The Hunger Game Our School

SCHOOL BELL

Meet Year 7.

What's up?

It's the most important year of school so far.

You're not here to have a laugh and a good time -

-you're here to learn.

-HE BLOWS RASPBERRY

With so many changes,

new friends...

-Boom!

-Miss, have you got a cloth?

-..and new teachers...

-You are a Greenwood boy.

..it's an exciting world to discover.

Wow!

It can be fun, but sometimes, it can be tough.

There are different challenges for everybody.

We're in Year 7 and we're acting like three-year-olds.

We've rigged another secondary school with loads of cameras.

Is this what you see when you look through a camera?

Cos this is awesome.

So you can find out exactly what happens.

You're on report, by my request.

I'm Trev. HE LAUGHS

I used to go to school here, but now I'm one of the teachers.

Last question, cos you're going to run out of time.

Welcome to Our School.

I need a wee.

Love them or hate them,

school dinners are an essential part of the school day.

Today, we're following Rhea

and Spencer on their mission to add healthy options to the school menu.

If candyfloss is made of 100% sugar,

and you take away the sugar, what are you left with?

-No sugar.

-No sugar.

You're just left with like, the curly bit.

-Yeah. The curly bit.

-What, the stick?

And we meet Molly, who's part of the school's Accelerate group -

a class for kids that need a bit of extra support.

Her goal is to improve her reading, and focus more in lessons.

I would just like people to sit still and be quiet for a bit.

I AM being quiet.

SNORTING

Molly lives at home with her mum, two sisters, stepdad,

stepbrother, two dogs, and an iguana called George.

She comes from a long line of travellers that go back generations.

Grandad was born into the fairground,

and his dad was born into the fairground.

Like, how long was he running the fair?

Grandad's 70-odd years of age.

I daren't say his proper age, Molly, but he's 70-odd,

and he's been doing it all his life.

And today, Molly's helping to keep the family tradition going.

-Molly!

-Yeah?

-You ready?

We're going to the park now with your grandad.

OK, coming.

Hello, Grandad.

At weekends, she gets the chance to help out at her grandad's fair.

One, two, three...

We've got three kiddie rides.

We've got a doughnut stall, and hook-a-bag. Would you like a go?

She's also pretty good at serving the customers.

Give her a task, and Molly rises to the challenge.

But if she gets bored, then trouble can be just around the corner.

SHE LAUGHS

Molly is dyslexic.

This means that when she's reading,

some letters appear jumbled on the page...

This book's boring.

..which makes it very frustrating.

She's also a real fidget in lessons, and it's getting her into trouble.

Can I do this?

You really have to sit down, or I'll get rid of you.

This is your final warning now. OK?

She's distracting me.

What have I done?

She's had more than her fair share of yellow cards...

-SHE SCREAMS

-My legs are stuck.

..and spends a lot of her lesson time out in the corridor.

-Oh, for God's sake!

-Shut the door, Molly.

Molly's very lively. She likes to be the centre of attention.

You always know that she's in the room.

Can I have my coat?

And outside the room, for that matter.

-I need to get summat out of there.

-Shut the door.

-I need my coat.

-Well, you're not getting it, so shut the door.

-DOOR SLAMS

Thank you.

-Huh!

-Phrrrrw!

Molly, can you put your pen down? Hhhh!

I was like that, "It wasn't me!"

SHE LAUGHS

-Sit down!

-Why?

Because I've told you to.

Oh, for God's sake!

Pack your attitude away, little girl.

-I don't like you.

-Good.

I don't care. It's not going to stop me going to sleep at night.

I'm not here to be your friend. I'm here to be your teacher.

Don't quite know what planet you're from,

that you think it's acceptable to speak to people the way that you do.

But you've got to stop this huffing and puffing.

That's what's getting you into the most trouble - it's your attitude.

-Sorry.

-Thank you. That's all I ask for.

'If she's not kept active within the classroom,

'her mind will wander, and she'll start thinking about what'

other people are doing, instead of what she's meant to be doing.

And that's kind of where she tends to get in the most trouble.

No-one's here. It's just me.

I want to sit on the end, I want to sit on the end...

To help with her reading, Molly has daily ten-minute Toe By Toe sessions

with teaching assistant Helen.

It's a chance to be less distracted by fellow pupils.

Instead, she focuses all her attentions on the teacher's

swivel chair.

Toe By Toe is like, if you don't know how to do your Hs

the right way, you'll have to go to Toe By Toe, and then practise,

and then practise your Bs and Ds, and your Ps and stuff - and your Os.

Well, I don't know why you have to practise your Os, but...

-SHE LAUGHS

-Watch the chair...look, Moll.

Oh, who put the whiteboard there?

Was you a bit hyper in that class you just come out of?

-Yeah.

-Right, you need to calm yourself down, then,

so we can get this done properly, OK?

-Come on, then, sit down, now.

-I'm getting this.

Come on, Molly - get a move on,

otherwise your time will be up before you've even started.

This stupid chair.

Right, sit down.

Are you quite sure you're happy now, Molly?

'Some days Molly will say,

' "I don't want to do Toe By Toe today.'

"I'm not in the mood. It's boring."

And then I'll just have a little chat with her,

what's going on, and you know, what type of morning she's had,

and then, ease her into it gently.

Molly makes B and E shapes with her fingers to help her work out

which letter is which.

-B-A-T - bat.

-Well done.

Molly's attention span is very short.

She'll go off task quite easily.

I love fight, I do.

After this one, could we do some Bs and Ds, or something?

-It can be Bs and Ds. Right, what's this one?

-Bog.

Well done, you got your B there. Well done.

-Hey!

-THEY LAUGH

Normally, when you think about music lessons, you probably think of this.

Or this.

But maybe not this.

-'Time.

-Once upon a time.'

Yes, this really is a music lesson.

And some of the class are finding it hilarious.

THEY LAUGH

Especially Spencer.

It was so funny, like, me and Courtney,

we just kept laughing at it,

and we kept, like, taking the Mick out of the man's voice doing it.

MUFFLED VOICE ON SPEAKER

HE LAUGHS

MUFFLED VOICE ON SPEAKER

THEY LAUGH

Round and around, round and round...

MUFFLED VOICE ON SPEAKER

VOICE: Zzzzzzzzzzzz.

VOICE IS SWITCHED OFF

Ti-i-i-ime.

Like all Year 7s, Spencer can be easily distracted in class.

-HE RAPS:

-Artificial amateurs aren't at all amazing

Analytically, I assault, animate things

Broken barriers bounded

So, so, so, so, so, basically I'm bombarding.

Very nice, Spencer, but this IS a French class.

Anyway, head teacher Mr French thinks he's got what it takes

to head up a special mission

to make the school's lunch menu more healthy.

What I'd be really, really interested in is you

leading a project to try to suss out which food is most popular,

and what types of food people would really like to be sold here.

And I don't know if that's something you might be interested in.

-Yeah.

-Yeah?

I mean, one of the things that we could do is,

if we can come up with a plan, and maybe a campaign,

or maybe we could change some of the food that's being sold here.

What do you think?

-Good. Yeah, it's a good decision.

-Yeah?

I think I got a couple of ideas already, like for different food.

Yeah, what sort of things?

Hot dogs, or something.

-Ooh! Hot dogs.

-Like, with onions.

I used to quite like school dinners.

I wonder what the rest of Year 7 think.

School dinners at this school are sometimes horrible.

They're all right.

My favourite school dinner is a roast dinner.

I had ketchup on toast today. Ketchup on crumpets yesterday.

Ketchup on Krispies tomorrow.

I have, like, a panini and they're really nice.

Maybe a muffin every now and again.

I just do that...

And do like a whole sachet on one sort of crumpet

and I make like a swirly snail thing.

I hate chicken burgers, but everyone likes 'em,

cos they're really chewy.

Like, on a Friday, it's not very nice,

cos it's like really hard fish.

If I have plain macaroni, it's fine,

but when I have the cheese with it, I just go, puffff!

There's not really much choices on a Friday,

but there is, but there's, like, purple cabbage or something.

-Like, things like that.

-Pink beetroot, Rhea.

No, it isn't. It's lettuce with purple.

-SHE LAUGHS

-Yeah, that's beetroot.

It isn't beetroot!

Mr French has asked vegetable expert Rhea

to get involved with the healthy-eating task.

Like Spencer, Rhea is a popular and lively member of Year 7.

SHE SCREAMS

My friends would describe me as funny.

SHE LAUGHS

I always laugh at things that are not even funny.

SHE LAUGHS

To help work out what's healthy and what's not,

they've gone to see form tutor Mr Elliott.

Ice cream with tomatoes.

SHE LAUGHS

Ice cream with...

That's gross. Don't listen to Spencer.

Ice cream with strawberries - that's healthy!

Ice cream with strawberries.

-The first part's not healthy.

-Yeah, but what if it's fat-free?

Now you're talking, yeah...

-Now we ARE talking.

-Yeah, yeah.

-You get me?

I don't know, like...a lettuce sandwich.

-What?! A lettuce sandwich?

-HE LAUGHS

Let's think about it, though.

It's like having a salad, and having a piece of bread with it, right?

-I've got one.

-OK.

-Potato.

-Mmm.

-With...carrot shavings.

SHE LAUGHS

-No, that's good, that is.

-I'll tell you right now,

what I think I need to see a little bit more of would be some fruits.

-Do you see this?

-Yeah, cos they only do really salad, don't they?

-Yeah.

-Pots of strawberry ice cream.

-Oh, yeah.

Stop with the ice cream, unless it's fat-free.

But it's fat-free.

But listen, fruits, fruits would be great.

-Apples.

-Things like apples, normal strawberries, bananas, right?

-All that stuff.

-Trifle.

-Yeah.

With cream, with raspberries, bits of orange...

-We could make a fruit cake.

-and strawberries.

They could make a fruit cake.

That's certainly food for thought.

But I'm not sure they've got it exactly right just yet.

I wonder what other Year 7s think.

Healthy food's like, crisps and...

No, it ain't.

They're made of potato.

I like rubbish food.

I like chocolate cake and something like that.

Most of the girls and boys don't choose healthy food,

they go for loads of like, junk food,

and they get slushes and loads of chicken burgers.

Salad, cucumber.

-Bananas.

-My mum's lasagne.

They mean at school.

No, I don't really care if it's healthy or not, at least it's food.

SHE LAUGHS

You say that, Taylor-Jay, but have you ever

looked at the ingredients in some of your favourite foods?

"The raw meat materials used for pre-cooked, cooked products

"are lower-grade muscle trimmings, fatty tissues, head meat and..."

-Head meat?

-Ugh!

Did you just say that, Spence - head meat?

-Yeah, it says head meat.

-Ugh!

-Head meat.

-What's head meat?

-It's obviously the meat off the head.

-Ugh!

So what do you think about hot dogs, Spence, now that

-you've read all that?

-I used to really like hot dogs,

-but now I think I might be changing my mind.

-Yeah?

Rhea's brought a box into school. The question is, what's IN the box?

I've got an animal. What is it?

-There's a dog in there. You'll see in a minute.

-It's a box.

-Oh, no, don't open it yet.

-What is it?

It's a box. You can't see it.

It's certainly got everyone intrigued.

Can we have a go at the box, whatever it is?

I will explain it in one second.

If you guys want to explain a bit, or do you want me to say something?

Come to the front, Spencer.

OK, then. Mr French here said that we need more healthier

food at school, and this box is going to be like,

you need to put your ideas in for, like, healthy foods.

So, not junk food or anything.

-Whoa!

-Oh, yeah, a box.

Oh, Rhea, you've done a nice job decorating that.

-Oh, wow!

-Healthy food ideas.

What would you like healthy? You put your ideas in.

Sir, can we put McDonald's in it?

Taylor, don't be pathetic.

And what about milkshake? I like milkshake.

No, it has to be a healthy milkshake.

I'm going to put carrots.

Sir, he's put bacon in. You can't put bacon, only healthy foods.

Pringles are not healthy. Is that everyone?

Wait, wait, I've got another one.

-What is it?

-Hot dogs.

Hot dogs.

What is it with you guys and hot dogs?

I said hot dogs would be popular.

Yeah, but yous don't want to know what's in hot dogs.

But I know it's pigs and that.

Yeah, it's pigs' feet.

-Ugh!

-Hot dogs!

THEY ALL TALK

You know, in fact, listen - you know when you eat burgers?

Rihanna, you know when you eat burgers?

You're eating animals' feet.

Let's just make it healthy. Make it healthy. Come on.

Sir, we've got to go to another form.

Spencer and Rhea spend the rest of tutor-time collecting as many

healthy menu suggestions as they can.

Just shove it in.

Down in Accelerate, someone new is about burst onto the scene.

Meet their new teacher...

# Carbon, cobalt, copper, tungsten, tin and sodium. #

-Is that it?

-That's it now.

Excuse me, you're ignoring me, which is really RUDE!

Mr Lowe, he's crazy.

-I think you're right.

-Crazy. Crazy.

-Er, funny.

-Funny.

-Put the bag away!

-THEY LAUGH

-Could I be the person who collects all the...

-Noooo!

SHE LAUGHS

Nooooooo!

-Sir?

-Could you sit properly on the chair?

-Can I say something?

-No, I'd rather you...

-Nooooo!

-SHE LAUGHS

OK, just sit yourselves down. Sit down, please. Sit down, please.

Excuse me! Excuse me! Sit down, please. Sit down, please.

Sit down, please. Excuse me!

His recipe for a good lesson -

first, a pinch or two of cheesy singing.

# Mamma mia, here I go again My, my, how can I resist you?

# Mamma mia, does it show again My, my, just how much I miss you?

# Yes, I've been broken-hearted... #

'If you want to present yourself singing a silly song,'

it'll be a little bit shocking in a school at first, but it's a

way of getting people to see that, "Oh, OK, maybe he's on our side.

"Maybe he likes a laugh as much as the next person."

# Say, live and die, baam, baam Live and let...hang on... #

-That's from Shrek.

-Yeah, it is in Shrek. Very good.

-My cousin plays gui...

-They do it when the king dies.

That's right. My cousin plays guitar on that.

That leads us nicely onto the second ingredient,

a spoonful of name-dropping.

Have you seen Lord Of The Rings?

You know the bloke who plays Gandalf?

I worked with him about 20 years ago.

-Have you ever seen a programme called Miranda?

-Yeah.

She married the one bloke, the other bloke's my mate.

Sir, can we start writing?

And finally, mix in a generous portion of hammy acting.

"Right, look spry!

"I want to know the name of the man in the coffin going by,

"and see you get the name right, too.

"Sir, no need, I promise you, it was a friend of yours in days of old,"

he says, "There came a privy thief, they call him Death, who kills us

"all round here, and in a breath, he speared him through the heart.

"Be primed to meet him wherever you go, that's what my mother said."

So, we're doing a book out of your poems, and so...

-SHE BURPS

-I need something for the cover.

SHE BURPS

I thought you could have a go at doing some self-portraits.

I don't like drawing. I'm not drawing, it's not art.

Excuse me, excuse me, as I know that not everybody likes doing

self-portraits, what I thought I'd do is get you to do an ambigram.

-What's a cambigam?

-So, give me a name.

-Molly.

-Molly. OK.

M-O-L-L-Y. So I type in "Molly".

-I click "generate".

-Holly.

It says Molly, but if you look upside down, it also says Molly.

-So, an ambigram...

-No, it don't.

-..is something you can read both ways.

-It could be Wally.

Are you an official teacher, or are you just a supply?

No, I'm just pretending.

Mr French has got Spencer

and Rhea together to go through the contents of the box.

Wow. That's a lot of responses.

-And a pencil.

-Oh, that was Donnelle.

More money - there's another 5p.

Look at that - we got 15p and a pencil.

Someone's actually drawn a chicken on that one. Very good.

Oh, watermelon and strawberries.

-That's healthy.

-I think it says caterpillar.

-Show me.

SHE LAUGHS

Hot dog, hot dog, hot dog.

We never written it. Salad. Put that in "salad".

Hot dog, hot dog. Have you rigged this, Spence?

Cos I know you love hot dogs.

No, I haven't.

See, another chicken salad there.

Five chicken salads. Another one.

-BOTH:

-Five, six, seven...

So, the votes are in.

The biggest piles are for smoothies, chicken salad and...hot dogs.

How are we going to get round this, cos someone's rigged the box?

I tell you what, let's be fair, let's give it eight,

even though there's a little bit of skulduggery going on.

Shall we write eight on there, then?

A count of the remaining votes reveals...

So we're going to have smoothies,

and we're going to have... chicken salad.

I reckon we're going to succeed in this.

We ARE going to succeed, Spence.

No point in doing it if we're not going to succeed, is there?

In English, Molly's been working really hard

on a poem about her family.

So what's the best thing about your mum?

She's a good cook.

Um, the finest cook...

-In the world.

-..in any cookbook.

-Can you write that on a piece of paper?

-YOU can write it down.

-No, no, I can't spell.

-SHE LAUGHS

Mr Lowe has joined Molly in her one-to-one session with Helen,

and is keen for her to show off her latest piece of work.

-Can you read it to us now?

-Yeah.

-Go on, then.

"I love love hearts because you can go, you can go somewhere, you know.

"My room is full of love hearts.

"When my brother comes in, he always farts."

Then I got pictures of love hearts.

There's a picture of someone farting,

and there's a picture of my brother.

And with her confidence boosted,

Molly decides to show off her singing skills.

# I know you lie, lie Cos your lips are moving

# Tell me, do you think I'm done? #

It looks like Molly's starting to make real progress -

there's lots of Bs and Ds in this song.

Over in the canteen, it's the moment of truth for Rhea and Spencer.

And as the queues start to form,

there's not much time to prepare the rather large chicken salad.

Is that all the chicken?

The chicken just looked, like,

gigantic compared to how much salad you got.

It looks like you just killed a bird and plucked it and put it in here.

I was like, "Have you got a whole chicken on here?"

And then they started laughing, and says, "No."

And then it was, like, a really big chicken piece,

with just a few little leaves of salad, and it was really funny.

No, you have to have salad. Do you want some lettuce?

It looks nice, don't it?

-Aysha, is it nice?

-Yes.

-Is it?

-Very nice.

Do you want a smoothie?

It was really delicious, and I think that that could actually

encourage kids to start eating more healthy, and them to see

that you don't have to exclude all the things that you love

in your diet, but you can include some other ones and make a new diet.

Can I have a banana smoothie, please?

-Yeah, do you want chicken salad?

-Yes, please.

-I think the smoothie was really nice. I liked the smoothie.

-Yeah.

I thought it was really nice,

cos normally I don't, like, really eat salad,

but then when I had it with the chicken, it was actually quite nice.

What do you think of it, sir?

-Well, I haven't tried it yet.

-THEY LAUGH

I was about to take a bite, so...

Mr Cross, he says, "This looks phenomenal."

So, like, I was proud, because me and Rhea served that food.

Good on you.

THEY LAUGH

The chicken salad is selling really well,

but there's about to be some stiff competition

as the hot food counter opens.

Anyone want chicken salad?

The fish and chips are reeling them in,

and there goes a chicken burger, and another.

In fact, they're selling like hotcakes.

And so are the cakes!

I went up to get a wrap,

and then Spencer said to me,

"Put that wrap down and get some chicken!"

I was like, "I don't want chicken!"

It's still alive.

SHE LAUGHS

But plenty of other students did,

and it's not long before all of the chicken has been snapped up.

Yes, we made it!

Which isn't great news for Archie.

Unfortunately, we've run out of chicken.

So there's no chicken?

Well, everyone else had some nice chicken to eat,

and a nice salad and, um, nice... and they had a selection.

I had about four pieces of purple onions,

and some pepper.

Do you want some chicken juice on it?

Yes.

And I had chicken juice, just to top it off, to make it look on point.

You do it like this.

-Urgh!

-RHEA LAUGHS

Great chicken juice.

THEY LAUGH

Oh, yes.

And guess whose idea was that?

-Yeah.

-Spencer's.

-Yeah.

They never touched it.

So, overall, their campaign was a great success,

and the healthy eating message seems to have got through.

You need, like, a balanced diet, kind of.

Like, you need fruit and veg, and you can have meat in there,

but just don't eat burgers and hot dogs all the time.

I never used to eat salad, but now I've saw, like,

other people enjoying it, I want to have...

I want to eat more salad than I already do.

After lunch, Accelerate are having a maths lesson,

and Miss Yates has come up with a fun way to get them all learning.

It's time to play Molly's favourite...

Molly, 10 x 3?

-30.

-30, well done.

2 x 9?

18.

18, well done. 6 x 10?

Yeah, shout it out, guys, if you know it.

-60.

-60, yes.

-Yes!

10 x 7?

10 x 7? 70.

70. 10 x 6?

-60.

-Yeah, 9 x 3?

(9 x 3. 3, 6, 9, 12, 18, 21, 24...)

-28.

-No, close.

-27?

-Yeah.

Oh, Miss, I need 15.

Next one, 3 x 5?

-15!

-15.

-Yeah, bingo!

-CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Said that a bit too loud then.

It WAS a bit, Molly.

As the weeks go by, Molly's getting to know her teachers better,

and her attitude in class has improved.

Molly, give me another 2D shape.

A pentagon.

Good girl! Well done!

If you give her a task to do,

you know that she's going to try and do it to the best of her ability.

Check.

Don't tell them all of them, Molly.

It is. Ain't it, Miss, it's a check, number two?

Ssh!

-Ain't it, Miss?

-Come, come over here.

Check.

She likes a lot of praise, so she tries to do things well,

when she's in the right frame of mind.

24, 28, 32, 36, 40.

-OK.

-Why was it only me?

-Cos you're so clever.

You can have some vivos for being a good girl and joining in.

Today, Accelerate are being taught by head of maths Mr Hodgkiss.

He's got them working on a code-breaking task,

and Molly has beaten all her friends to the finish line.

Sir, I'm finished.

With a bit of luck, she might get a few vivos -

points the children collect for good work,

which they can turn into rewards at the end of term.

To Cat, he's a cheat...

HE MUTTERS

Taste the...tea?

This is a brilliant piece of work.

-Can you tick 'em if they're right?

-I'll tick 'em if they're right.

-They are right.

-How many vivos have I got?

You got 20 vivos for that, and 10 vivos for this.

-So you've got 30 vivos.

-I've got 30 vivos, guys.

-Now, Molly, Molly, Molly.

-30!

-I'm like, "Ha, in your face."

-SHE LAUGHS

Now, that is not the appropriate way to respond to 20 vivos,

-or 30 vivos, is it?

-Yeah.

You say, "YES!" quietly.

But if you shout out to other people,

-it's not very nice for them to hear.

-Yeah, but I won.

They've just missed out on it. They just missed out on it.

You've done really well there. You smashed it.

Thanks to Helen's efforts,

she's also made big steps forward in her reading.

I went up one year and three months.

I like the fact that you've got your Bs right there, as well.

You didn't get them mixed up, so that's really good.

That one, uncomfortable.

Oh, well done!

That's a real big word, well done.

Well, all our class asked Helen to be our teacher,

and she went, "I can't, because I have to go on my lunch."

-I was like, "Please stay."

-SHE LAUGHS

The first year of secondary school is full of new challenges,

but they needn't be hard to overcome.

So here's one final recipe

that's guaranteed to make your experience of Year 7 a success.

Firstly...

The more you put into school life, the more you'll get out of it.

Secondly, knuckle down and listen to your teachers.

And the icing on the cake -

it might sound obvious, but always try your best.

-RAPS:

-Apples, oranges, mango and pear

If you eat this you'll grow some hair

Get your five a day Don't eat no hay

It's not very healthy You don't get this at The Belfry.

Oh!

Give him a round of applause.

Whoever's walking out, walk out now.

Tensions run high in the school cheerleading troupe...

Do we like the green?

-ALL:

-No.

HE LAUGHS

..and there are two new superheroes in town.

That's not me!

THEY LAUGH

What looks orange?

Taylor, most of the time, looks orange.

HE LAUGHS

I don't mean to sound rude or anything, yeah,

but you know the juice of beetroot -

if you drink loads of the juice,

when you have a wee, it comes out like, pink.

Urgh!

You pee a lot when you eat loads of grapes.

Where did you hear that from?!

-My nan. It's true.

-SHE LAUGHS

That's the worst idea I've ever heard.

Don't take the mick out of my chicken salad.

Good joke.