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That'll Teach 'Em - Season 2

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That'll Teach 'Em returns, but this time the kids have a 60's education

In a follow up to the hit history series That’ll Teach ‘Em, Channel 4 re-opens the secondary modern of the 1960s, complete with woodwork and cookery, to see if the practical skills taught then are relevant today. Is there now too much emphasis on academic success and access to higher education at the expense of practical training and life skills? This new series tests the notion that the infamous secondary modern system, with its emphasis on vocational subjects, was better adapted to the needs of its pupils and the needs of the real world than today’s aspirational comprehensives. This summer thirty 16-year-olds who have just finished their GCSEs with predicted grades of C, D or below are put through a mixture of vocational and academic subjects in an authentically recreated 1960s secondary modern. At the end of “term” they sit the old CSEs. How do they perform compared with their modern day GCSEs? Will a mathematics syllabus that prepares boys to measure up a room for a carpet be stimulating? Will childcare classes put girls off sex for life?

EPISODE 1

In a follow-up to the hit history series That'll Teach 'Em, Channel 4 re-opens the secondary modern of the 1960s, complete with lessons in bricklaying and cookery, to see if a group of modern-day kids who aren't academic high fliers would benefit from the practical skills that used to be taught in the state system. Having just finished their GCSEs, 30 16-year-olds travel back in time for a month of intensive tuition with the emphasis on vocational skills. This first episode features the children's arrival at the school as they bid an emotional farewell to their parents and begin to realise just what they have let themselves in for.

EPISODE 2

As the pupils get used to their new regime, some are enjoying the experience more than others. The car maintenance lessons prove a hit with the boys, giving the less academically-minded amongst them a real confidence boost that carries over into their other lessons. But the girls find '60s-style lessons in home craft less appealing.

EPISODE 3

Mock CSEs in English and Maths sort the wheat from the chaff as the pupils who do well will be entered for the final exams later in the series while those that do badly are forced down the vocational route. The girls' culinary skills are tested when they have to cook a two-course meal for headmaster. The results are disastrous. But the boys fare better in woodwork and bricklaying as it dawns on some of them their new-found skills could lead to a lucrative career.

EPISODE 4

Hope Green School hosts an open day, giving the pupils their first chance to see their families since term began. The kids get a chance to show off some of the skills they have learnt, including maypole dancing and a gym display. Meanwhile, the boys are coming over all macho as they grapple with a wrestling competition and learn to drive a car. Life is quieter for the girls, who are still stuck in the kitchen. And the whole school enters the final stretch before next week's exams.

EPISODE 5

In the last programme of the series, the pupils of Hope Green School are gearing up for their exams. The students who passed their mocks get the chance to sit 1960s CSEs in English and Maths while those who failed will take CSEs in bricklaying and typing. In addition, all the boys take a CSE in woodwork while the girls take domestic science. But before the exams, there's one last treat: Scout and Guide Camp. It may be the first time the kids have been away from the strict regime of the school but that doesn't stop an uprising as the girls finally rebel against the perceived sexism of the period and go to war with the boys.

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