School-based drama Waterloo Road comes to
Â鶹ԼÅÄ ONE, Thursday 9 March 2006
Ann McManus - The story behind Waterloo Road
The key creator and writer behind Waterloo Road is Shed Production's own Creative Director, Ann
McManus.
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Education is a subject close to Ann's heart. Before landing
a job as a television writer, helping create Footballers' Wives and
Bad Girls, Ann taught English for five years in some of Glasgow's toughest
comprehensive schools.
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When asked by the Â鶹ԼÅÄ to come up with a contemporary drama that would be relevant to the lives of ordinary people in Britain today, Ann didn't hesitate in pitching a drama set around a modern comprehensive school.
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"If there is one single issue that dominates the thinking not only of parents but of everyone who wants a decent and fair society, it's how we give our children the best start in life", says Ann.
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"Without overstating the case, teachers are at the front
line of humanity and what they do in the classroom affects all of our
lives."
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Waterloo Comprehensive is a fictional school in the north of England. The drama starts with the school in crisis when its long-suffering headmaster has a nervous breakdown.
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Deputy Head, Jack Rimmer, (Jason Merrells) reluctantly takes
the hot seat as Acting Head and there starts the long road of turning
round a failing school, one small step at a time, tiny bit by tiny bit.
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"If there is one main theme in Waterloo Road it's that a few good teachers can make a huge difference in even the most challenging schools.
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"You can throw any amount of money and resources at
education but if you don't have motivated and inspiring teachers, the
investment will never deliver."
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After completing an honours degree in English Literature and Language at Glasgow University, Ann secured one of the few teacher training positions at Jordanhill College and in her own time studied for a Diploma in Education.
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Following the Diploma, she won a scholarship to do a Masters
Degree in Education at Glasgow.
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Ann's passion for education came out of her own experience as a pupil at Queen Margaret Academy, a local comprehensive school in Ayr, Scotland.
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"It's fair to say I was not the easiest pupil to teach.
There was nothing I liked more than winding the teachers up and having
a laugh at their expense.
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"But I learned to really value those teachers
who could control the class and was contemptuous of those who couldn't."
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Ann taught in schools servicing two of Glasgow's most deprived housing estates – Castlemilk and Easterhouse.
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"When I did my first stint at teaching I knew I wouldn't be able to teach anything unless I got the respect of the class.
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"Little things mattered like making them sit in rows
instead of groups and targeting the trouble maker-leaders from the outset.
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"Although corporal punishment was still allowed when I started teaching, I chose
not to use it as I found that making the class laugh at the ring-leaders was
much more effective than making heroes out of them by belting them.
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"Some of the pupils I taught were genuinely tough cases but they all had their crosses to bear. Many were living in chaotic homes where school was first and foremost a refuge.
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"Given a chance, many of them really wanted to learn
but they needed a strong teacher to
create the conditions where they could. I can honestly say there was not
a pupil I taught whom I didn't genuinely like."
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But Ann herself got disillusioned with teaching.
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"Something happened in the mid-1980s. Teachers
seemed to lose the trust of the authorities and the respect of many
parents and society as a whole.
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"More and more
detailed legislation came in regulating every minute of the day
and preventing teachers from taking meaningful initiatives of their own.
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"Their working conditions deteriorated. Their salaries
were very poor.
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"As a result I saw cynicism creeping in and in the worst cases teaching pupils became more an exercise of 'containment' rather than any real attempt at education."
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However, Ann sees hope in some of the reforms beginning to take hold in education. "At the very least, the fact that the present Government has put education at the top of their policy agenda is a hopeful sign.
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"There needs to be a real attempt to get the best people into teaching.
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"No one's going to do it for the money alone so we
need to value the profession and recognise the sheer enormity of the task
and give teachers the tools and initiative to get on with the job."
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"I
hope that Waterloo Road in its small way can have a positive effect on how we
regard teachers and education.
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"Although the drama features good and bad teachers
and pupils, at its heart is a message that a few good teachers in one school
can succeed in achieving the near-impossible."
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