Saving students in the Last Chance saloon

TV Watch with Dave O’Connell

If anyone ever wanted evidence to support the campaign to ban school league tables, then Panorama’s Last Chance Academy – aired on BBC1 last week – would be all you’d ever need.

Because these pupils weren’t bound for Oxford or Cambridge; they were destined for the scrapheap, before an inspiring Principal and a group of determined teachers turned their lives around.

There was no Hollywood ending to life at the Baverstock Academy in Kings Heath, Birmingham, because success here is passing five GCSEs – in effect, the equivalent of the Junior Cert.

For some even narrowly failing their exams – even the compulsory subjects of English and Maths – represents the sort of success that 600 points over here could never compete with.

Because the pupils who attend the LEAP programme at Baverstock are – as the programme title suggests – in the Last Chance saloon.

They are disruptive, struggling with learning difficulties, and almost inevitably burdened by numeracy and literacy issues.

Which is where someone like the Head of Department, Martin Phipps, comes in – a teacher from central casting, down to the glasses and well-worn suit, but who offers a unique combination of discipline and encouragement to get them back on track.

We met a young girl called Chelsea, who frankly was the sort of student that teachers dread to see coming into their classroom – gobby, undisciplined and opinionated on all things but what was actually going on in school …. and ultimately putting up a front for her internal struggles.

Her issues reached crisis point as she sat her GCSE English exam, only to emerge early and in a state of some disarray with a warning that, if she walked out, she would not be allowed back in and she would fail a test she has to pass to move on with her life.

But Chelsea’s problem was a simple one – she couldn’t read the paper, and she’d told no one because she’d manage to mask her issues with a quick response or a diversion.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Sentinel.