Programme 1

Content Résumé

The first of the three programmes, ‘You’ve Gorra Wanna Be’, visits Ruffwood School. The head teacher is Frank Fitzgibbon. Ruffwood is a mixed comprehensive, with 1,150 pupils, situated in Kirby near Liverpool. 50% of the pupils are entitled to free school meals and one in five has a special educational need. In the year before filming, 18% of students at the school had gained at least five GCSE A* – C grades – a figure considerably below the national average.

Ruffwood has focussed on two essential elements in its strategy to raise achievement: student motivation, and time organisation management - which has featured a rigorous whole-school system of homework support and monitoring. The school has also sought to help less motivated students through a long-standing alternative curriculum provision at Key Stage 4.