Category Archives: TV

Jamie’s (not so) Dream School

After watching Jamie’s Dream School it struck me that the most outrageous thing about the first episode wasn’t Starkeygate; though his attempt to get the class in line by labelling them failures and verbally abusing one of the pupils was pretty shocking behaviour in a someone of his standing. No, for me, the most outrageous thing was the fact that anyone thought roping in celebrity experts was an acceptable replacement for qualified teachers. Yes, these people are experts in their field, but that does not make them experts in classroom management, behavioural management, learning styles or any of the other specialist areas that various teaching professionals receive training in.

My wife and I, both fully qualified teachers with experience of teaching in challenging schools filled with exactly the kind of disaffected pupils featured in the program, quickly came to the conclusion that had Jamie Oliver and the producers asked quality teachers from across the country to lead the subject teaching in the school, free from the restrictions of the National Curriculum and exam syllabuses, they would have grabbed the kids attention straight away.

Watching the lessons that were presented was largely dull. Simon Callow’s Drama/English/Shakespeare lesson largely consisting of him talking to the kids rather than them doing. As an English/Drama teacher, I can say with confidence that any half decent teacher could have come up with a better lesson off the top of his or her head. Indeed, Callow seemed to be winging it, while David Starkey totally ignored the need to adapt his lecture style teaching, seeming surprised when the students showed their disinterest. That he then resorted to verbally abuse to try and gain control shows how dangerous it is putting untrained staff in front of students. Ellen McArthur’s yachting lesson doesn’t count as it was more like a school trip than a proper lesson so the pupils were always going to be more receptive to what was on offer.

It was left to Robert Winston and Rolf Harris to provide active lessons that engaged the students, Robert Winston’s dissection lesson making a few of the students vomit it was so exciting. Rolf Harris, of all the celebrities, was the one who seemed most like a real teacher, reflecting at the end on what went well and what would have improved his lesson, even though, judging from the work produced by the students, his was perhaps the most successful of the early lessons. A pity then that Sam Woollaston in his review of the first episode decided to dismiss his efforts simply on the basis that ‘there’s no getting away from the fact he’s Rolf Harris.’

The producers of the show were never going to go for putting real teachers in front of this class as it would not make such good telly. Sad really, as that’s just what these kids need, teachers to take an interest while providing proper behavioural management and hitting a wide range of learning styles. And its seems I’m not the only one who thinks real teachers, while not necessarily good telly, are exactly what these kids need. In fact I heartily endorse Suzanne Moore’s closing thoughts, themselves largely quoted from Dream School Latin expert, Mary Beard:

The wonderful Mary Beard, who also took part in Dream School, is actually a teacher, albeit at a much higher level, and had the modest aim of getting the kids interested in Latin. Her verdict will not push the right buttons these days. What would have helped these kids the most? “Not, I suspect, a raft of new education initiatives, not any major structural reforms. Just a bit more money in the system . . . to give teachers and kids a bit of space, to fund a little more individual attention, and to pick up those falling through the net.”

That’s not rocket science is it?

No it’s not. More money in schools spent on more teachers and facilites would mean lower class sizes, which would mean more teacher time available for each student which would in turn lead to improved results. No, not rocket science. Not rocket science at all. Fair play to Alistair Campbell, another of Jamie’s faculty, for pointing out on his blog ‘that teaching is hard, really hard, and teachers need support – financial and moral – not endless criticism.’ One thing is certain, it’ll take more than the teaching supergroup assembled for this programme to deal with the complex problems in education today.

The Eleventh Doctor

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I’ve waited till now to post about the latest incarnation of everyone’s favourite Timelord, the idea being to give Matt Smith time to find his feet and get going before passing comment. I always knew I was going to enjoy the writing on the new series of Doctor Who. Steven Moffat’s episodes were easily the best episodes of the Russell T. Davis era so his taking over as lead writer when Davis left was always going to be a good thing.

So here we are, four episodes into a new regeneration of the show, hanging by our fingertips from last week’s cliffhanger, and there’s lots to like. Here’s a list of my favourite bits of New Who:

    1. Top of the list has to be the art direction of the show seeming to be not a little influenced by the classic Doctor who movies of the Sixties starring Peter Cushing as The Doctor. The new series, from the redesign of the Tardis interior, to the Doctor’s new dress code and the general atmosphere of the first two episodes, particularly The Beast Below with the retro-technology of the Starship UK, felt tonally like a modern extension of the classic (though non-canon) movies. The Dalek’s own regeneration in Victory of the Daleks was the moment when the impact of the Cushing/Dalek movies became overt and the story here made more sense than a couple of the Dalek stories under Russel T Davis’ reign. Looking forward to seeing the new, more colourful Daleks back later in the series.
    2. Matt Smith is slowly proving to be an intriguing Doctor. Less cock-sure than David Tennant’s excellent portrayal, what’s interesting about the Eleventh Doctor, both from a performance and a writing perspective, is that he has already, in the space of less than a handful of episodes made a number of mistakes which have led to his being ‘saved’ from them by Amy or, in the case of the Daleks, giving his greatest enemy a victory when they needed it most. This level of weakness in the Doctor makes for an interesting premise. Whether this is a carry over from the trauma of his recent regeneration or linked to the events just prior with the Timelords remains to be seen. I’m intrigued enough to be hooked.
  • The Tardis redesign. I want my writing office to look like that. That would be very cool, but not sure how much writing would get done with all of time and space to explore.
  • The return of River Song. First off I want a note book like River’s, that looks like the Doctor’s Tardis. Second, the interweaving of the Doctor and River’s timeline is very interesting and something that could run and run. I do hope they don’t rush to a pay off with this element. Definitely a case of the journey being more important here than the final destination.
  • The return of the Weeping Angels. On this point I need not say anymore, but instead direct you to the advice above.

The only element that has left me cold so far is the character of Amy Pond. Unlike most corners of the internet, I have thus far found Amy a little dull. Admittedly her ‘origin’ story was well written and the idea of a girl who grew up with the Doctor as a mythic figure in her life is pretty smart, but so far her performances have been, in my opinion, unimpressive. I kind of get the feeling that Moffat wished he hadn’t wasted Sally Sparrow in the Davis era. Or perhaps that Amy Pond is really an attempt to reboot the Sally Sparrow concept from ‘Blink.’ That said, it is still early days, and there was a time I thought Catherine Tate as the Doctor’s companion was an absurd choice but she was easily the best companion of the series revival so far. Apart from Sally Sparrow of course. Who really wasn’t a companion at all. Except I say she was.

What about you? Any thoughts on the New Who?

image from cafepress.co.uk