Educating Yorkshire

Educating Yorkshire
Title card
Genre	Documentary Reality television
Directed by	David Brindley Grace Reynolds
Narrated by	David Clews
Composer	Chris White
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of series	1
No. of episodes	3
Production
Executive producers	Andrew MacKenzie-Betty David Clews
Editor	Mark Towns
Running time	47 minutes
Production company	Twofour
Original release
Network	Channel 4
Release	5 September 2013 (2013-09-05)

Educating Yorkshire is a British documentary television programme broadcast on Channel 4. The eight-episode first series was first broadcast on 5 September 2013. Its format is based on the BAFTA Award winning 2011 series Educating Essex. It follows the everyday lives of the staff and students of Thornhill Community Academy, a secondary school in Dewsbury, Yorkshire.

Production

Educating Yorkshire was commissioned by Channel 4 after the success of Educating Essex two years previously. There was interest from about 100 schools in starring in the new series after the production team put a call out to all schools classed as "good" or "outstanding" by Ofsted. David Brindley, producer and director of the series, said "it was undoubtedly easier to find a school this time around". In January 2012 Jonny Mitchell, the headmaster of Thornhill Community Academy in Dewsbury accepted an offer to be a part of a new series based in his school. The school had a bad reputation and was among the 6% of the worst performing schools in England, with a 2007 Ofsted report describing it as "below average". Mitchell became headmaster in September 2011 and in 2012 it became the most improved school in the Yorkshire area and reached the top 6% of schools nationally. That year, 63% of pupils attained five GCSEs grade A* to C, up 7% since 2011 and only one of the 2012 graduates is not in education, employment or training. This improvement was one of the reasons it was chosen for the series with Mitchell saying "I was proud of what we’d achieved and felt we had a story to tell". Mitchell also said “Dewsbury has suffered quite a lot in the last ten or 15 years with some adverse press. I thought this was an opportunity for us to show the positive side of the town as well”.

The show was recorded with sixty-four cameras rigged up across the school and turned on from 7am to 5pm. These were backed up by several handheld cameras and twenty-two radio microphones. It took six months of preparation before filming began. Parents and pupils were consulted and production staff and psychologists carried out 100 home visits as well as holding parents' evenings and special assemblies. Taking part was not compulsory and 16 students out of the school's 747 asked not to appear in the series, with another 30-40 parents requesting that their children feature only in the background.

Before filming began Twofour advised Mitchell to get into contact with Vic Goddard, headmaster of Passmores Academy, the school in which Educating Essex was set. He gave Mitchell advice on handling the attention and stayed in contact throughout the filming process. Mitchell had several concerns about the project such as putting the students in a situation where they were going to be laughed at, ridiculed or mocked. Many faculty members also had reservations about taking part, fearing they would be made to look stupid. Deputy head Dale Barrowclough said the turning point was speaking to Goddard.

2000 hours of footage was recorded over seven weeks. Mitchell and the staff have said during the first few days of having cameras in their offices and classrooms they were mindful of what they did or said, but after they had got used to them they forget they were there, only occasionally remembering when they moved suddenly. David Brindley, one of the directors, said he was surprised how quickly the students forgot they were being filmed "for a day everyone was waving at the cameras, but we were surprised how little people played up after that. I thought we would be confronted by chewing gum on cameras every day, but no". Mitchell also warned students who might have been tempted to show off that the production staff would not put them in the final cut of the programme. Brindley said "he told them they had the best chance of getting on TV be being normal". Mitchell also claims there was no deterioration of behaviour across the Academy and based on the behaviour trawl, data, teaching and the students results over the period the behaviour improved while the cameras were there.

Mitchell and Twofour met at least once a day to talk about the things the cameras has been following and ask Mitchell if he had any concerns or comments. He did not have any editorial control but the relationship with Twofour and Channel 4 enabled him to talk openly about things that might concern Mitchell and the staff, and their comments were taken into consideration when the final cut was made.

Episodes

No.	Title	Original airdate	Viewers (in millions) from BARB
1	Episode 1	5 September 2013 (2013-09-05)	4.19
The first episode follows the new headteacher Mr Mitchell as he starts his mission to improve the school. He faces various difficulties such as dealing with smoking students and snowball fights and a more sensitive issue, as allegations of racist name calling are brought to his attention.
2	Episode 2	12 September 2013 (2013-09-12)	4.00
The second episode follows the fallout of a fight between a popular girl and a boy from from a quieter group. In their attempt to prepare students for life outside school, the headteacher, Mr Mitchell, and the rest of the faculty are left with difficult decisions about who needs to be punished and how.
3	Episode 3	19 September 2013 (2013-09-19)	N/A
The third episode focuses on two similar boys: one nearing his final year and another who is just starting out at secondary school. Both have a lot of energy and charm but, to their teachers' frustration, neither of them is interested in learning. As Year 10 student Tom approaches his GCSEs, his failure to settle down is starting to cause concern. And although Year 7 Robbie-Joe's constant chatter seems harmless his teachers are worried it's a sign of more serious behavioural problems in the future. The episode follows the school in their attempts to channel Tom and Robbie-Joe's energies in the right direction.
4	Episode 4	26 September 2013 (2013-09-26)	N/A
5	Episode 5	3 October 2013 (2013-10-03)	N/A
6	Episode 6	10 October 2013 (2013-10-10)	N/A
7	Episode 7	17 October 2013 (2013-10-17)	N/A
8	Episode 8	24 October 2013 (2013-10-24)	N/A

Reception

According to BARB, Educating Yorkshire's first episode achieved over 4 million viewers, which is over twice as high as the number of average viewers for Educating Essex. The programme was popular with Twitter users prompting over 126,000 tweets and becoming the most tweeted about show of the day. Headteacher Mr Mitchell and student Ryan also trended in the UK list.

The series was well received by critics. Benjamin Secher of The Telegraph gave the show four out of five stars. Helen Pidd of The Guardian said "rather than making them look daft, Educating Yorkshire is a great advert for some truly excellent and inspirational teachers". Emily Jupp of The Independent reviewed the first episode saying "although this was not ground-breaking, it was occasionally funny, and heart-warming". Huffington Post called the teachers "heroes" and the students "pretty endearing" while Metro News gave the show four out of five stars.

External links

• Educating Yorkshire at Channel 4
• Educating Yorkshire at Twofour
• Educating Yorkshire at IMDb