Among the myriad of ,”real life,” documentary drama series
such as ,”Made In Chelsea,” “Made in Essex,” “Footballers Wives,” and other
semi glamorous life portrayals, are a set of documentary dramas that are a sub-genre
within this set of ,”real lives.” It concerns schools. “Educating The East
End,” an eight part series of programmes follows a head teacher, the teachers, the pupils, lessons and staff meetings that take place at the, Frederick
Bremer School in Walthamstow.
The focus of the first episode, are the trials and
tribulations of Mr Bispham, a trainee teacher learning his craft on the ,Schools
Direct programme. Schools Direct is one approach to becoming a qualified
teacher. The school pays you a salary on
an unqualified teacher rate while you are supported in learning classroom
skills. You previously have had to work for at least two years in another
career and also have a good degree. Schools Direct has some advantages over the
usual one year PGCE route. More time is spent in the classroom and you are
attached to just one school. There is some time allocated to University lectures
where the theories of child psychology, child development and the philosophy of
education are taught. At the time this programme was made Mr Bispham is the
youngest member of staff in the school. He has been put in, at the proverbial,”
deep end,” teaching English to a boisterous year 9 class.
We see Mr Bispham first of all waiting in a classroom as a
rowdy group of 14 year old, year 9 pupils enter.He thinks of the girls in this
class as ,”a force of nature.” He calls each pupil by their name and talks to
each one asking them something about themselves. Later he tells the interviewer,
out of the hearing of the children, that teaching is 50% ,”stand up,”and 50%
motivational speaking. With a lot of ,”banter,”it takes a few minutes for him
to get all of the class attending to him and one girl, Tawney, will not stop talking. Tawny, with a pierced tongue and a big attitude, wants to be an actress and has applied to. “The Brit School.” She is certainly good at,” playing up,” in lessons. Mr Bispham is straining every fibre, alert to every incident and comment and
interaction going on in the class. He contends with little arguments amongst
some, cheeky comments about his name and his ethnicity, all challenges to his authority.
He gets the class to focus on a line in Shakespeare’s, ”Much Ado About
Nothing.” On the interactive whiteboard is a speech between, Claudio
and Leonato “ Give not this rotten orange to your friend/ She’s not the sign and
semblance of her honour.” The class discusses the meaning of any
words they are unfamiliar with and then discuss attitudes to women. Those ,”strong,” girls in the class are
engaged with the topic. It means something to them. After the lesson Mr Bispham leans against the
door frame at the entrance to his classroom. He sighs and looks at the ceiling.
Everything has been drained from him. He is exhausted.
I often stood at the back of the school hall, on Friday afternoons, during the end of week assembly,
leaning against the wall for support, looking and feeling just like Mr Bispham.
I stood there, my face drained, the life sucked out of me. You need to be self
reflective. What can I do next? How do I
get them to learn? How do I get them to progress? How can I do better? Mr Bispham would agree. I remember feeling
every nerve in my body and like Mr Bispham
there were moments when I dug deep for strength and I too wondered if teaching was
for me. I watched Mr
Bispham adapting, there, on the screen.
The look of worry and concern etched on Mr Bispham’s face in
the corridor after Jenny Bishop , the head, informs him his end of year
assessment is due, was my face too sometimes. She gave him a date for the
observation. You could see he was anguishing over what she would think of him
teaching that year 9 class. She asked if it was convenient. He said ,"of course," and made some comment about the class being difficult. But the head knew that. It
was very interesting to watch Mr Bispham go from the despair he must have felt
before the lesson to elation after his observation. He was given a GOOD
assessment. Jenny Bishop is evidently a
perceptive, warm, strong person, (a great description of a good head). The deputy
head praised him too and agreed with the GOOD assessment of his progress and
his developing skills. An onlooker, somebody who does not work with children,
might not have understood.
Mr Bispham was honest and straightforward. He
joked and the pupils in the class knew he cared about them no matter how awful they
behaved. In his observation lesson he was well prepared. He had a focus and clear
aim. He had his materials and resources ready, He had a child centred approach taking
into account the needs of various pupils. He planned his lesson to fit their intellectual
needs. He got them working in twos, providing them with questions
and tasks which challenged them. They were engaged and he questioned them
bringing out their thinking processes. They were chatty and lippy and he
confronted them with any unacceptable behaviour, pointing out what they were
doing, the affect they had on others and the effect they had on himself and he demonstrated
what they should do. These are good teaching skills and behaviour management.
The interviewer asked the children about Mr Bispham. They
all said he was a great teacher. They liked him and they all said that they wanted to do their best for him in the
observation lesson and not let him down. He had their trust because he believed
in them and so they believed in him. Good teachers give their heart and soul to
the kids they teach.
He deserved his, GOOD, assessment. He earned it with more
than what can be described as hard work. We watched him lay himself on the line
for that class.
This series is something we should all watch. It can’t show
every aspect of a lesson and the teaching process, but it begins to delve
deeper than most people would normally be able to experience. This series of
programmes show us what heroes teachers are and what self-sacrifice and talent and hard work they put in. One thought that went through my mind
was, what would a teacher from, Harrow, the great public school just 18miles
west of Walthamstow, think about Frederick Bremer School and Mr Bispham? How would
they teach year 9? Jenny Bishop, is asked at one point why she wanted to be the
head of Frederick Bremer. She smiled and said she wanted the challenge and the
opportunity to make her mark on children and a community that needed the best.
She was fully aware of the,” mountain,” she had to climb. She is a very brave,
courageous and hopeful person with a vision and she knows how she wants to
achieve it. If she keeps finding the good in Mr Bispham and praising him ,Mr
Bispham , will do very well.
Channel 4