School.Swap.The.Class.Divide.s01e01.ENG.SUBS.WEBRIP.[MPup]

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In a unique experiment, a private head, his state school counterpart and six of their pupils spend a week in each other's worlds, as we unpick the gulf in Britain's school system.


n the first episode, Mark Mortimer and his trio of pupils from Warminster visit Bemrose. The students are among 13 new joiners in their week at the school. Before they arrive, Jo reveals her reservations about private schools. She says: “I’ve got this horrible sinking feeling it’s not what you know, it’s who you know, but we’ll see.”

Xander says he’s not worried about being teased by other pupils because of his background. He says: “They are likely to have some sort of stereotype of me as some sort of posh kid who has a mansion and 50 cars or something. But hey, let’s break a few stereotypes.”

Headteacher Mark is surprised to discover just how many pupils are admitted direct from overseas. He says: “I mean for a child who comes from overseas, and hasn’t potentially been to school in his or her own country, it must be a culture shock of an enormous proportion.”

In their admissions tests at Bemrose, the private school pupils scored average reading ages of over 18 years old. By contrast, all the other entrants had English as a second-language and scored an average reading age of a seven-year-old. Xander goes into class with his Bemrose counterpart Brett, who says he likes messing about in lessons for fun. However, he says he realises how important education is. He says: “If I don’t get my head down at school, I’ll probably end up doing nothing with my life."

Jo, who took over at Bemrose in 2004 when it was a failing school and set about turning it around, has doubts about the quality of teaching in private schools. She says: “Some of the weakest teachers I have ever known have been recruited into the private sector to teach. Is it the case that because children perhaps are more compliant you can be more lazy in the way that you teach them?”

Mark Mortimer agrees to teach a lesson during his week at the school. A history teacher, he takes on a first year GCSE group from a Bemrose teacher. Jon, meanwhile, gets his first taste of maths in the state sector. At Warminster, he has been entered for foundation level GCSE maths, meaning the top grade he can get is a C. But at Bemrose, teacher Mr Thomas, whose lessons Jon enjoys, says he would be in the top set and aiming for a grade A. Jon says: “When someone like that says something like that, it makes you feel so good, it’s great, it’s a really nice feeling inside. It just shows that state education doesn’t necessary mean worse education, it just means different and different can sometimes be good.”

Meanwhile, private school girl Katy is invited home for dinner with Nazh and her family. Nazh, who was originally from Syria but moved to Britain in 2011, is ambitious and aims to become Prime Minister one day. She says: “There are some students who don’t really care what they do and how they succeed and if they are going to be successful or not. My parents believe in me, it makes me stronger. I’ve had that dream since I was a little girl. This might sound crazy, I want to go to Oxford or Cambridge - somewhere big.”