefully.

Back in class and it's time for my science lesson.

Can I ask what experiments people came up with, then...

..about the candle?

'But things aren't going too well for Owen.

'He's fallen out with teaching assistant Mrs Carter,

'who told him off for having a bad attitude.'

Owen, outside now, please.

What could we investigate here?

'Now, he's being sent out -

'away from the cameras.'

Because I told you off for messing around with Harry's chair,

is this why we have this attitude?

I asked you three times and three times you've chose to ignore me.

Why?

-Because I was. thinking about the question.

-No.

Not having it because you can't get your own way

and I've told you off, right?

-Do you understand that?

-Yeah.

We've lost Owen, we're stuck.

Right, listen carefully, listen.

Your folders are given to me and then you can pack away.

'Lesson over and I'm keen to get to the bottom

'of exactly what happened with Mrs Carter.'

What she told me was that you'd, like, knocked into

or you were messing with Harry's chair?

Does that sound familiar?

I put it on unlock, because if Harry was on lock

-he wouldn't be able to move, he'd be like this...

-Right.

So I went... and kicked it back on unlock.

Right. So you thought...

-And then I'd done that and she told me off...

-Whoa, whoa, whoa.

-..for helping him.

-I know you did that with good intentions, OK?

But I think Miss probably thought that you were interfering with it

and that probably got her back up a bit. But can you see

how it might have looked from somebody else's point of view?

-That's all I'm asking.

-Yeah.

-OK.

But you've just got to keep yourself to yourself and you do exactly,

exactly what has made me like you so much since you came in.

You do exactly that. You keep on, you come in,

you bring your A-game to science and you help everybody out, OK?

-OK.

-All right, mate.

It's times like these that you need a best friend.

It makes me happy when I'm upset and Harry comes over

and he has a joke and that with me, don't you?

When you're angry...

-Or, like, upset...

-..I come over and calm you down.

..come over, give me a joke, I'll start laughing about it

and that's just it fine. That's...you know?

Back in class and it's time for RE.

I like learning about my own faith and the faith of other people.

Students at our school have lots of different beliefs.

I believe in heaven...

..hell...

I'm atheist, like, I don't believe in God or anything.

I don't have a faith,

though other people, it's important to them.

Believing in God gives me a bit of a warm feeling,

knowing that someone is looking over me.

I just think that science is more believable, like,

the way that the big bang started the world and evolution.

Respect people of other faiths is a good one.

Teacher Mr Winter wants the class to have a debate about religion.

So what you've been asked to do, you're working on your own,

you're not consulting with anybody else,

this has got to be your personal opinion.

So I'm going to start with Holly.

I'm going to hear from you, where's Holly?

I believe in God, but I'm not sure if he exists

because, like, if he wasn't real, who made him up?

Very good, Holly, just stay standing.

Milina, I'm glad you've got your hand up, I'm going to ask you next.

Tell me what you believe about God.

I don't believe in God because I think science made the world.

I just don't think he made the world,

because no human that's around

has ever been able to do magic and stuff.

What if he's not a human?

What if God is not human? God is not human, is he?

-That's the point.

-He's not a tiger, is he?

It's hard to imagine what God is like if he's not human

and he's not an animal, yeah.

But if he's a spirit, a ghost...

Ghosts can't pick anything up,

they'll just go straight through something.

Come on...

CLASS TALKS AT ONCE

Now, Owen, you can sit down. Hands down.

Erm, Iman.

You want to learn about other people so that you can respect

what they were and what they're doing.

And you're a Muslim?

-Yeah.

-Yeah. Have you started to learn the Koran in Arabic?

Yeah, OK, can you say anything?

HE SPEAKS ARABIC

-There.

-Excellent.

APPLAUSE

And what does that mean?

It means, right...

I'm going to do something good and I'm going to try my hardest at it.

Very good. Thank you, Iman.

My faith is Islam and it means peace,

and my name's Iman and it means faith and belief.

After school I sometimes come down to the mosque,

bring my Koran with me and just start reading.

When you have a problem, whenever you're feeling unsure,

you go to the Koran.

The best thing about Islam is there's lots to find out.

HE SINGS IN ARABIC

Though the kids at Conyers... they respect the belief that I have

and I would respect whatever religion you believe in.

Oh, that looks really nice. That macaroni cheese looks really nice.

It's lunch time and Harry's mum's come into school for a meeting

with the learning support team to find out how he's getting on.

All I wanted to do was just, sort of, catch up and just make sure...

We had all those meetings before and

I just wanted to make sure that everything was working

as we thought it was going to.

Harry has adapted to Conyers extremely well,

he really has, way above what we thought,

and he manages to move around school with no issues whatsoever.

He's very popular in the class with his old and new friends,

everybody is happy with him. He's lovely, he is absolutely lovely.

But we're biased, so we know that bit.

We love working with him.

Well, that all sounds very positive.

Oh, good hit, Charlotte.

Fielder?

Oh! Ducked out the way!

My dad always says

don't give up trying,

you'll never achieve if you don't try.

Excellent.

I'm very determined...

Oh, that's a four.

..and I don't give up.

Oh, nice hit, H.

I'm proud to be Harry's friend

because he's determined at everything.

I like him, he's a good friend.

It's great to see children accepting what Harry has

and how difficult it is for him.

Yeah, he's really, really happy at school.

And Harry's already got his future mapped out.

When I grow up, I would like to teach people like me

because I've had it since I was a baby.

And I know how to teach other people.

The weekend's over.

For Owen, that means his overdue French homework must be handed in.

He has to see Mrs Houchen

and has taken Harry along for a bit of support.

Harry's always pushing on me,

"Have you done your homework? Have you done your homework?"

and I'm like, "No."

He says he doesn't have time to do it

but I think he does, he just doesn't really want to do it.

How did you get on?

Erm...it was OK.

It was OK?

Right, first of all I'd say, Owen, that looks absolutely fab

and that's exactly what I wanted you to do, OK?

That's exactly what I wanted you to do,

which means we won't go any further, we don't need to do anything at all.

I'll always pop a note in your planner so someone knows,

but now it's done and dusted, not the end of the world, end of story.

I'll take that in and I'll really enjoy marking that, OK?

We're only in the first couple of weeks, aren't we...?

With the work handed in, Mrs Houchen decides to give Owen some tips.

First thing I recommend is that you do it the night that you get it, OK?

-I do.

-Do it the night you get it, OK?

The second thing is if, like, you said you found it quite tricky,

if you find it difficult, if you do it the night you get it,

you can come and see me and say,

"Mrs Houchen, I need a bit of help, will you give me a hand on this?"

and then I can sit down with you and I can help you do it.

And Harry has some advice to share too.

When you do it, shut it in your bag.

Yes, when you've done it shut it in your bag!

-Harry, you've got to keep him in check.

-Yeah.

Now Owen has a new plan to help him tackle his homework.

Hang on, we've got a lesson before PE.

Au revoir!

BELL RINGS

It's been a busy first few weeks at Our School

and back at Harry's place, the boys are looking forward

to hanging out together.

What's up, bro?

Oh, wow, where did you get that from?

I got it for my birthday.

I made this with my grandad.

Whoa, that's class.

You've got a cool bedroom, you know.

He's had a look round,

now lets see how Iman scores at table football.

Right, Owen, give me a...

Come on, man!

One, two.

Yay!

My ball.

Yes!

Oh!

Yes!

One more point now, Owen.

Yeah!

In your face!

Look, look, give us that, look, Harry.

At the start of Year 7, the boys were worried

about making new friends...

..but after only a couple of weeks, they've managed to do just that.

Mint.

When I came here, I didn't think I would make friends

like Iman that understand me.

All right.

We're all like brothers, in a sense.

Brother from another mother.

Oh! Oh, I'm going to pass out.

I think we'll all stay friends throughout school

because we're, like, attached.

Like, we're glued together.

What the...?

You're too heavy.

Next time on Our School, we meet two students

whose big personalities are getting them in trouble.

Jamie's behaviour is holding him back...

Right, can you split up, please?

..and Jessica just can't keep quiet.

It's so hard for me to shut my mouth.

Ow!

How many girlfriends have you had, Owen?

Erm...

..seven.

Please can you do it again?

Argh!