Tom Richmond: Lesson in real life for the political classes

Why? They have shown, on the brilliant series Educating Yorkshire, that teaching is a thankless task – it is not all about holidays and inset days – and that it is the staff at schools like Thornhill Community Academy in Dewsbury who hold the key to this country’s economic future.

As they cajoled, encouraged and urged disinterested pupils to get to grips with complicated algebraic formula so they have a chance of reaching the Grade C benchmark in GCSE maths, a lesson that baffled this correspondent, a right-wing journal favoured by the Conservative Party was ridiculing political attempts to rescue “failing” northern cities and towns.

Although The Economist magazine specifically named and shamed Middlesbrough, Burnley, Hartlepool and Hull as symbols of industrial decay – even though the latter is in the running to become the UK’s City of Culture in 2017 – the authors of an editorial entitled “City Slicker” probably had Dewsbury in mind when they argued that governments should not rescue “failing towns” and instead help remaining residents “to commute or move to places where there are jobs”.

An insult to those who take pride in these locations, like those trying to persuade wind turbine giant Siemens to invest in Hull, the timing of this political attack on the North could not be worse.

It is only likely to encourage Conservative election strategists to focus their efforts even more relentlessly on short-term policies that will win over voters in those marginal seats which will determine the outcome of the 2015 election, rather than focus on a new deal for those traditional Labour strongholds that were allowed to become so over-dependent on the public sector.

Yet, if David Cameron wants to secure his place in history as a reforming premier, he will put the national interest first by embracing these Tory no-go areas and looking at how more youngsters can benefit from the Thornhill experience, where teachers like “Mr Steer” become physically ill because they’re so determined to help their pupils to prosper.

As he, and his colleagues, relaxed at York Racecourse on Saturday, he observed that “kids are kids pretty much wherever they come from” and that the TV series is an accurate portrayal of Britain’s schools today. In short, storylines were not exaggerated for entertainment’s sake.

I truly believe that Cameron understands the importance of basic skills – the message that he took back to London after last Thursday’s visit to Yorkshire was the sheer number of youngsters who still do not have five or more GCSEs in core subjects after 11 years of schooling.

Speaking at the Yorkshire Post’s offices, he said there was something “fundamentally wrong” with policy and accepted that pupils will struggle to make the grade at secondary school if they complete their primary education with an inadequate grasp of the three Rs. Too right.

Yet, rather than bombarding the teaching profession with even more initiatives and paperwork, I want to know what the Government is going to do to support inspirational leaders like Mr Mitchell – this is his first head’s post – and his deputy who shunned a lucrative career in banking to become an acclaimed maths teacher now in his 12th year at Thornhill.

To see Mr Steer battling illness – brought about by exhaustion and stress – to give his pupils the best possible chance of achieving the impossible, a Grade C in maths, should be compulsory viewing for every politician who is involved in education policy. These are the human faces behind each raft of league tables – or the embarrassing OECD data that revealed Britain to have amongst the worst literacy rates in the Western world.

Without such teachers going the extra mile, towns like Dewsbury would stand no chance of proving The Economist wrong – or all those who still associate the area with evil mum Karen Matthews who instigated the kidnap of her own daughter Shannon five years ago so she could claim, shamelessly, the £50,000 reward that had been offered for the young girl’s release.

Like most viewers, I quickly became very irritated by disruptive pupils like Sheridan who appeared more interested in her hair – and serial irritants like Grant, who was given nearly 30 detentions in a matter of days for serial lateness, insolence and disruption, and whose own mother despaired of his stubborn selfishness. Why were teachers spending so much time working with a moronic minority?

And then the twist. Rather than washing their hands of these apparent no-hopers, after forcing these troubled teens to spend day after day learning in isolation, they began to knuckle down once they came to regard their teachers as role models and the importance of their final exam mark – a make or break moment.

Incredibly the behaviour of Grant is now transformed as he seeks the qualifications to become an electrician – he’s even stopped smoking – while Mr Steer’s disappointment was palpable when struggling Sheridan missed an improbable C pass in maths by one percentage point. With his help, she now hopes to make the grade in a resit next month. Good luck to them – especially if it means both learning a trade and knuckling down.

The lessons? First, the main political parties have a moral, economic and social obligation to devise inspirational policies for every town and city, even those where they have little representation. The Thornhill experiment has already rendered redundant The Economist’s ignorant advice on social mobility.

Second, no education policy – however worthy – will succeed unless it is embraced by teachers like the Thornhill team. Forget targets, give school staff the freedom and latitude to bring the best out of their pupils, and especially those who are given no encouragement at home to learn.

Third, it’s not about shares, houses and cars as Britain’s economy bounces back. As Cameron told his party conference, it is about creating a “land of opportunity for all”. That means giving teachers like Jonny Mitchell and Michael Steer, my unexpected heroes of 2013, the support and the encouragement that they deserve rather than more rules and regulations.

They have shown why education and economic reform must begin in the classroom – at schools like Thornhill Community Academy – if David Cameron’s vision is to be realised. If this happens, the whole of Britain will benefit from a more dynamic and upwardly mobile society.