Educating the East End Plot
Seeing what our secondary-school teachers have to contend with (and can achieve) in the classroom is an eye-opener, as we saw in the brilliant observational series Educating Yorkshire. Even though they try to be inspirational and encouraging, it can be a struggle. “It’s really hard to balance the idealism with the difficulties of dealing with a bunch of adolescents,” says Ms Smith, head at Frederick Bremer School in east London. Trainee teacher Mr Bispham’s attempts to teach a year-nine class Shakespeare shows how frustrating and challenging it is (rowdiness, swearing, chatting, boredom – he gets it all) but how much he and his colleagues care oozes through the screen.
Educating … Educating the East End aired on September 4th, 2014.
Educating the East End Episodes
1. East End Episode 1
Frederick Bremer school's newest teacher, Mr Bispham, soon learns that teaching isn't always plain sailing, especially when it comes to educating Year 9 girls
2. East End Episode 2
This time at Frederick Bremer School in East London it's all about the boys, and Head Teacher Jenny Smith is determined to set two strong-minded pupils off on the right path. Halil thinks he is the coolest kid at Frederick Bremer School, but despite his infectious laugh and "cheeky chappy" persona, he can't stay out of trouble. Meanwhile, Lemar doesn't like the stereotype of London "hoodies" hanging around the streets in big groups. His main ambition is to make it as a professional footballer, but staff are working hard to ensure he has other options available
3. East End Episode 3
Election fever hits Frederick Bremer School as the pupils get on the campaign trail and vote for Head Boy and Girl. Will they vote for the confident candidates or the self-confessed geeks?
4. East End Episode 4
Being a head teacher often keeps Ms. Smith awake at night. She has 900 pupils in her care and feels responsible for every one of them. Some of the students' family dramas can impact on school life, and in this episode, alongside Ms. Smith, English teacher Mr. Bispham and deputy head Miss Hillman have to find a multitude of ways of engaging with the kids to help them leave their sometimes unsettling troubles at the gates. The programme also meets Hazel, an East-Ender born and bred, and a non-teaching pastoral support worker at Frederick Bremer. She's the first port of call when kids are sent out of the classroom and can be found patrolling the corridor, walkie-talkie in hand, often notching up as many as five miles a day. Excluded from her own school when she was younger, her own experiences of a personal family tragedy means= she feels particularly close to those hard-to-reach students she works with.
5. East End Episode 5
This episode meets three boys at different stages of their school life. Twelve-year-old Louie has just started secondary school at Frederick Bremer; he struggles to make friends and starts to bunk off. With his attendance record steadily getting worse, it's time for home support worker Emma Austin to step in. Devonté, who's also 12, is another of Mrs. Austin's charges. He loves rap music and is constantly found playing songs through his phone in lesson time and rapping at inappropriate moments. Due to his responsibilities at home, helping to care for his mother, Devonté relaxes at school instead, and often gets into trouble. Charlie, who's 16, is one of the top students in his year group, but the pressure of exams is resulting in panic attacks. He finds that playing music helps him relax. His band are going to play at the school concert, but will he get over his nerves and manage to perform on stage in front of 200 other pupils?
6. East End Episode 6
Those all-important GCSE exams are creeping ever closer, but while the pressure is on for the students of Year 11 to knuckle down to some much-needed revision, for many of the girls - Paige in particular - their attention has a habit of turning away from study, and instead toward friendships, proms and boys. She and her closest friends Georgia and Yasmine are three of the most popular girls in school, and while the younger girls look up to them, the boys have crushes on them. The girls are expected to do well in their exams, but they are very aware that the pressure on them is mounting, and cracks soon start to appear in the friendship and threaten to undo all the hard work they have put in so far
7. East End Episode 7
With GCSE exams fast approaching, the teachers at Frederick Bremer School face the difficult task of motivating their students to revise. However, the staff face difficulties with two particular Year 11 boys, Paris and Oscar, who are both at risk of failing to reach their full potential. As concerns mount over the pair's performance, the teachers set out to discover what might be distracting the duo from their studies
8. East End Episode 8
The school year is drawing to a close. The staff at Frederick Bremer are preparing the students for life beyond the school gates, ensuring that they have the confidence to move on to pastures new. This heart-warming episode explores the autism provision, meeting a team who help to create a diverse school community and work hard to ensure that their pupils are ready for life beyond the classroom. Year 10 student Christopher is one of a handful of students at Frederick Bremer on the autism spectrum. He is constantly smiling and passing on his motto 'keep positive'. Home support worker Mrs Austin defines the impact he has on the school perfectly: 'everyone needs a spoonful of Christopher.'
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