People!! Let’s remember its TV. Before this week’s #ChineseTeachers started I checked my crystal ball and could see it all going horribly wrong but with a hint of a light at the end of the tunnel and I’m thinking that is what we got.

I’m not sure what the intention of the whole project was but I do hope that part of the “deal” was that the host school weren’t going to offer any support and advice unless it became necessary because if that’s the level of support that struggling teachers get I am ashamed of our school system. I know that it isn’t the norm and also don’t think I’m naïve … I’ve read and listened to some horror stories … and the perpetrators in these tales need a reality check. None of us are that important. The job you do doesn’t make you better than anyone else …at the end of the day in 200 years no one will remember the vast majority of us.

No-one gets up in the morning with the intention of doing a crap job. No-one brushes their teeth and thinks to their self “today I am purposely going to make an absolute pig’s ear of my day and everyone else I come across” and this was the over-arching theme of the show – these teachers want to do a good job. Hearing one of them talking about wanting to pass on knowledge was touching.

The programme started out telling us that “British pupils have fallen behind in the academic race and 5 Chinese teachers have come to prove that even a high achieving school has a lot to learn”. I am not convinced that we have fallen that far behind as everyone wants to think … and why is it a race anyway? Who decides what the key measures are? Why these measures? But that is a different topic and not for this post Mel!

The behaviour in the second episode in this series doesn’t improve and as such anyone that has “been around a bit” in education will tell you that being a new teacher under normal circumstances (shh! No-one talks about it though!) leads to behaviour issues in most cases anyway. As a result this whole thing was ALWAYS going to be a bad experience for those involved … just making a farce of the whole experiment. I’m also not convinced that we are comparing “like for like” .. at some point in the show it came out that the Maths teacher teaches at the most prestigious school in China, He made reference to our maths syllabus being “kinda slower compared to what we’re doing in China” – he’s teaching iGCSE, Further Maths and A levels and this group of students are year 9. So I have to ask … why send them to Bohunt? You take a teacher out of the most prestigious school in the UK (it will undoubtedly be a private school) and send them into Bohunt and I bet you get similar (granted it probably won’t be as extreme) behaviour issues. IT DOESN’T MAKE IT RIGHT I KNOW … my issue is that the whole programme is just TV. Made for TV. Set up for TV and of absolutely no valid use whatsoever.

When the current Head of Maths (I think!) observed a lesson he was hoping to see “students learning … focussed and still learning maths” but oh how wrong was he? He wasn’t prepared for what he saw and he actually called it “genuinely awful”. The Head stepped in with some words of wisdom and the school intervened. When talking to the group of Chinese teachers he actually said words, along the line of “These are well behaved students .. being quite disrespectful and this is a shock … and it makes sense for us to take a bigger role in terms of behaviour management”. He said that he didn’t want to impose an English behaviour management system but then offered some advice about not talking whilst the students were and to give the students a warning and if that didn’t work to refer them to a Bohunt member of staff. This was essentially (again, his words) “designed to give you more space to focus on Chinese teaching”.

This phrase about them being “good kids” is still stinging with me. I have heard it many times this past year and now I would agree that our students are “good kids” … I’d even go as far as saying they’re “great kids” but when you have a tough class, on hearing that, you turn your thoughts to “well it must be me then!”. I now know that being new is tough and having seen the support given in this programme (which is why I am assuming that they agreed a hands-off approach) I must say that our SLT have been brilliant. They were visible, available and around when we needed them .. even if just a smile or a kind word. It made a difference.

The question needs to be asked … why can a group of kids turn feral? What happens to them? Is it very much the “Lord of the Flies” syndrome (read the book! I read it at secondary school … **waves at Mr Thomas my old English teacher**). That is of course if they really are normally well-behaved and everything suggests that they are.

When the head went into the class to reinforce the “rules of the road” the group were totally different and he made it very clear what was expected. The Chinese teachers actually saw for themselves that the students behaviour is “chosen behaviour” … they could behave WHEN they wanted to .. every single last one of them. This must have been a horrible realisation.

Leaving the class, the head teacher made some comments to a colleague about feeling quite irritated that students are subjected to tedious teaching and learning and having the deepest sympathy for some of students. He went on to say that it reminded him of Thursday afternoons of his childhood with incessant droning and that in his view the Chinese school is going to fail and fail by a margin … he finished his little spiel by saying that “if that is the most successful way .. God help us!”

So … let’s get this right … he is criticising the very style of education that got him to where he is today? hmmm have we really moved so far from a knowledge based education that every lesson has to be engaging (read that as “jazz hands”). There is a place for “demonstrate” followed by deliberate practice (especially in maths!)… I know for a fact that as I’ve become more comfortable in my skills I do less of the “hands” stuff but I would say that I TEACH better. The kids learn more even if I do think my teaching has become more didactic … rightly or wrongly … hmmm .. MEL!! You’re going off on a tangent again!”

These teachers are so very resilient and want this to work as any of us would in the same circumstances – possibly for professional pride rather than for “mother country” but whatever floats your boat. I suspect that the Parents evening that took place will be a pivotal point for some of these students – very much a focus on the final test that is coming up. However some of the parents were touched by the speech that included: “I am no one – just a little Chinese woman. Currently I am not sure which direction this school is going because of discipline and that to struggle is not a sign of weakness it is a sign of strength. I promise I will do my best to help your children.”

I am genuinely hoping that #ChineseSchool has been heavily edited for TV – everything about it, is just wrong! The way the students have behaved and the way the teachers have experienced a complete lack of respect is just wrong, diddly wrong! I’m not saying it doesn’t happen because I know it does but this shouldn’t happen to anyone. I genuinely hope that it’s done an injustice to everybody involved.

PS: I’m not even going to mention the kettle that one student took into school. Mum didn’t seem to think this was an issue!