BBC Panorama (1953) s59e09 Episode Script

Britain's troubled classrooms Britain's troubled classrooms are Britain's troubled classrooms are holding holding back holding back to holding back to education holding back to education of thousands of children.
So is it time to send in the troops? One school has won hearts and minds doing just that.
It's turning children who could have turned into rotten little brats into grown man.
In America the military are already veterans at keeping order in the classroom.
With disappointment you have chaos.
If you don't have control of your classroom you can't teach anything.
The Government thinks too many too many will help transform our schools as well.
think there's a huge opportunity for people who've served their country in uniform to serve their It's a night of rifle training in a tough Birmingham comprehensive.
you get five bull's-eyes I will be a very happy man.
In command is Chris Austin, a former Sergeant Major.
He's seen active service in Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Kosovo and Iraq.
You are on target.
Most people don't hit the target first time.
Well done.
Now he's teaching.
Tonight he is showing the boys of Lordswood School and girls from a nearby school how to shoot straight.
The Government thinks ex-soldiers like Chris can help bring order back to some of Britain's classrooms.
Scenes of classroom chaos captured on mobile phones.
Teachers driven to breaking point.
You are the most badly behaved pupil in this class.
More than half considered quitting because of their pupils' bad behaviour.
Lordswood, an inner-city school of nearly 700 pupils.
Discipline used to be a big problem here.
Tonight's parade night.
It is part of the school's pioneering approach to improving discipline.
Gangs used to playing this -- plague this school.
Now it finds pupils of all backgrounds and faith inside the school.
And that includes Chris Austin What we have to do is practise all types of leadership style, using your leadership skills you've developed.
Leadership is on the curriculum.
Out of Army fatigues Chris Austin is taking a GCSE class in public services one is you have to build a tower as high as you can.
However, the leader is the only person that's allowed to talk.
And the highest Chris knows a lot about leadership.
He was once a scct major in the Queens Royal Irish Hussars.
I can see that some people would stereo Stipe me as being a very loud, aggressive, shouting in the face- type person, but we are not really like that.
At school I don't shout at people, buzz there is no requirement to do that.
Officially Chris is an instuctor, not yet a fully qualified teacher.
He left school to join the Army at 16 without much in the way of qualifications.
To be able to work in the classroom he had to get a GCSE in English.
So, leading from the front, he took the exam alongside his pupils.
It was very scary to sit with the boys.
What did they think of that? I think they respected me in a certain way.
They were shocked to see me.
They thought I was invigilating the exam, but when the examiner gave me the exam paper and told me I was under test conditions the boys realised what was happening.
Afterwards they were praising me for sitting with them during the exam.
I hope to goodness after that you got the required grade.
I God an A grade, yes.
I was very happy with it, yes.
Chris isn't a lone force.
The assistant head, Neil Mackintosh, is a former infantry Captain in the Staffordshire Regiment.
One in 12 of the staff at Lordswood are ex- military.
They are probably more resilient than people who may not have had a military background, so they are less likely to be down hearted if they have a bad day, probably less likely to take so many days off sick.
And be more robust, particularly in a school like this.
Neil Mackintosh has brought in a little squad of ex- military types to the school.
Linda MacIntosh was a Sergeant in the Territorial Army.
Her mission today: maths.
And Colin Meredith, who teaches foot technology, was a chef in the Territorial Army.
foods technology.
Their arrival and the introduction of the Combined Cadet Force a decade ago has coincided with a marked improvement in behaviour at the school.
Things have changed in the last 12 years.
There seem to be less gang-related incidents.
Fewer people on the fringes of gang-related culture outside school.
Fewer challenging individuals around school.
The place is certainly calmer.
Military values in place of classroom chaos.
It is almost like a working prototype of David Cameron's "big society".
The Westminster Government plans to fund the ex- military to become teachers in state schools across England.
It is hoped the rest of the UK will follow suit.
The biggest reason talented people leave the profession is because discipline is out of control Those schools the presence of role models who've experience of taking young men and women and instilling discipline will be immensely valuable.
Is this part of the "big society", ex- military serving on the front line? There is no better example I think of a spirit of service than those who are in our armed forces.
If we can ensure that something of that spirit infuses the rest of British life we are exemplifying one of the best virtues of the "big society".
It's a shame -- it seemed to have worked for Hakeem Nawas, a drum major the cadets.
When I was in year 7 I was shy, I didn't talk to people, I didn't like speaking in groups.
As I participated in cadets and team activities I can openly talk to a group of people.
How have the cadets helped with that? It's the teamwork that we do within the cadets and the activities we go on, where certain people are left in charge.
We have to talk.
We can't keep quiet.
So it has developed me personally.
Hakeem's mother says Lordswood has transformed her son and she's deeply grateful to the school.
It makes him more focused.
He is ground.
He is more strong and independent.
It has taught him a lot how to be a young gentleman.
It is turning children that could have turned out to be rotten little brats that you see on the street into proper grown men, to be proud of.
A laid-back lunch time jam session.
Each week on Cadet Day a fifth of Lordswood's pupils put on a military uniform.
I believe cadets changed me.
I fell in with the wrong people when I joined the school and the cadets pulled me out of it.
Some of the people I've seen kicked out of school either have been doing jobs, it has given me the courage to do what I want to do.
Tough schools can break even ex- military teachers.
One only lasted a day.
Being an ex-forces person is no magic wand to succeeding in the classroom.
But the confidence you have in yourself and the people skills you've learnt dealing with the soldiers, sailors or airmen in the armed forces can easily translate in a classroom environment.
Those who do hack it tend to be peacekeepers.
Normal teachers tend to raise their voice insignificant things but ex- soldiers keep quiet but by looking at them they are serious.
So they are in charge All you need is eyes and they look scared.
Lordswood's military manoeuvres have coincided with an upturn in performance.
Results in maths and English have improved significantly.
The Government believes more schools can benefit and its Troops to Teachers programme aims to smooth the way.
We are going to make sure that people who lev the services who want to become teachers have a chance to do degrees in a shorter period of time.
There is financial subsidy to help them make the transition.
And this is a privileged route to go from the military to teaching, they are given a special route in? Absolutely.
What will the current teaching force make of Mr Gove's new model Army? Their largest union baulks at the suggestion that the military can teach them a thing or two about keeping order.
I think he tpwhreeves there's a magic in certain kinds of people who've been in the military to be able to maintain discipline and order in classrooms.
I dispute that.
Did you accept that there's a problem with discipline in the classroom? What we need to do is look at the evidence.
Ofsted finds, they are not always a friend of the National Union of Teachers, that in general terms, discipline is not a huge problem and that schools are orderly.
They are well led, they are well managed and that less sons progress in a proper fashion.
do Lords word's teachers like the military connection? Arron Clifford is a PE teacher with a traditional training.
His class has a certain ring to it.
Any of the equipment can touch the river but no part of your bodies can, and it is a race.
Lordswood's school specialise in this sports, but with a twist.
It is teaching its boys to be fit to lead.
Are all the things that they can learn here - communication, non-verbal communication - they can take into different parts of their lives.
The kids know they are in a school with a large influence by military and how the military behave and how we learn, and the responsibilities that come with it and the teamwork and communications they use, all of the time.
I think they are now seeing the school hand in hand with the cadet forces and they see so much of the cadets around hem all the time, the boys who aren't involved can see it is a big part of the school now.
PE teacher Naveed Arshad is a former people.
He had a bit of a shock when he returned to Lordswood.
I thought I was at an Army base when I came back, guys in Navy uniforms, the Army uniform walking around.
Leadership, it is a great way to get the guys from the inner- city areas, where there's a lot of gun crime and violence.
This has given them something to focus on.
The city of Newport News in Virginia.
It is here in America that the Troops to Teachers idea was born and has been tested over time.
It aims to bring military experience to bear in the country's most troubled schools.
This isn't an easy place to teach in.
The crime and murder rate here are double the American average.
From this neighbourhood over 600 pupils are bused into Huntington Middle School each morning.
Mainly African-American, over 90% of pupils qualify for free school meals, meaning they are among America's poorest.
The school day begins as it does in every American classroom with a pledge.
I pledge aliege toons the flag of the United States of America and the republic for which it stands But this this place the American dream is hard to reach.
Have a seat.
Don't forget gospel choir today.
In this community getting shot is the norm.
It is normal.
And sometimes the kids have become so desensitiseded to that, but around in their neighbourhoods there are shots, that's a part of their lives.
So they begin to ask questions.
If you ask them, do you know anybody that's ever been shot? I can almost guarantee you that about 95% of my To help kids from these backgrounds, the American government tried something new.
Veterans.
Meet Jeff Lloyd, Robert Carlos and Linwood Jenkins.
All three came to teaching through a national programme which retrains the ex-military as full- time teachers.
These kids depend on us to come every day.
There is something about having, some wearing their lives, that is all the time the same, every day.
That is why it is very seldom that any of those three are missing out of These teachers are part of a school where order and calm this rule.
It is what strikes visitors like us from across the pond.
Orderly queues are the order of every day.
People who are very disciplined themselves, they know the objective of a mission.
In this case, the objective is to get these kids the best education we can get them.
I just got fed up with trying to make head or tail out of it.
I couldn't.
So you are going to do that paper over again.
They now I have a very low tolerance for misbehaviour, shenanigans, we don't want to disrupt the overall mission.
Tell me, who was President of the United States during the civil war? Lincoln.
Good.
Is this a mission too far? Are we ready to line up our school children in the UK and give them this sort of fighting talk? Just behaving well still won't get you into ex-Major Mountains.
Correct.
You will not let them into the class until they pass a test? As a requirement to coming here, I tell the kids they'd got to know something.
What is the title of this? Common sense.
Military techniques also come in handy when it comes to keeping pupils fully focused.
Six-inch voices.
I don't want to here a bunch of loud talking.
The way they keep control is not what you might expect.
If I am going to speak to you, then I will lower my voice.
Because I really want you to hear me.
That is a skill.
I learned that in the military.
In your classroom, the sign that you are getting tough is when you lower your voice? Not when you raise your voice? Yes.
military mystique helps set the tone in the classroom.
If you start whispering, he can hear it immediately.
To him, it is a really loud in his ear.
His ear is really sensitive.
It's because he's been in the military.
He said he can hear a tiny pin drop.
Troops to Teachers was launched 18 years ago after the first Gulf war.
Since then, 15,000 ex-military have entered the teaching profession, mostly in inner-city schools.
Their success in bringing discipline and order to classrooms is backed by extensive research.
When we first got the grant I thought, my goodness, drill sergeants stepping into a classroom with teenagers.
It's going to go over like a lead balloon.
There was a healthy degree of scepticism.
When the results started to come in, we were astonished.
They commanded respect through relationship building, through understanding.
So, they were very good at keeping control and discipline? They were outstanding.
They had fewer disciplinary problems per teacher, compared to the comparison group.
They just knew how to deal with students, to prevent problems instead of reacting to problems.
But does it work in a school where chaos reigns outside? We needed a police guard to us to see whether Huntingdon pupils were living.
But it's not that different from where Jeff himself grow up.
When I was small, this is typical.
Out here is the violence, the robberies, dope and murders.
This is typically where these kids are coming from.
Troops to Teachers was credited with bringing more teachers into schools with similar backgrounds to their pupils.
Originally, my parents didn't have anything.
We were very poor.
We came right down from the haute.
In the first nine years of my life we had nothing.
Absolutely zero.
So it is not just a matter of theory, you know where the kids come from, you've been there yourself? I know that.
This is undisciplined Jeff.
That is you? That is me, there.
He flunked out of college.
The military gave order and structure to his life.
I needed the support and that is what I got.
The military brings kids that are not disciplined into disciplined areas.
I mean, of their life.
the military gave to Jeff, he is now giving to his pupils.
Excuse me, cut that talking down to zero right now.
Without discipline, you have chaos.
You just have total chaos.
There is no learning in chaos.
Discipline is one of the key areas of any teacher's responsibility in the classroom.
If you don't have control of your classroom, you can't teach anything.
One of Mr Lloyd's former pupils has never forgotten what he did for her.
Ashley Davis, now at High School, credits him with turning her life around.
Things were bleak a few years back.
She was facing suspension and potentially dropping out of school.
Mr Lloyd really was stripped on us.
He really taught us a lot about, like, when I was in 5th grade I had gotten into one incident where I got suspended.
And I thought school was a joke.
I really didn't care about my grades.
Coming from the principal's Office, he was the only one that would listen to me.
The only one that would tell me that I had to change my ways, straighten up.
Because if I continued to be the way that I was, then there was a chance that I wouldn't be successful.
I think Mr Lloyd is a wonderful teacher.
He has changed a lot of lives.
I'm lost for words.
All I can say is thank you.
latest research shows that the ex- military stay in tough schools for twice as long as other teachers.
Their students respond.
What we did was look at Troops to Teachers's classroom, versus somewhat that teachers the same subject, with similar years of experience.
All of the teachers in that grade level, who taught that subject that was tested.
In reading and maths, the two areas we examined, troops to teachers' classrooms outscored all of the other teachers.
Their students were performing better than you would have otherwise expected? I would say their performance was Stella.
After two decades, some of the ex-military teachers are now running the schools.
US research says they are rated more highly as head teachers by employers than those from a traditional teaching background.
In Britain, as in America, head teachers can make or break a school.
Up until the arrival of this man two years ago, parents work deserting its Canterbury School.
Then in came Clive Close, a former warrant officer in the Royal Marines.
Now, the school rolls are rising.
Mrs Dawson said, guess who wins this week? Maths magician of the week is Jeanette.
Despite leaving school at 16, he's now I head teacher.
Today he's handing out awards for achievement.
He's worked his magic in a way that the Government wants to repeat nationwide.
I haven't come here and shout at people, I haven't march children around the playground, the parade ground.
It's about trusting people to work together, giving people freedom to make their mistakes.
Today it is Wincheap's weekly staff meeting.
Most are female.
Nearly 90% of primary school teachers are women.
US research shows that Troops to Teachers brings more men into schools.
Clive Close has risen faster through the profession.
He praises his staff's successes, but he expects them to admit failure.
It's being able to acknowledge, say, OK, we can do it better.
We are not so good at this, how can we fix it? Don't things -- take things personally, none of you.
Don't do it.
It is a school, we are a team.
The military I used to plain- speaking like this.
Our primary school teachers? Here, the staff remember how he took control.
think there was an awful lot of bickering between staff.
That stopped quite quickly after he arrived.
He wasn't unafraid of taking people out of the jobs they had previously been in and moving them around? It was very much looking at where people work, putting them in positions where they were needed.
If that meant you were not happy in being moved, he did it anyway.
But it worked.
were square pegs in round holes.
People responsible for key areas that probably shouldn't have been forced up do you think your ex military background gave you more confidence to say, well, it might upset them, but I'm going to fix it? That is the way that I am and that is the way it was with people I worked with in the Marines.
You told it like it was.
You started with the best.
You take people with you.
It was the day of the school did it to that -- nativity play when we were there.
The school was Well done.
A traditional scene for a head who likes traditional, plain language.
You used to have people here called Learning co-ordinators.
Yes.
You haven't any more? No, I expect people to lead their subjects.
The literacy leader leads literacy.
Innumeracy leader leads on numeracy in the school.
They have the authority to change things and took act on their own initiative.
They have the responsibility as well.
You one-off hot on words like co-ordinate? really.
-- you are not hot on words like cordon it? Yeading, responsible, have the authority.
wonder where you got that from? I wonder Schools are likely to see more of this no-nonsense style.
Not just plain speaking.
The Government wants more parades in English playgrounds.
We know there are many state schools that would like to have cadet forces.
We know that the resources have not been there in the past.
I would like to do everything possible to encourage more state schools, and more independent schools who already have cadet forces to go down that road.
Should we all fall in behind Mr Gove? Lordswood, where they have the whole military package, presents an unfamiliar vision.
Some parents worry that it could be a fast track to the real front line.
I do trying to turn your boys here in two little soldiers, sailors, airmen and Royal Marines? That is not at all what we are trying to do.
Some boys expressed an interest that they would like to follow a military career.
But they will probably change their ideas for their future careers many times.
Many have no interest in joining armed forces.
One Lordswood cadet is definitely interested.
His mother is not happy.
He's got his heart set on going into the service.
I've tried everything to convince him.
Everything.
I've tried all kinds of emotional blackmail, tricks, haven't I? What have you said? I said he's going to come home in a body bag and I will end up burying him.
I've said it as blatant as I could say it.
That is the bad side.
If you put it against him becoming a grown man and a gentleman, I've got to let him do as he pleases.
I've got to let him follow what is in his heart.
don't want to see the schools tended to training grounds for the next generation of soldiers, but I do believe that our current generation of soldiers have many of the virtues that many parents will see as having ebbed away from our schools, that they would like to see restored.
Troops to Teachers may not go far enough for disciplinarians who would like to see schools run as boot camps.
That may confound liberals who fear that it would mean exactly that.
But the surprising evidence is that it works.
The ex-military could become