Educating (TV series)

Educating
Title card of the first series
Genre	Entertainment Documentary Reality television
Created by	Twofour
Directed by	David Clews Nicola Brown Alex Kohler
Starring	Various students and teachers
Voices of	David Clews
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language(s)	English
No. of series	4
No. of episodes	35 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Andrew MacKenzie-Betty Peter Moore David Clews
Editor(s)	Jonno Paul
Camera setup	Multi camera Dual cameras
Running time	60 minutes
Production company(s)	TwoFour Channel 4
Release
Original network	Channel 4
Picture format	HDTV 1080i
Audio format	Stereo
Original release	22 September 2011 (2011-09-22) – present (present)
External links
Website	www.channel4.com/programmes/educating-essex

Educating is a British documentary reality television program which first aired on 22 September 2011 and has ran for four series. The show took a years break before announcing the fifth series which is due to air in late 2017 on Channel 4. It uses a fly on the wall format to show the everyday lives of the staff and pupils of secondary schools all over the UK, each series is filmed in a different school.

Episodes

Development and production

Series 1 (2011)

Educating Essex was commissioned by Channel 4's commissioning editor for documentaries, Mark Raphael,^[2] after the channel pledged an extra £6.7 million to documentary programming in 2011.^[3] It is similar to other fly-on-the-wall series broadcast by Channel 4 such as One Born Every Minute, 24 Hours in A&E, The Hotel and The Family, the last of which both director David Clews and series producer Beejal-Maya Patel had previously worked on.^[4]

Series 2 (2013–14)

Educating Yorkshire was commissioned by Channel 4 after the success of Educating Essex two years previously. There was interest from about 100 schools in starring in the new series. David Brindley, producer and director of the series, said "it was undoubtedly easier to find a school this time around". In January 2012, Jonny Mitchell, the headmaster of Thornhill Community Academy in Dewsbury accepted an offer to be a part of a new series based in his school.^[5] The school had had a bad reputation, ranking in the sixth percentile of English schools.^[6] Mitchell became headmaster in September 2011; in 2012 it reached the 94th percentile. This improvement was one of the reasons it was chosen for the series with Mitchell saying "I was proud of what we’d achieved and felt we had a story to tell".^[5] Mitchell also said "Dewsbury has suffered quite a lot in the last ten or 15 years with some adverse press. I thought this was an opportunity for us to show the positive side of the town as well".^[7]

Series 3 (2014)

Educating the East End was commissioned by Channel 4 after the success of Educating Yorkshire in 2013 and Educating Essex in 2011. The documentary followed a school in East London’s Walthamstow.^[8] Ten sixty-minute episodes have been commissioned,^[8] the first eight will be shown from September to October 2014 with the other two episodes acting as specials. The original title for the series was Educating Walthamstow but shortly before transmission the title was changed to Educating the East End.^[9]

Series 4 (2015)

The follow-up to Educating the East End was announced by Channel 4 on 9 December 2014.^[10] Producers had looked to schools in Scotland, Ireland and Wales for the new series before settling on Willows High School in Cardiff. Executive producer David Clews revealed "you can really feel the charm and character of the place as soon as you walk through the gates and start talking to the students". Joy Ballard initially declined TwoFour's invitation before changing her mind a month later. In preparation for the programme she took advice from Johnny Mitchell, head of Thornhill Community Academy in Educating Yorkshire. The first six weeks of production saw the documentary makers observing the school and "picking up stories". Filming began in October and lasted until Christmas.^[11]

Series 5

After the fourth series of the educating series ended it was announced that the series would be shelved till 2017 to give the show a break and a rest.^[12] It was announced on 22 December 2016 by Channel 4 that the Educating would be returning in 2017 with a fifth series after a 2 year break. The series will again be filmed using fly on the wall cameras and will film the lives of teachers and students. The fifth series will be filmed in Manchester in Salford.

Awards and nominations

Spin-off series

A spin-off series was made after the second series titled Educating: What I Wish I'd Known... each episode futures a student from either series one or series two of Educating.... The series was made up of six seven-minute episodes. The tagline was "What is the advice you wish you could have given your teenage self?" Filmed in 2014, this series asks students from Educating Essex and Yorkshire what they would have told their younger selves. However, the series was cancelled after one series.

References

External links

• Educating Essex at Channel 4
• Educating Essex at Twofour
• Educating on IMDb