Back in Time for School

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BBC Two Northern Ireland

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Factual: History

Fifteen pupils and their teachers embark on an extraordinary time-travelling adventure.

Fifteen pupils and their teachers embark on an extraordinary time-travelling adventure as they fast-forward through more than 100 years of school life.

Series 1

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Sara Cox

Polly Russell

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Gary Hawkey

Nik Porter

Bal Rayat

Paul Taylor

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Dan Thomas

Chris Short

Paul Donovan

Peter Gordon

Rosie Westwood

Hannah Newcombe

Leonie Tucker

Mark Ferguson

Veronica McAleer

Oliver Comer

Holly Beaumont-Wilkes

Chantelle Stewart

Ellie Davies

Pamela McIntyre

Rajveer Sihota

Stephanie Wessell

Claire Parry

Sophie James

Ross Stanley

Jade George

Jeanne Clenet

Emily Assael

Sophie Wogden

Emily Shields

Mark Fox

Ben King

Joanna Lincoln

Khalid Khan

Kate Taunton

Christina Nutter

Morgana Pugh

Wall to Wall Media

Back in Time for School: Series 1: Episode 4

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Episode 4

BBC Two - Back in Time for School, Series 1, Episode 4

In the swinging 60s, the class try bricklaying, typing and even a spot of Mini driving.

Pupils and teachers embark on a time-travelling adventure. In the swinging 60s, the class experience bricklaying, typing, cooking and even a spot of Mini driving.

In this episode, our time-travelling class arrives in 1960. With a brand new decade, comes a new school for our pupils - the secondary modern. Leaving behind the rigidity and formality of the postwar grammar, they are now training for a vocational future. As they experience more hands-on lessons than ever before, our modern students and teachers will find out whether the 60s were really so swinging, after all.

Their first lesson sees the boys and girls separated once again for subjects deemed suitable for each. For the girls this means an introduction to typewriting, and for the boys, bricklaying. As the girls comes to terms with the challenges of carriage-returns and speed typing, to the fast pace of the William Tell overture, the boys attempt to tinkle and tease their way around a trowel, and building a simple wall presents a unique challenge for these modern pupils.

In the secondary modern, though, there was no escaping the basics, as our class discover in maths. One of the few lessons in which boys and girls were mixed, there is widespread confusion as they try to master the complex art of the slide rule - no calculators here! Attempting to get to grips with this cutting-edge technology, they take some time out to prank the teacher and commit the age old trick of defacing the overhead projector.

In 1963, there is rebellion brewing as the girls are told they will be cooking a meal in their very own purpose-built flat. Sampling the menu is their male teacher, acting as a stand-in husband. The recipes include an intoxicating mix of celery boats piped full of paprika and cream cheese, devilled eggs and kippers in butter. And if that is not enough to put them off their lunch, school dinner in the 1960s serves them a hearty 1,500-calorie meal of mince roly-poly, cabbage and mash, spotted dick and of course, the obligatory lumpy school custard. While the girls have been slaving in front of a hot stove, the boys have been learning a skill deemed crucial for male school leavers. Behind the wheel of a Mini, they have been learning to drive for the first time. Watch out Lewis Hamilton!

Back in Time for School: Series 1

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