On 9 September my latest programme,
Extraordinary School for Boys went out on BBC Two. It's a bit of a departure from recent shows as I'm not concentrating on music and singing, but on the subject of education. I join the staff of a primary school on a mission to re-engage boys with learning, and it turns out to be quite a challenge.
The school had a problem - the girls were doing better and the boys were falling behind educationally. The programme follows my attempts to turn the boys around and get them reading, writing and debating.
Because I'm known as a choirmaster people imagine that I don't do anything else, so this programme is a bit different from the rest. There is singing and acting in the third episode, but the focus is education - with a difference.
Some of the boys were very behind in their reading. It was deeply affecting and difficult to know how to help. I wanted to engage them with new, challenging activities. We end up reading books around a forest campfire, re-enacting Roman battles and writing a play from scratch - all in the name of literacy! I do feel that too much '
cotton-wooling' is damaging for a boy's sense of self-belief, and I found that if I gave them responsibility to step outside their comfort zone they really rose to the challenge.
Do tune in and watch the show - it's on BBC Two and UK viewers can catch up with episodes on the
BBC iPlayer. I've written more about
Extraordinary School for Boys on the
BBC TV Blog. It's proving to be quite a controversial topic and a lot of people have commented on my article. You can also
discuss the series on my Facebook page - I'm geniunely interested to read what people think, so do join the debate!
Update 15th September 2010: I was
interviewed on BBC Breakfast about
Extraordinary School!
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