Faced with sweary, texting brats like these, who'd be a teacher? Claudia Connell reviews last night's TV

By Claudia Connell for the Daily Mail

Published: 18:51 EST, 5 October 2017 | Updated: 03:06 EST, 6 October 2017

Educating Greater Manchester (Channel 4) 

Rating:

Gypsy Kids: Our Secret World (C5)

Rating:

The plague of mobile phones in the classroom and the impact of social media were the hot topics in Educating Greater Manchester (Channel 4).

Many argue that phones should simply be banned from class and at Harrop Fold School, in Salford, you could see why. 

In this documentary, children openly texted during lessons and one girl asked her teacher to ‘hang on a minute’ while she finished a game before answering his question.

Another teenage girl claimed she would ‘literally die’ if she had to be separated from her iPhone. 

Educating Greater Manchester (Channel 4), pictured, takes on the topics of mobile phones and the impact of social media

Educating Greater Manchester (Channel 4), pictured, takes on the topics of mobile phones and the impact of social media

Few teachers could have imagined that policing the social media activities of their pupils would become a large part of their job. 

Yet last night we witnessed head Drew Povey intervene when GCSE students Lelo and Serena fell out over a boy they liked on Facebook. 

Three years ago, Lelo was at a strict boarding school in Zimbabwe where no one had a mobile phone and everyone played traditional playground games. 

As one of her Salford teachers said, she then moved to Manchester and encountered a world of: ‘Eyebrows, boys and social media.’

Rani and Jack, pictured, from Channel 4's Educating Greater Manchester, where children are seen openly texting throughout lesssons

Rani and Jack, pictured, from Channel 4's Educating Greater Manchester, where children are seen openly texting throughout lesssons

Sporting a heavily drawn ‘Scouse brow’ and false eyelashes, Lelo had sent the boy a picture of herself in her underwear which led to a foul-mouthed classroom attack from Serena.

Elsewhere a group of younger girls had uploaded a picture of pupil Caprice eating her lunch and made cruel jibes about her weight. As a result, she was refusing to eat.

Shy 15-year-old Tom had moved to Manchester from Wales and his extreme anxiety meant he had a ‘time out pass’ to leave class whenever he wanted. Perhaps predictably this led to him missing more lessons than he attended.

Deputy head Ross Povey offered Tom, a talented drummer, the chance to compete in the school’s talent show — on the condition he turned up for more lessons.

Older viewers will have watched open-mouthed as kids were bribed to go to class, used Facebook in maths and swore in the presence of teachers. 

It’s what has turned the Educating series into such frustrating — and compelling — viewing. It also makes you wonder who on earth would be a teacher in a modern comprehensive school?

Colourful fact of the week 

How pale and pasty the Strictly contestants look on It Takes Two. They don’t get their radioactive spray tans until Saturday morning and look positively sickly by comparison the rest of the week.

The air was also turning blue in another documentary, Gypsy Kids: Our Secret World (C5), where potty-mouthed Jimmy, eight, let his sister Annalise, ten, know in no uncertain terms what he believed the role of a woman was. 

While she wanted to breed and sell horses like her father, Jimmy believed she should stay at home and clean the house like girls were meant to.

Over in County Westmeath, 11-year-old Shakira had ambitions to become a farrier, but in the misogynist traveller world her chances weren’t great.

Mum Mandy admitted that any gypsy husband would be a laughing stock if he had a wife who worked since it was considered ‘shameful’ for a woman to have aspirations that extended beyond having children and washing floors.

Gypsy Kids: Our Secret World (C5) discusses gender roles and whether or not women in these communities should be working

Gypsy Kids: Our Secret World (C5) discusses gender roles and whether or not women in these communities should be working

One child who was trying to break the mould was Ben, 13, who wanted an education, but had recently left his 11th school in three years due to bullying by ‘gorgers’ (non-travellers). He settled for home education, hoping to scrape a few GCSEs.

Although this series has featured some of the bling extravagances of gypsy life, the most interesting moments are when the children are allowed to talk about their hopes and dreams, which turn out to be no different to that of their gorger peers.  

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