Episode 5 Tough Young Teachers

This programme contains some strong language

School can be tough, and not just for the students.

Move from the door, please, move from the door, please, move from the door, please.

It's exciting. It's not safe, you're not sitting behind a desk.

50% of teachers leave the job within the first five years.

Come on, get out.

But some of the country's top graduates...

Morning, on this fine day.

..are determined to give teaching a go.

Welcome to GCSE Business Studies, I am Mr Beach, like the seaside.

How much experience do I have as a teacher? Um, none.

You need to sell this location to me.

I want to do everyone proud, I want these kids to feel that

they've had a good teacher this year.

The catch, they've only had six weeks of training before

being let loose on the kids.

When they come into my classroom, they expect to leave with

something and if I'm not delivering, then I'm failing.

Are they up to the task?

Sorry.

I'm just finding everything really hard.

Can they change the lives of their pupils?

-Bottom set, what does that mean to you?

-Bum.

-Not very smart.

-I'm going to be Prime Minister one day you'll see.

-Nice to see you.

Six teachers...

I knew he was posh, I knew it, I knew it, I knew he was posh.

..three schools...

Look at my face - you got a C.

..one unforgettable year.

-High-five. Oh, yeah.

-Cheers, guys.

-Don't apologise for being late or anything.

-Yeah, guys.

We know you've all been here like 35 minutes or something.

-Yeah, so now you know what it feels like.

-Cheers, guys.

-Cheers, well done.

Six young graduates are on a tough training programme

run by the charity, Teach First.

Well, if I'm brutally honest, I've never wanted to be a teacher

before and when I applied for Teach First, admittedly I applied because

it's a really great programme and I didn't know where it would take me.

Yeah, I'm probably the same.

They trained to be teachers on the job for two years in schools

in deprived areas of London.

And she just nailed it straight over one of those bumps, it was like...

They have now been teaching for over seven months.

Though still relative novices, they are now expected to be team players.

We just want them to know that we're together, we're a team.

Create your own reincarnation game

and explain that the game "snakes and ladders" came from India.

Oh, really?

'You can never be, kind of, too humble,'

the more feedback you get from your colleagues, the better you become.

How did Kieran do this stuff?

The school want to see you be the best teacher that you can be.

In that sense,

I can learn so much while I'm there because I've got so much support.

And if we want to be outstanding, if we want to

continually be outstanding, we need to move together as a team.

But one of the teachers is determined to crack on alone.

I think you need to have energy,

your own character and a whole heap of determination and resilience.

There's just no way that you can slack, there's no scope for it,

above anything, the ability to survive on no sleep.

And no food, you know, just to be...

You just have to pretty much be a superhuman.

Every day at stupid o'clock. Ridiculous.

Claudenia teaches at Crown Woods in South East London.

She teaches the brightest students in the college and she faces

some very demanding pupils.

Teachers, parents, governors, everyone expects these

students to be doing well so I would say there is pressure to perform.

I think it's that pressure that probably does get me up at five or four.

You don't want it to be you, you just,

who would want to be the weakest link?

I don't want to go in, I don't want to do it!

She has cracked some of her younger year groups,

but the behaviour in her year 10 science class

has been getting worse since the start of the year.

I think I had a very romantic idea about what it's going to be like to be a teacher.

Boys!

You know, having great relationships with my students,

having great lessons and being a great role model,

inside the classroom, outside the classroom.

Watch, watch them kick off.

-Who's going to kick off?

-This lot.

With my year ten group, I get the feeling sometimes that they

don't trust me as their teacher.

OK, so where is Rebecca?

'I definitely wanted to give up with them,

'to give up the whole thing, every time they walk in my room,'

they have probably no idea. I put a big smile on my face,

but my heart is still going... you know,

and I still feel sick, you know, standing in front of them.

They're sliding over each other.

Her relationship with 14-year-olds Zaineb and Rebecca is particularly difficult.

The friction are sliding over with the force.

Ladies, so you are next to Ellie, Rebecca.

The first thing I want you to finish, all right? If you've done that...

Is there a reason why you are talking?

Zaineb, you're late, don't come in disrupting.

It seems the girls' bad attitude is payback for how Claudenia

spoke to them at the beginning of the school year.

I was shocked, I've never had a teacher say that to me before.

It was as if she was using those terms

because she felt that out on the streets with our friends, socially,

we would use those words because we were black.

If anyone talked to me like that I'm not going to like it, a teacher or not.

Have you got your planner?

Can you take it out for me, please?

Can you take out your planner,

please, Rebecca?

And some days she'll be teaching us a subject.

And no-one will be listening.

She'll tell people to stop,

but they don't listen to her, I don't know why.

-I'm getting a headache.

-Freddy, I will not tell you again.

-Don't shout at me.

-OK, so apply that to ethylene.

Everyone just thinks, oh, a lesson to mess around because she is young,

I'll take advantage of her, just talk to our friends and everything.

The level of noise and the way that you are messing around is not

currently appropriate for a science lab.

I don't feel sorry for her, I don't feel sorry for any teacher.

When you come to work in a secondary school, you know, you're going to get grief from kids.

Yeah, but she is, like, young, like, a new teacher.

She hasn't really any proper experience, that's why I feel sorry for her.

Sorry, you have to be impartial, a teacher's a teacher, young,

old, black, white, it doesn't matter.

Good, right, can I collect your books and I'll see you next week?

With this group particularly, everything you say is challenged

and becomes into some long dialogue about why, what, when.

It's always because someone else

or something else or that thing over there or I'm not sitting down

because she's talking to me, I'm out of my seat because

I'm distracted, it's never,

I'm just not doing what I'm supposed to be doing.

I can't change their attitude though, can I?

Only they can change their attitude.

OK, come on quickly, quickly, some urgency, year eight.

Another struggler is Meryl,

who teaches English in the Harefield Academy in North West London.

OK, what, let's read it together, Bradley.

'My kids are horrible.'

They abuse me, they make fun of me

and they think I don't know, I know. I hear it all.

But I love these kids, like, how sad is that?

They're not my kids, I mean, like, biologically speaking.

Couple of things - Ryan, the neatest handwriting I've seen in my life.

Well done. Amy Grimshaw, excellent inferences and deductions.

Sit down.

But I feel like, a real bond.

This is our class and this is our learning time

and this is our English room and, yeah, it's a bit creepy.

This table, off you go.

When Meryl started teaching she had only just learnt to drive.

I remember how it felt learning to drive and it was a really,

really humbling experience.

After about 15 minutes

they said, "You're too dangerous to be on the road."

Unfortunately, it's not the only thing she's struggled with.

Unable to control the kids in her classes,

Meryl was given a written warning about her performance.

Your work has been designated as a cause for concern.

This means that in the professional judgment of colleagues,

if you continue at your current rate of progress,

your work will not provide sufficient evidence

to achieve qualified teacher status by the end of the year.

Since then, she has received extra training

and has started showing signs of improvement.

Don't call out. We need to try and be using more creative language.

-Better than last time.

-Yeah.

-Why, what was better?

Still a long way to go, but establishing a bit more control.

You've got to circulate more, the pace, the timing, you know

I was pleased with that, but you're still not out of the woods really.

There's still quite a way to go with that group.

At the end of the week, Meryl is being observed.

It will be the final assessment to see if she can be taken off "cause for concern".

This is my time to show the school, to show Teach First, that I can be

a good teacher. I will be here next year. I can be good for these kids.

However, her week has not got off to a very good start.

Top secret, I crashed my car and it's currently...

Why is that funny?!

If you could help me carry the stuff out of my car you cannot,

number one, tell everyone, "Oh, madam crashed her car."

Number two, you can't laugh at my car. Number three...

There's really just those first two rules, OK?

You laugh at my hat, there's going to be serious trouble.

Is there a problem?

There's a bag.

Oh, God, that's not going to fit, is it? Oh, my God.

Oh, my God, I've never actually seen it up close and personal

and in daylight.

I should probably take a picture of it.

-Actually, I'm going to take a picture of it.

-No, don't take a picture, no!

-I'm going to post it on Facebook.

-Don't post it on Facebook!

Right, let's rock'n'roll.

Those pictures need to be deleted now, now!

Come on, come on, come on.

Also at Harefield is Maths teacher Nicholas.

Like all of the novice teachers, he's been asked to teach two hours of life skills each week.

And he's about to cover a topic that's got him hot under the collar.

I've been a bit nervous because don't know really

what I'm going to say about pictures like that but we'll see how it goes.

I have really enjoyed life skills,

teaching two year-seven groups has been so nice

because year seven are still at an age where you can influence them.

Puberty and all that goes with it as a topic is awkward

and sensitive. It's just not normal.

And at the end, I do want them to all write on a piece of paper

a question they have that can be confidential and I'll answer it in the lesson.

What's your sort of experience in this area?

Zilch. I have no experience in this area whatsoever.

Apart from having a willy myself. Here we go.

Come and stand behind your chairs. Off we go.

Nick has observed a colleague teach the same subject

and he has a bold way of approaching the awkwardness head-on.

OK, everyone listening up. Today we're doing a special topic, OK?

Puberty, OK.

I want the whole class to think of all the slang swearwords

you can think of and then we're going to translate them

into the correct terms.

OK, Tia.

Sorry?

GIGGLES

Nice and loud.

What she wanted to say was cunt. Is that right?

OK, right let's write it up. OK, who knows what a cunt is?

-Vagina.

-Vagina, OK, over to you, pen back, you can pick it up.

Off you go, vagina. Do you know how to spell it?

Nice and big. Oh!

Don't touch the board.

-Don't touch the board!

-THEY LAUGH

Someone else want to try one? Kurtis.

-Pussy.

-Pussy, very good.

-Some girls call it a flower.

-Do you call it a flower?

-I've never heard that one.

-Dick.

Dick. OK, off we go, dick. Does anyone know any others? OK. Joe.

-Cock.

-Cock, off we go, OK, very good.

OK, who knows what the correct term for these three words are?

-Penis.

-Very good, right, let's write penis down.

OK, what about female, what could we call them as slang words?

OK, right let's go tits, off we go.

-Coconuts!

-What do we have? Coconuts, OK.

Who know some words for the act of making a baby.

-Fuck.

-Fuck. Right, let's get it down.

Now we know what the bad words are, OK,

we're only going to use the good words, so now you've done that,

I'm going to come round and give you each a Post-it note and what I'd

like you to do on this Post-it note

is write a question that you have. It might concern

what we've done today, it might be completely separate.

It's quite tiring, but really good fun. I'm going

to read their questions. Question - have you done it?

"Have you done it?" is the question.

Does your pubes get grey as you get older?

How big should your penis be?

How long on from puberty do you start your period?

Oh, that's clearly a girl worried about it. That's so sweet.

How do you know when you're horny?

How do you answer that question?

I'd say usually you get horny in relation to someone

and it can be on your own and you know,

because you have a desire to...

It's a good question, actually, what do you have a desire to do?

You're just excited and desire, I don't know, it's weird isn't it?

How do you know when you're horny? I don't know,

I'll have to think of some of the answers to those questions.

Archbishop Lanfranc is a comprehensive in Croydon

in South London.

Built in the 1950s, it's showing its age.

Teaching RE here is 23-year-old Oxford graduate, Charles.

Morning! We're all quite late this morning, what's going on?

CHATTER

One of his biggest challenges has come in the

form of Caleb, a year-11 boy who spent three years

in a pupil referral unit for children excluded from school,

before being allowed into Lanfranc at the end of year 10.

When you're in the centre, you have to work really hard to

get back into school and like, I worked my butt off to get

back into school and now I'm in school, I'm just trying to do right.

Every other person in the class wrote it out.

It's just a simple issue of respect.

Caleb has clashed repeatedly with Charles in the two hours

-they share every week.

-Wait outside, please.

And his behaviour across the school has gone from bad to worse.

He's a waste, man, of a teacher. He's not a good teacher at all.

The deputy head has been losing patience with him.

Join us or don't bother. That's where it's come with you now.

I don't need nobody.

I don't need no family, no teachers, nothing, I don't need shit.

Teaching isn't just one-way and unless you can get

something from the other side, it becomes very difficult to progress

and I don't think that partnership exists between me and Caleb.

Charles has now moved Caleb next to hard-working Abigail,

hopeful that her attitude rubs off.

You don't believe in ghosts and you're a Christian,

does that even make sense?

You're not supposed to believe in ghosts.

Yeah, you are. If you're a Christian,

then how the fuck do you do exorcisms and shit?

How the fuck do you do exorcisms and shit if you don't believe in it?

We don't do exorcisms!

Yeah, you do! You've got your fucking little stick

-and the little...

-That's Catholics.

-That's same people.

No, they're not.

This is a shit lesson.

Why is this time precious?

Because it was for revision, innit.

-Yeah, and what've we got tomorrow?

-Exam, innit.

Yeah. What have you done with most of that time today?

-Spoke about religion, innit.

-Are you being honest there?

Yeah, like I was talking about like, Jesus and...

What I'd like you to do is I'd like you to put whatever

you're talking about, put it down on paper, OK?

-All right.

-OK.

You can encourage them as much as you like, you can

phone home, you can have chats with them.

What are the three areas that we're studying?

I could literally sit over him and spoon-feed him.

There's a wasp and it's dead.

He's in competition for my time with 22 other kids in the class

and the 400 students I teach.

So you've got six minutes left, have a go at that question.

To be perfectly honest, he's not winning the competition.

-You're a test tube baby.

-I'm not a test tube baby.

How do you know? How do you know if you're a test tube baby?

I don't want to know.

Do you ever just think, what is it they really need?

-It's not just attention, is it?

-It's love.

They don't feel loved.

It's not something I can provide them with.

Abram, you can go, Philippe, you can go, Victoria can go,

Zanaib can go, Serab can go.

The rest of you can go. Quick, take a copy of that.

The graphs that we were interpreting yesterday, we're

going to be producing our own ones using...

Over at Crown Woods, another long morning has come to an end.

Did I leave that yesterday?

Yeah, you did, you left it on my desk.

SHE SOBS

-I feel such a loser.

-SHE CRIES

I don't know what's wrong with me.

I swear, I just had the worst lesson with my year 10s.

Like their attitude as a group is just so poor,

like you can't argue with like, 28 kids.

"What's the point in this? I don't understand that?

"Why's she doing this? She's rubbish."

And then to go up and smile, why are we not motivated to work today?

Outside in the hallway the students are also discussing

-the class.

-She can be a good teacher, to be fair.

I don't think she knows how to assert herself, though.

No, but if you want to be a teacher you should know

how to control classes, she doesn't know how to at all.

Just have them like laugh in your face like,

I'm talking to a group of year-ten girls,

what are they, 14/15, and I'm shaking like, what the hell?

When she speaks out of turn using word such as Bredren

-and from road.

-It's like every night,

it's like, oh, I don't want to go to school tomorrow and I'm like,

I'm just not going, which is just stupid, you know.

On road, yeah, your mate, yeah, on road,

like you talk to your friends like that in school, which is wrong.

I just feel like a mess, I've got so much to do now,

I don't even have time for this, sorry.

I'm just finding everything really hard to deal with.

It's ten past, I don't mind letting you go slightly early,

usual high-five, see you.

Claudenia lives in South London with fellow Crown Woods trainee Oliver.

Tuck your shirt in.

They have invited the other trainees over to help her make

progress with the dreaded 10D3.

I think about them at the start of school,

I feel like I've made them behave like that for me.

There will always be one of you

and there will always be multiple of them and...

Happened to me last year and I taught them basics

and they ganged up on me.

And I think if they gang up on you,

you've got to bring in backup.

Oh, they just turn into like a little mob, all like, so...

They're horrific, they're horrible, they're all little thugs

and they just kind of... I told off a kid for being late

and he said, "Oh, Miss, it's so unfair" and they were all just like,

"it's so unfair bah, bah", and I was like, whoa, oh, my God, and um...

-What term was this?

-Like, first term.

-It's nothing as explicit as that.

-No, but I think, it sounds to me

like there's a lot of low-level disruption.

Like you can't put your finger on it and that is the most infuriating

thing as a teacher, because you can't...

-I got them in that state. I've got them...

-No, no, it's not your fault.

They weren't like that, I could believe that if I went round the

-school and they...

-I'm being a bit untrue here, it's partly your fault.

It is! I've got, I've got this little group of girls,

"Oh, this doesn't happened in Miss Nichol's class."

Girls are manipulative, they're cruel, like girls know exactly

how to push your buttons, they know exactly what's going to hurt you.

Just don't let them get to you.

Oh, she's getting the text books out, and I'm just like, OK,

guys, you're getting it and I'm just like, "ah, I hate you!"

Now, they're hitting your soft spots, though.

Any chance at leadership, these girls are ruining my lessons,

they're rude to me, they're essentially bullying.

And, this sounds really cringe,

but remember you're just like, on a journey, like this is just your

year and that class is just a part of that year and that you've worked

super hard this year and, just, like enjoy that, do you know what I mean?

Organise for Oliver to observe you, somebody non-threatening.

I mean, I'll happily do that.

Everyone goes through it, everybody goes through it.

Team Cranwood!

What's everyone, has anyone got any exciting plans

for Easter? Are you going to India again?

At Harefield, Nicholas has been swatting up on all things

pubescent to answer the questions raised by year seven Life Skills.

But despite the training he's had, Nick still has

reservations about some of the syllabus.

I'm a man and I have to teach female-sensitive

issues to girls,

which I believe fairly strongly should be done by a woman.

I know the absolute basics of the menstruation cycle

and it's a fairly traumatic thing for a girl to go

through for the first time. I think it really should be a lady explaining

it to them, who can give them first-hand experience and tips.

-Football stuff!

-Yeah.

Consequently, he's recruited Meryl to teach the girls' stuff.

It's quite cool that she has a free period during

Life Skills and I thought I'd use the opportunity, seeing as she IS female,

even though she'd leave us guessing...!

THEY LAUGH

..to have that like female aspect in

Life Skills, especially doing puberty because it's really important.

Her cause for concern in this lesson is she's not sure

of some of the facts.

Where is sperm produced? Easy. How long does puberty last?

Easy. Where is the clitoris? I'll let you deal with it.

Why do people have sex when they're bored?

OK, this question - and why do people...masturbate

when puberty starts are two like, slightly on the moral boundary.

Nicholas and Meryl are both devout Catholics. For them,

masturbation is a sin.

Yeah, it's a bit of a difficult one,

because we both think that it's wrong, but we can't teach that.

So for why do people masturbate

when puberty starts, I'd say your body's obviously going through

some changes and you have feelings that you wouldn't have had before.

I could even say I wouldn't encourage it or is that like...?

No, I think that might be...

Or, is that overstepping my mark as a neutral?

Well, yeah, I would say my personal, you know,

"wait till you're married" and, you know, all of that,

but, you know, it's not necessarily what is right for all of these kids.

What is the scientific definition of what a clit is?

I can show you.

You know like how we're so goofy

-and silly together?

-Yeah.

-We need to be professional for the children.

At Lanfranc's school, it's parents evening.

Caleb and his mum Caroline have come to see Charles.

Has his attitude or behaviour changed in your lessons?

What do you think, Caleb?

-No, I never liked you from the first day.

-That's not appropriate.

It's how I get along, why am I going to lie

and say we get along? We don't get along!

Yeah, but it's not about getting along, is it?

I've told you it's about your education.

What's not important is if we get along or not.

Yeah, I know, I don't worry about that,

I just want to do my work and get by.

Yeah, what's important is for you to do well, isn't it?

Why are you talking so aggressively like this, Caleb?

-Look at me.

-I'm sorry for embarrassing you, Mum.

-Now that's enough.

-How do you think we could improve?

Well, first of all, you put me on the short course for RE

and then gave me the full course in the exam,

so I don't know how I'm supposed to do that exam.

So the short course is unit one, the long,

the full course is unit one and unit two, there isn't anything that

you're being taught at the moment that is useless.

OK, there's a solution to every problem, you don't

have to be so aggressive when expressing yourself.

That's all I'm saying. All this hitting papers on the table

and all of that, clapping your hands. Just talk

and be able to communicate in a better fashion. OK?

'It was all a bit bizarre.

'It's just the weirdest meeting I've ever had.'

It was kind of difficult to say, "oh, yeah, he will do all the work,

"if he's not using the time in the class, which is

"the most important time, to its full potential".

At Crown Woods, Oliver is going to observe Claudenia with 10D3.

So, what are you teaching and what would you like my focus to be?

I don't want you to have too much of a focus

because you might see things that I don't see, that's the idea.

Sure. And also...

I don't want you to be working until...

I don't want you waking up at 4:30

tomorrow morning. You don't deliver milk!

SHE LAUGHS

You're not a paperboy.

Last week you were ill from fatigue.

Let's focus on maintaining a healthy work-life balance.

All right, Dad.

Inside, please.

Reports on my desk, please. OK.

Good afternoon year tens, you may be seated. Today, thank you.

Claudenia has also requested the presence of Lizi,

the school's head of learning.

With this many adults in the room,

discipline should not be a problem,

giving Claudenia the space to shine.

Generally speaking, when I add an acid to an alkali,

anything on this side of my spectrum, to anything on that side,

it's going to neutralise to give me a pH of seven.

So you're going to find the pH of these two things.

They are soluble, so we can dissolve it in our water.

Right, so what's that? Is that just five... 5cm cubed?

It soon becomes clear that many of the pupils are confused.

Oh, my God...

So, on a scale of one to ten,

where would you rate yourself in understanding what you're doing?

-About a seven.

-So there is still an element of confusion as to what you are doing?

-Yeah.

-Wow, is that it? It looks tiny.

-That's tiny.

That is over the limit.

No, you idiot, look. This is a centimetre SQUARED.

Go and get a cylinder.

Oh, my God!

Girls, have you actually worked out what you're doing there?

We just figured out how to put powder into the tube!

I was like, "are you sure?", you were like, "yeah"!

What did you write in your book as your learning objective?

It starts from the initial point of the lesson.

They need to know where they are going. In order to monitor it.

Well done. Well done today.

Brilliant.

-Yeah.

-Have I given you a sheet?

-Yeah.

-OK.

-I spoke to a few kids. I asked them what their learning objective was.

-Yeah.

They didn't know what their learning objective was.

"Recall the characteristic properties of alkaline hydroxides and carbonates."

It doesn't matter they don't know what their learning objectives are, I know, looking at them working.

Yeah, massively.

Elena and the two girls next to her, Lizi said, "Why are you

"putting the powder into the tube?" or, "Do you know why you're putting

"the powder into the tube" and the girls replied,

"We're just shoving it in."

-Yeah.

-They didn't know what they were doing.

Now, it is Lizi's turn.

-I think it went really well.

-OK.

After Oliver's feedback, maybe not so well.

I was a tad disappointed with the lesson, if I'm going to be honest.

And there are three things that make a good lesson.

What are they learning today? How they can achieve that learning

and how are you assessing that learning?

And in the lesson, they didn't really know what they were learning

and at the end of the lesson, there was very little evidence

to prove that they had met the learning objective.

If they were to explain it in one sentence,

-what would they say the learning objective was?

-I don't know.

-Exactly. Neither do they.

They were all doing the same task, none of them had assigned roles.

Part of their disengagement is that they don't know how well they are doing.

We are very obviously exam-orientated in the school

and the kids are very pumped up, with "I want to know where I'm going," maybe to the point

where they can be a bit obnoxious because they want to know whether "I'm an A, B, or C".

They need to know what level their skill has achieved,

even if it is just, you know,

at the moment the skills that you have done equate to a grade A.

-Thank you for your time, both of you.

-Right.

-Much appreciated.

That's all right, my love.

OK, year seven. In you come.

At Harefield, Nicholas and Meryl are tackling the next stage of puberty.

Make a bit more of a single line coming in, please.

First question, how do you know when you are horny?

Stand behind your chairs, planners out, there should be no talking.

OK. "Horny" is not a technical word.

-The technical word would be sexually excited, probably.

-Sexually aroused.

Sexually aroused, OK. Being sexually aroused is about having that desire

for the pleasure that you get when you have sex.

It is not necessarily linked to love or wanting to make a baby.

OK, why do people masturbate when puberty starts?

Linked to this, it is because they get these desires

for sexual feelings and then they masturbate.

And it is open to debate as to whether this is a good thing.

It's like, you love sweets.

Is it right to always eat sweets when you want them?

Well, not always, because the risk of masturbating

whenever you feel sexually aroused is that you start linking

that feeling just to pleasure.

Next one - do your pubes go grey as you get older?

I have never seen grey pubes. They may exist.

But my point is, I have seen people with grey chest hair on the beach.

And I'm thinking if their body hair on their chests can go grey,

their pubic hair may well turn grey as well.

Yes?

For the second part of the lesson,

the class is separated into boys and girls.

You'll be dealing with the same topic, but with Sir.

It will be like a dudes' lesson.

Nicholas is offering manly guidance.

-Very good. Pornography.

-It is like, videos...

-Videos, it can be in the form of videos.

-Naked pictures.

-Naked pictures. OK. It can be. Yeah.

-It can be like sexual magazines.

Very good, sexual magazines.

Meryl takes the girls to give them some helpful tips.

In this column, I want you to write what you know about periods.

Your imagination is so powerful, you know?

You can create anything in your mind, you can make yourself be doing it in your mind.

So what do you know about your periods?

And it's so powerful, and you can't necessarily control these things.

Why do you watch it? Because you, like, want to masturbate?

It usually takes you that way.

So when you get these sexual desires,

one way to relieve them, or get rid of them, is to masturbate, OK?

And as to whether that's a good thing,

that's a question you've got to ask yourselves.

Chloe is at home, getting ready for a night out.

Erm, so tonight we are going to Charles's house,

for our humanities dinner.

'I think it's good, it sort of brings the department closer.'

'I can't wait to see the estate, the Wallendahl estate, I'm calling it.'

11, 12, 13, 14, 15.

..when he was choosing which dining room we're going to be in.

So I'm quite looking forward to seeing the others!

Charles lives with his mum and dad in south-west London.

My dad.

-Berent Wallendahl.

-Nice to meet you.

-Nice meeting you.

And they've agreed to let him host his dinner party while they go out.

-Have a good evening, everybody.

-Thank you.

-Take care.

But Charles is not doing the cooking.

They're having about sort of eight or nine courses by the end of it,

a couple of canapes to start off with, little chicken-skin crisps.

Little parsnip crisps as well, with burnt-spinach puree

and onion jam, just for the veggies.

And sea beets, cooked down in an emulsion with vinegar.

Trout rillettes.

A terrine of smoked eel and seaweed with an onion dashi.

Sea bass with an apple ravioli, where the apple IS the pasta.

Slow-cooked 24-hour beef

with broccoli couscous with no couscous,

and then finishing it all off with a milk jelly.

-Hello.

-How are you?

-Good to see you.

-Nice to see you!

-Hello.

-Hello.

Nice to see you.

Everyone else is here. Don't worry.

-We're all just chilling out, having a drink.

-By the way, nice wine.

-Is that you?

-Yeah.

-Oh, that's so cute. Look!

Basically everyone's dreading it.

-Yeah.

-We're all just going to get really drunk to get through it.

Don't get too drunk.

The parsnip crisps and eel terrine are going down a storm.

Erm, if we could make our way through to the dining room, please...

LAUGHTER ..that would be great.

Are we rotating? I'll start now.

THEY ALL TALK AT ONCE

-White wine, anybody?

-Yeah.

Nice pad. Nice pad!

'If my house was like this, my parents' house was like this,

'I wouldn't go anywhere. I'd live there for ever!'

I'd take it over from them when they died!

Chloe's found the family silver.

Oh, this one says, like, NW. What's his dad called?

Shall we go round the house and see what we can find

with Charles's name on it?!

Like a game!

-Yeah?

-Go upstairs!

SHE LAUGHS

-I don't trust my food with them.

-Somebody's stealing your food?

'When you live in a society that's so concerned about budget

'and about how much money you're spending,'

actually staff don't really get an opportunity to....

..genuinely enjoy themselves and, like, have a good night out,

in the same way that happens in the private sector,

cos it's just like, oh, that's a waste of money.

'But the reality is, like, we're paying for it tonight

'and it's not a waste of money

'because we're enjoying each other's company and we're

'getting to know each other and we're having fun,'

and, like, it's a crucial element of any part of work, that you have that,

and if you don't have it,

you're not going to work as efficiently and effectively.

It's an integral part of any institution.

THEY ALL TALK AT ONCE

There she is.

Today Meryl has her final observation.

It's her last chance to be taken off "cause for concern".

If I'm still on "cause for concern" at the end of the year, I don't pass.

I don't get qualified teacher status,

I don't come back to school next year, erm,

I essentially probably get kicked off Teach First.

-Really?

-Yeah. So that's it.

'I feel she's had such a tough time and she's developed a hell of a lot.'

And it just seems like her work just hasn't been appreciated,

you know, neither by the students or by the school in many ways.

'And I really just hope that she finishes

'and is able to feel really good about herself,'

because she deserves to end the year feeling amazing.

You're going to pass, Meryl. Of course you're going to pass.

-Well, you know, I think I can.

-Just keep ticking boxes, OK?

-Yeah.

This term is going to be the tick-box term.

-I think I have what it takes, but...

-We're going to call it the TTT.

-No, sorry. TBT.

-Tick BOX.

-I'm a maths teacher, OK? It's fine.

When you walk into a locked door...

'I might actually throw up.'

You know when you haven't had any sleep

and then you try and eat something.

And then you think, oh, actually... I've thrown up once at school.

Isn't that terrible?

It was the first day back after Christmas

and I was like, "Oh, I left something in my car,

"I'll just go to quickly get something from my car at lunch."

I was walking and I was like, "I'm going to be sick." I just threw up.

I thought, where did that come from?

Just a random...bleuurgh.

'The observation that's taking place today is, er, very important.'

If she's not improved since the last time we did the review, erm,

then that's very serious.

You guys are so leisurely.

It's as though 104 doesn't exist.

The people from Teach First are coming in to see

whether Meryl's going to be taken off cause for "concern".

We're looking to see whether the progress

and the indicators suggest that she's getting on top of

many of the areas against the teaching standards.

Aaron, shut up.

Charlie.

-Let's just start again, properly.

-Aaron's annoying me!

Go and sit down, please.

-Hi, madam, how are you?

-Good, how are you?

-Fine, thank you.

Meryl is under extra scrutiny, with Teach First,

a university tutor and Gavin all assessing her performance.

OK, everybody got that order down?

The lesson takes place in private.

Caleb, I need you to stay at the front.

-Why?

-Because you weren't here yesterday and I need to help you.

At Lanfranc, Caleb's behaviour in his GCSE RE lesson

still hasn't improved. Today they're going through a mock exam paper.

Caleb, can you please sit at the front.

You either sit at the front or you leave the classroom.

You can choose. Leave the classroom or sit at the front.

-Sir, you're stepping on my foot.

-Sorry.

Abigail got an A.

Caleb got an E, but seems intent on marking himself down even further.

How... How did I get one, yeah, out of four for that?

This is the question. It says,

"Explain how having a religious faith

"might encourage someone to get married for life," yeah?

We're not doing that question...

My answer is, yeah, "Because marriage is what God wants."

-And I got one.

-Yeah. Good.

-You got one mark for that.

-How?

-LAUGHTER

Right, Caleb, you're not in trouble.

Can you step outside the classroom and we'll have a conversation.

OK, fam.

-How does this make you feel?

-Yeah.

-How does it make you feel?

-Thumbs down, innit.

-Sorry?

-Thumbs down.

-Not good?

How are we going to do this?

I don't know when I'm never going to use this information in my life.

I don't see how it's valuable to me.

-You don't see how it's valuable to you?

-I don't really need it.

-Do you see how your other school subjects are valuable to you?

-Huh?

-Do you see how other subjects in school are valuable to you?

-Yeah.

-Such as?

-English. Obviously you need your vocabulary,

you need to be able to articulate yourself properly,

-so when you go to job interviews...

-OK.

-I don't need this,

I ain't going to be telling my boss about no Jesus or no Muslim.

But, do you know what, erm, let me go in and study,

-I'll keep my head down.

-OK, I'd like you to move.

-I'd like to sit next to Hamza at the back, please.

-Chinese man?

-He's going to... All right, cool, all right.

-OK.

Take a seat at the back.

-Imran Khan didn't win the lottery.

-Did I say he won the lottery?

-I said he gave money!

-What was the question?

-Oh, whatever!

Your homework is to complete the paper

and rewrite all the questions you didn't get full marks on.

I don't know what's changed. The reason I got them wrong

is because I didn't know it, so what am I supposed to do?

Bit less. Ten minutes left.

Please. Thank you.

Girls, off you go. Nicholas, thank you very much. James, off you go.

Charlie, just wait one moment.

Meryl's observation is over, and she is flat out.

I can't believe this day is over, finally.

It's been the longest week...

And I've got another day tomorrow, but...meetings, observations.

I've got a meeting now, at some point,

but it's just so nice to finally...

see the light at the end of the tunnel

and have that light be the summer sun.

Vicki, Rachel and Gavin have returned

to give Meryl their decisive feedback.

The meeting takes place behind closed doors.

At Crown Woods, two 10D3 girls have detentions

for being lippy to Claudenia.

Just because she thought we were showing her attitude and being rude.

No. Not really.

-Just going to apologise.

-I'm just going to say sorry.

-Yeah.

Erm, for coming across...rude, being rude.

And say that I wasn't...being rude, basically.

This time Claudenia has brought in backup

in the form of 103D's favourite teacher, Miss Nicholls.

When you get into the world, yeah,

and you've got to work with all different types of people

and you've got an employer, you might not get on with everyone.

But how you treat them... is something that you need to learn

-at school. You know what I mean?

-Mm-hm.

What happened yesterday?

I just don't find that I was being...that rude.

-Oh, you don't think you were being that rude?

-Mm-hm.

But there must have been something...that has,

you know, caused us to be here now.

Almost every lesson I have comments from you.

Even if I don't mention it, I do hear them. They're so inappropriate.

You would never like anyone to speak to you

the way that you speak to me, or about me.

Even when you think I can't hear.

I don't...mean it.

Layla, what do you think?

Yeah...

I don't think I was that, like, rude yesterday.

I can't accept, especially from an A student... You got two As in January.

-For you to say, "I'm going to wait till the exam to learn it."

-Yeah.

To make a comment like that to a teacher, in a lesson,

is pretty insulting.

You know?

-I wouldn't be doing my job if I allowed you to think that's OK.

-Mm.

That's an OK attitude.

-OK, thank you, girls, for coming.

-Thank you. Don't, you know...

We just want the best for you.

Meryl's meeting with Teach First and Gavin is finally over.

-Hi.

-You all right?

-Erm, just had a meeting.

-Yeah?

-Vicki Browne came in...

-I know, I saw, they were all in.

-Yeah, Rachel was in...

-And?

-What's up?

-It went well.

-Oh, good.

-And they're taking me off "cause for concern". Yay!

-Oh, yes!

That is such good news. You had me so worried. High-five!

-Ooh, yeah.

-You actually had me seriously worried there.

You know, I can't do a psych-out for long...

Oh, my word, you're off "cause for concern". This is epic!

I'm so happy. That has made my day. That's so good. Well done.

You deserve it, big-time. Had you been doing the work...

'I can't believe it, really.

'I really did think at the start of today,'

I'm actually going to fail this year.

And if I do I'll never even be able to apply for a PGCE,

so that would just be it for teaching.

Hopefully, hopefully, I can be a good teacher.

At Lanfranc, Caleb's behaviour

both in and out of the classroom has reached crisis point.

-Hello, there, hi.

-Hi.

-I'm sorry to keep you...

Despite being on a final warning,

he's got involved in a serious fight with another pupil outside school.

-Come on in, have a seat over there.

-Thanks.

I suppose first thing, really, how is he?

He, erm, broke his nose and his eye socket,

and they had to operate on his eye.

So he was in hospital overnight, very black and blue and purple,

but he's on the mend.

There was potential in that incident for two lost lives.

Yeah, exactly.

One, because Caleb might not have got up

and walked away from it at all, and the other one would have ended up...

-Yeah, in jail.

-..in prison for a very long time.

Unusually for us, we've got to kind of concede defeat over this

and say to the people at the PRU that they really need to pick

-Caleb up from here and work out what happens next.

-OK.

-All right, then. Thank you very much, Mr Clarke.

-No, thank you,

and I'm sorry it didn't come to a better conclusion, really.

Well, at the end of the day, he's got his life

-and he's got his eyesight, so...

-Mm.

-Yeah, well, we hoped he'd have a bit more than that.

-Yeah, exactly!

I know what you mean.

-Hello, Charles.

-Hiya.

-I just thought that you would like to know,

as you've had a personal interest in Caleb,

that, in everyone's interests, really, he needs to...

-return to the pupil referral unit.

-Yeah.

That is sad, because, erm...

Well, we wanted it to work out, so...

Because we wanted it to work out, yeah.

Not satisfactory all round, but...had to be done, so...anyway.

-OK. Thanks for letting me know.

-No problem.

The school have reached their limit, and a few months

short of his exams, Caleb and a fellow pupil have been excluded.

Caleb will return to a pupil referral unit

after managing just nine months in mainstream school.

I remember in September, Caleb, when you were all, like,

"Oh, this is amazing, this is my big chance. I'm going to really..."

Yeah, it was, it was, until I saw how far the other children had gone

to me, like, how much more learning they had than me,

how much smarter they was than me.

And then I was just, like, "That's dead".

-HE LAUGHS

-"That's dead!"

Like, them who are smart and doing maths

and shouting out stuff that I don't even understand.

Well, if everyone else is smart and I'm not,

why would that make me happy?

It would just get me mad to see other people doing better than me.

So you're going back to the centre. How's that?

I don't mind. This is just life.

I can't wait till I get my own house, my own car.

That's a bit far away.

You haven't even got your National Insurance number yet.

Let's look at jobs first. Let's start there.

Is that a song?

Cos it's not reality.

OK, hard man.

HE LAUGHS

He wasn't really in my class very much.

Like, I would, like...

..care more if he'd cared, if that makes sense.

Like, but he was never like that. He said it himself. He never liked me.

And I could never really have, like, a genuine apology from him

for whenever he did something that was, like, out of order.

He liked the centre more than here.

Whether he was doing it consciously or subconsciously,

he took actions which meant that he did end up back in the PRU...

..as he wanted.

OK, so, today we are learning about pregnancy

and what happens in the stages of pregnancy.

All right, it's excellent. Well done.

Good, Troy is making a start.

Apart from he's got the section about Hurricane Katrina open

when we're doing coasts.

Can we have a round of applause, please, for Hamza, Joel and Geoffrey?

Thank you very much. Could you please return to your seats?

Year 10s, can you check your six-markers before you go?

Leave them open for me to see.

So, show me your six-markers before you go.

At Crown Woods, Claudenia has just finished with 10D3

and is having forty winks at her desk.

Because I'm so tired, I can't do any work.

And I'm here running on one hour 20 minutes' sleep.

Like, genuine question - am I a cause for concern?

Is that...? Or am I just tired?

SHE LAUGHS

Because really and truly, by now this is the end of...

It's supposed to be a whole year of development and training.

I don't feel...

developed, trained.

I feel tired and exhausted.

With not much hope! SHE LAUGHS

I don't even know what that means!

But leaving does seem like a very viable option.

I don't know if it's leaving the school, leaving teaching,

whether it's leaving...

the country! Who knows, man?

Maybe I just need to go to Jamaica and chill for a bit.

I finished about half an hour ago,

and I'm just waiting for Claudenia to pack up.

Claudenia's a fighter. She won't give up.

And I won't let her.

Cos that's what teamwork, friendship, love and passion

is all about.

And cliches!

I fell asleep in class today!

That's like a good behaviour strategy.

"I'm sorry, these answers are not good enough."

That's what they thought.

And they started talking, and, like, I don't remember what happened.

It's, like, "Miss has fallen asleep!" I'm, like, "Ohhh...!"

It was, like, "You was THAT boring!" I was just, like...

Right.

Next week, it's the summer term.

Year 10s, can I have your attention, please?

Claudenia continues to battle with her Year 10s.

Yeah? And you've got to visualise it.

Is there a reason why you're talking?

It's results day.

Feeling a bit nervous, innit? But obviously, what comes up, comes up.

I hope I done the best.

And one trainee drops a bombshell.

Pretty shocked and horrified, I have to say.

We're left in the lurch.