If anyone has been watching Channel 4 over the past few weeks, they will have seen the adverts for the new show pioneered by TV chef Jamie Oliver. "Jamie's Dream School" takes failing students and puts them into a school where all the teachers are celebrities. David Starkey will teach history, Daley Thomson will be PE coaching and Sir Robert Winston will be the science professor. The question Mr Oliver is asking is "Could we get our kids' brains working differently? Make them want to actually turn up at school". Through taking people who children admire and look up to, Oliver is trying to see whether despondent pupils will find a new-found love for learning. It's something of a revolutionary idea, which many argue may change the British school system forever. However it is one which is creating a lot of opposition among 'everyday' teachers who are wondering why it is seemingly them who are being blamed for failing students across Britain.
On the forums on TES Connect, the leading website in the UK for teaching professionals, a storm seems to be brewing. Angry teachers are questioning Oliver's authority over the matter. What gives him the right to say that there are no 'dream teachers' already in schools? Does he take the opinion that there is simply no skill in the actual art of teaching itself? Is he saying that the failings of the education system are down to the lack of expertise on teachers' behalf? Many members are outraged at the fact that Oliver seems to be assuming such things. On the site's weekly poll the members were asked whether they think Jamie Oliver has what it takes to improve British schools. In a somewhat damning inictment 79.7% said no.
It would seem that the show has served to reveal many problems within the British teaching system from the over-zealous Ofsted to the highly restrictive health and safety requirements which prevent many teachers from being able the help children reach their full potential. Teachers on the site are speaking of how they are struggling daily in oversized classes with students who simply do not want to learn. Oliver is showing an idealised classroom with very few pupils where they are able to have much more attention lavished upon them than in a real classroom. One member on the forum, dogbert82 gave their opinion on the matter; "[He is] in a much better position to make [his] tutoring sessions fun because [he is] taking small, probably one-on-one sessions where they have specifically elected to be taught [the] particular subject. I'm sure it's a jolly little party for them. Try performing a regular job doing the same thing with 30 random 15 year olds and you'll find it doesn't work so well." Another member lizburf writes; " I worry this type of dream school undermines the value of trained teachers, continuing to support the theory that 'those that can; DO, those that can't; Teach.'" The daily school regime needs routine and formality - some state institutions have one thousand plus pupils and often staff shortages. Teachers are unsung heroes who often have to also be social workers, riot police and any number of other roles yet this show implies they are completely incompetent and failing children nationwide.
I honestly do not see what Jamie Oliver is trying to do with this new experiment of his. Hopefully some good will come out of it and he will get a harsh wake up call that the problems within the education system go far deeper than teachers and that his judgement was completely skewed in the first place by his own bad experiences with school.
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