True Colours Our School

If you thought secondary school was like this and this, think again.

VINYL SCRATCHES

At Firth Park Academy,

Year Seven are adding some colour to the school day.

What colour would I be?

-Red.

-Red?

-Yeah.

I would rate you as a red, as well.

-I am a red.

-And today, Alojz,

Finley and Nimra will discover their own true colours...

..in Our School.

BELL RINGS

Meet our new Year Seven.

Sick bucket!

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

They're all starting here together.

That level of noise - absolutely disgusting.

SHRIEKING

Yes!

This has seen better days.

You stink, sir.

LAUGHTER

CBBC have filled the entire place with cameras, so you'll get to watch

Year Seven every step of the way.

ALL: WOW!

-Stop waving at me.

-Yes!

Hello, I'm Mr Jones.

I'm a maths teacher at Our School and every time that you're here,

I'm going to be here too.

But right now, I'm late for a lesson. Excuse me.

Come on in.

# Our school... #

Boom! Mic drop.

BELL RINGS

I'm going to have to apologise in advance, Miss, cos I might disrupt.

Cos I need some of these students now.

I apologise. Alojz, Abdul, Nimra, Salma.

When you start secondary school,

making new friends can be a bit of the nerve-racking experience.

Mr Shabir has come up with a game to help some of the students get to

know each other a little better.

We're going to take part in an activity called speed-friending.

We're going to have a minute and a half, and I'll time.

You're going to speak to one another until...

-One, two, three...

-Tell the other person about yourself.

Communication is key.

Listening and talking.

For example, my name is Mr Shabir.

I am a teacher - sometimes, and I'm a father -

all the time. I also like to go for walks.

I like most sports.

-Do you have a dog, Sir?

-But I'm rubbish at swimming.

I do not like animals.

I was attacked by a dog when I was 11.

LAUGHTER

And I'm allergic to cats.

I have...

ALOJZ INTERRUPTS

Can you see? Some of the information you didn't know before.

So I'm sharing information about myself.

But a minute and a half, you talk to one another.

-Three...

-..two, one.

HE PARPS

LAUGHTER

-Talk!

-OK, I'm going first.

That wasn't real.

Talk to one another.

OK. Hi, I'm... My name's Nimra. I like playing football and netball.

I'm from Pakistan, but my mum lives in England.

She's from Pakistan and my dad's from Pakistan

and he was born in Pakistan.

Nimra were going really fast.

I know it's called speed-friending but it was scaring me.

-And I...

-Too much information, calm down, I'm trying to take it all in.

You're like, "I like football, I like netball,

"I like this, I like that."

I can't take it all in.

Nimra, I think really enjoyed it.

She had lots to say, as she always does.

That's Nimra. And she was speaking at 112mph.

Well, I'm sorry!

I have, like, a lot to talk about myself, so, like,

I try to tell everyone in one go.

Next up, Abdul.

I like pizza, I like...

I know! You've told me all this.

I know, I know, I know, I know.

Cut to the chase!

Abdul, he shot it out of the park by going really fast.

Aaron's in the hot seat now.

Go on, then. Oh, my...

You're talking too much. I can't take it all in.

-Oh, my gosh!

-Why aren't you talking?

-Hurry up!

-Exactly. Talk!

30 seconds.

I want a snake, but my mum's tight, so she won't let me.

I want to dye my hair, but my mum won't let me.

-What colour?

-Pink.

-Pink.

-To make people laugh.

Nimra's next speed friend is Alojz.

His first language is Slovak, so if Aaron had problems...

Erm, eh... My favourite animal is...

HE LAUGHS

What are you finding funny?

-Exactly.

-She's rapping!

She's rapping? Are you a rapper?

Everyone I've ever met, like, I've made friends with.

Well...

Most of the time, and everyone, like, things of me as a happy,

nice person. My favourite animal's a cheetah and...

-..erm.

-Erm.

I'm small and I look like I'm five years old and...

Alojz founded it really difficult to understand and keep up with the pace

that Nimra was going at.

He kept smiling and pretending that he knew what she

was saying, but I don't think he knew exactly what was going on.

I'm from Sheffield in England, where are you from?

Slovakia and England.

Slovakia? What place in Slovakia?

Do you know?

-Spisska.

-Spisska.

-MIMICS ACCENT:

-Spisska.

Here at Our School, our motto is strength and diversity and

between them, our students and their families come from 47 different

countries and speak 32 different languages.

Alojz and his family are originally from Slovakia, in Eastern Europe.

They moved to the UK when Alojz was four.

This is my little brother and he's seven years old, his name's Alex.

This is my twin brothers, Kevin and Anton, and they are nine years old.

And this is my mum - and she's 31.

This is my dad - and he's 30 years old.

This is a Slovakian meal.

Dad calls this...

HE SPEAKS SLOVAK

..in our language and it tastes very well and is so

delicious food.

Slovakian food is a lot of meat.

I like it because it looks delicious.

I care about my family because my family is important because they

look after me.

MUSIC PLAYS

In Slovakia, you wouldn't dance like in England.

Outside, they put a big speaker, they put music on and they dance.

When my family dance, I like it because we enjoy it.

My speak English is good, biggest challenge is reading.

Hello.

Good morning, Mrs...

Senorita Hammond.

Excellent.

Language teacher Miss Hammond helps out Alojz with his English.

Today, we're just going to do a little bit of a test,

just to see what you find hard and what you don't,

so we can help you with it. All right?

Can you point to the letter O for me?

Beautiful. R.

-No, on this one.

-On this one?

R. Here.

-There we go.

-Easy as pie.

Easy as pie!

I'm glad. I'm pleased.

He's got a really good sense of humour, to start with.

But also, it shows that he's really determined.

He really wants to improve his reading.

I mean, he was the one that came to me and said,

"Can you help me with my reading."

Why do you want to learn to read?

Because if I go to college, if I don't know how to read,

I can't know what anyone is saying and I can't read.

Yeah, true. What do you want to do at college?

Mechanic. If I don't get to be a mechanic, I

will be the boss of the cars.

You're going to be a boss?

-Are you?

-Yeah. Either boss of businessmen.

I can imagine you as a businessman, Alojz.

She's a lovely teacher.

She's clever and I like her because she helps people.

Thank you, Miss, to learn me how to write spelling and to read.

You're very welcome. That's my job.

He also get extra support in class from his friend, Finley.

Do you need a pencil?

Finley is a good man,

he helps me when I'm stuck and he helps other people,

not only me and that's why I like him.

I like him because he's a good friend.

Finley and Alojz have known each other since primary school and

Finley has always been there to lend a helping hand.

Break it up, what does that one say?

In - sert.

-Insert.

-Good boy, excellent.

I live with my mum, my dad, my sister.

This is my dog. He's a Patterdale Terrier and he's really funny.

Go fetch it!

I enjoy biking with my dad because it's fun,

it's active and it's really good.

My dad is right good at it.

I'd say my personality was a bit cheeky and a bit funny.

This is my prank box and inside it I've got some pretend poo,

which I put down on the floor to pretend that Otis has pooped.

What is that?

This one is

really funny. So all you do is this.

Make sure you put it in before you go and do it to someone.

Do this. Achoo!

And it looks like snot!

Back in English...

Are you going to draw some hair on your humans?

..Finley's helping Alojz again.

And Miss Tomlinson has an unusual way of showing her appreciation.

Dressing him up as herself.

She's just given me this.

She's a bit crazy, isn't she?

Seeing Finley helping Alojz and

spelling things out and sounding them.

He's bright and he's confident and he's got that natural ability to

take a lead.

Teacher in the making, that young man.

This one's going straight to Mr Shabir for assembly on Friday.

CHEERING

In art, Mr Tipping has got a surprise for his class.

A whole room full of professional-looking art equipment

and more blank canvases than you can shake a paintbrush at.

In their last lesson, they were set an exciting new project.

The art selfie.

What did you make of these canvasses, then?

Looking like this. Anyone seen an easel before?

Put your hand up.

Yeah. I've seen them in French movies.

You've seen them in French movies.

This is going to be the portrait of all portraits.

Alojz, this is going to be amazing.

The challenge now is to fill this enormous space -

with their face.

Maybe Nimra, because she's fed up of people looking at her and saying,

"You're small, aren't you?"

Maybe, maybe she's going to do herself giant,

so she fills the whole page.

I've got something to show you because I've been

practising my skills. Are we ready?

ALL: Oh!

Oh, my gosh, it was right good.

When I was doing this piece of work, I thought,

"How am I feeling right now?"

And you know what? I was a bit stressed.

I didn't have much time to do it and I was thinking,

"What are the emotions that those colours convey?

And it was a little bit sad or down, yeah.

So that's why I picked those colours.

I'm going to be honest. It was good,

but I think he used a bit too much yellow.

With the help of a mirror,

so Year Seven can really scrutinise their reflection,

the project gets underway.

Nimra, you're making yourself look small.

I thought you were going to be a giant.

-I need a rubber!

-However you want.

Right, you tell me when it's right.

Is this how you did yours?

Uh-huh.

Erm, your eyes

Have you thought about other things that you want to put into it yet?

Yeah.

-Do you know what...?

-I want people

to look at it and read my personality.

Yes. Because there's more to you...

-Yeah.

-..than your size.

-Yeah.

-Yeah. High five.

Brilliant idea.

When you start in Year Seven,

there's loads of new things to remember.

But one thing doesn't change, you've got to get there on time.

And some students are better at that than others.

So late, my watch has fallen off.

Yeah, because I missed the bus.

He's always late. He's late to bed, he's late for breakfast,

he's late for the bus, he's late for school, late for lessons.

Every morning, you're coming late and now...

Who? Your dog ate your timetable?

No. I got a rip.

I got a rip.

What's the difference?

Squished up.

-They look the same.

-Yeah, I know.

But this is tissue and this is very important.

I know, I folded it in, like, half.

I put it in my bag then.

I got a rip.

It's like a treasure map.

This has seen better days.

I think it's hard to read.

Have to put it in the bin. Finished.

I want to change because I don't want to get late for my lessons,

for my dinner, for my breakfast, or something like that.

And I want to change and to be on time.

On time for everything.

Many students come from the same street, area, where you live.

-Yeah.

-And they managed to get here to school.

-They'll be in school eight o'clock.

-Because they wake up...

-Early.

-Early.

-And what time do you wake up?

I wake up eight o'clock, I dress up quickly,

-do my hair, come by bus.

-You do your hair?

-Yeah.

I didn't make it today because...

Don't worry, I have product here.

Here. Gel. Give me your hand.

-No, I don't need to.

-Do your hair.

Why? I've got gel, plenty at home.

But you haven't done... You were in a rush.

-I don't care.

-Are you sure? Alojz, are you sure?

-Yeah.

-What else would you like?

Put some perfume...?

Why have you got perfume on you?

It's good. Put perfume...

-There's your timetable.

-Where's your planner?

-Where's your planner?

-I left it in my bag.

-Where's your bag?

-At home.

-Dear me.

-Where's your lesson now?

S26.

I'm ringing now. I will say, "Miss, Alojz will be there in 22 seconds."

How can I get there in 22 seconds?

Three, two...

Hi, Miss, Alojz should be on his way now, Miss, he's late.

22 seconds. 22 seconds, three, two, go!

-Quick, quick, quick...

-13, 14.

Thing is, it's not just getting to school on time.

Once you're here, you really do need to focus.

-Can you stop tapping?

-My hands are very tappery.

Alojz, stop tapping.

Can you see - I'm tapping my hands here?

-It's annoying.

-It's not just tapping,

Alojz can find many uses for his pen.

And his paper.

If he's going to fidget, he needs to

get something silent that he could fidget with.

Sometimes in class, I get disgusted by myself.

HE WAILS

Chicken and chips...

So, you like chicken and chips, then, Alojz?

No, I wasn't talking about chicken and chips.

I was talking about ships.

Chicka, chick. Chicka, chicka, chicka...

Ships, chips, either way, it's really annoying.

HE WAILS

HE TAPS LOUDLY

Stop tapping, Alojz.

No, seriously. Stop tapping.

What else were you doing today?

TEACHER TAPS

-Tapping.

-Tapping, yeah, that was really annoying, that.

OK. Do you know what I do, Alojz?

I play the drums. Yeah, so when I'm sitting at home...

In fact, tonight, when I'm going practising with my band, you know,

I'll be doing lots of tapping.

On all sorts of different things.

Can you do drums?

Yeah. That's what I do, play the drums.

OK, so that means when I was at school,

all I did in lessons was I'd sit

there and annoy my teachers like this.

And I got told off.

And did I do it after I got told off, what do you think?

-I think so, yes.

-You think I carried on?

-Yes.

-No.

That's why I'm here now as your teacher. Yeah?

So what other habits do our Year Sevens find irritating?

Farting in lessons.

I've done it a couple of times.

LAUGHTER

-HE PARPS

-Butt poisoning.

What drives me mad is, do you know leather?

Where you... And, like, jeans?

You know when you rub your nails down them, it goes through me.

When people go...

SHE SLURPS AND CHOMPS

Oh, it's disgusting!

They eat so noisily.

HE CHOMPS

THEY CHOMP

Bad breath. People picking their noses and eating it,

which is disgusting.

-BOTH:

-Eugh!

You can't help it if there's a bogey coming out your nose.

Oh, look at this bogey!

-Oh, nice!

-I bite my nails sometimes.

OK. Ewan!

I used to do that all the time.

You could have, like, poo under your fingernails or something.

Humming. It's like...

HE HUMS

It's so annoying.

I feel my eyelashes and then I pull them out.

It's weird.

HE HUMS

CONTINUES HUMMING

LAUGHTER

That were good, that.

As a thank you for all his help,

Alojz has invited Finley back home for some tea.

So, everything you have is Slovakian?

-Yeah.

-Mm. Looks delicious.

What do you think, Finley?

Mm, That's a bit...

Different to the meat.

Have you ever tried cabbage?

-Yeah.

-It tastes like that a bit.

The meat comes from that one.

You're a really, really good cook.

Next on the menu, it's Alojz's turn to teach Finley a new skill.

Finley, I'm going to teach you some different dancing.

Stretch your legs.

Bend a little bit.

Pull your knees. To the left one.

And always, when you do it, count to four.

One, two, three, four.

So, that one, pull it forward.

In the next one, pull it forward.

You need to put some more effort inside, like...

So, how long have you been practising this for?

When I was three years old, I knew how to do this.

You were three years old when you knew that?

I didn't know how to do, like...

It was hard to... My hands.

It took about three years to do my hands.

Year Seven have been working hard on their masterpieces,

and most of them look like they're nearly done.

Oh, yes, look at that.

-That's beautiful.

-It's only Abdul

who seems to be lagging a bit behind.

What do you think your problem was?

-I was a bit too slow.

-Yeah.

-You were.

-But good artists take their time.

Oh, you see, that's every artist's excuse.

Well, apparently took Leonardo da Vinci over 12 years just to paint

the Mona Lisa's lips.

So there's no rush.

You painted yourself with an abnormally-sized head.

I've got quite a big head.

I've got a really big mouth.

It's huge in comparison to your body, why's that?

Because I wanted to look exactly like myself.

I've got pretty much big everything.

I've got, like, big ears,

I've got very long hair, even though they just grow back up to my

previous haircut. I've got quite a small nose.

Brown eyes.

I like how I look.

The self-portraits are all looking amazing.

That's probably one of the best paintings I've ever done,

but Mr Tipping is particularly impressed with Alojz's.

This is so cool, I'm absolutely loving how expressive it is.

What you've done is similar to what I've done on mine,

you've not necessarily gone for the actual colour,

but you've looked for all the individual colours and exaggerated them.

Do you know? There's a lot of people who would pay a lot of money for

this. He messed around with the brush strokes, he had thin lines,

thick lines, he started to scratch into the paint.

He took on what my instructions were and made it his own.

I was very proud of his work, actually.

Guys, give him a round of applause for that, come on.

-Very good.

-Well done, Alojz.

With all the art-selfies finished,

Mr Tipping has put them on display in the school hall.

And has come up with a challenge to show off just how good they are.

But Year Seven are looking very nervous about it.

OK, I'm seeing a lot of sad faces.

You should have happy faces, exactly, cos these...

This work is absolutely fantastic.

What I'm going to give is a task to two other students.

They are going to try their best to match all of you with the pictures.

The two students doing the matching are George

and Olivia. Will they be able to match the portrait with the artist?

The pressure's on.

Salma, yeah.

-Who's that by?

-Yes, that one there.

-Chloe.

-We want to put you...

Is it that one or the one next to it?

-Oh, that one.

-That one, OK.

Next is Ella.

-Ella.

-Yeah, we're going to go for the one in the middle, with the

-flower filter.

-With the flowers.

Yeah. 'Some of them, though, were very obvious.'

So, who's next?

Finley. Finley, your... You...

The one with the big, like, quiff thing.

Yeah, big quiff!

Yeah. Then a lot of them were a lot like... With the fiery hair.

-Nimra.

-Nimra, the one at the end.

-The one on the end.

-Nimra's portrait was actually cute, for one reason.

-She was like small.

-Everybody else uses the whole portrait,

-she used, like...

-Like, half the portrait.

-Yeah.

-She had like... She had, like, up to her waist in it, as well,

-so I was like...

-Life-size.

So far, George and Olivia have got them all right.

With just two more to go, are they going to get full marks?

This is so hard.

-OK, Who are you going to go for?

-Michael...

-Next to Morgan.

Michael, next to Morgan.

Which leaves Alojz.

-So this one...

-Amazing, top marks for a really talented bunch.

The biggest challenge Year Sevens face is - "I can't paint".

And that is just simply not true.

Give them a round of applause, I mean, that is amazing.

We're all made to be creative and I want them to know that.

As well as making good progress with his art,

Alojz has been busy making lots of new friends.

Keen to show them some Slovakian culture,

he's invited Aaron and Michael to his local dance group.

Whoa!

SLOVAKIAN MUSIC PLAYS

When I went in, it was breathtaking cos they're all using the bells on

their dresses and when they were chiming together they sounded like

-really big bells.

-Did you see that ball on it?

Yeah, there were... Some of the big ones, weren't they?

It looks like a hard dance to master, though,

doesn't it? Are these all professional dancers, then?

They've been doing this all their lives?

It's interesting though cos you

don't normally see dancers like this.

Could they show us some of the moves of the dance, please?

-Shall we join in?

-Go on, then.

When they were all moving, it were, like, synchronised.

It is a bit like the Mexican wave.

Like that.

It's so confusing!

It were really hard, but as I got into it,

I started realising there's always a pattern to everything and I realised

it's like tap-tap, tap-tap, clap and then slap.

Even though I was nervous, and scared and terrified,

I still gave it a go.

According to Alojz, there's also meaning behind all of the vibrant

-dress colours.

-If you've got red, then you know everything.

If you've got yellow, you know a little bit.

Orange, a much little bit.

But all of the...

Like, blue,

not quite.

-So red is like a black belt in karate?

-Yeah.

The girl just next to me just plonked a hat on my head.

I was, like, "Where did she get that hat from?"

She just pulled it from the back of us and was like, "Hat!"

Aaron dancing, he was so amazing.

I was so proud of him because he was jumping, just getting on, brave...

What colour would I be?

-Probably red.

-Red?

-Yeah.

Really?

You're joking. Really?

-Yeah.

-Thank you.

I'd rate you as a red, as well.

I am a red.

In the end, they all gave me high fives.

I was really scared because about 20 people just went, "High five!"

How important is dance to you?

Because we are dancers and we like to dance, so...

Dance is important to us because, like, what's the point of, like...

Going home and watching TV or something like that?

So on Saturday, we come and we go to...

Training and we go to festivals.

Training and we go to festivals and we love it.

Can you all dab?

-ALL:

-Yeah. Yes!

-Can you dab?

-Nice!

Very nice!

I think the Roma and English

communities should get along together and

start, like, getting to know each other like we did on the day.

Do you know the song we were singing?

-No.

-Shall I tell you?

It says,

"Come along, all people, and dance with me."

-Really?

-Yeah.

Next time, we meet Wayne,

Year Seven's joker.

Don't have that reputation being the class clown.

-You're a clever young man.

-I've just got a funny face.

I was feeling kind of excited, just because...

I was feeling...

I can actually fit the whole fist in my mouth and pull it back out.

But I always... Shall I do it?

No!

-I was feeling excited just because...

-I was feeling...

Wayne! Stop!

It'll be a laugh for the show, come on.

Only 7% of the whole population on Earth can actually do that.