At the chalkface
News
Teaching ugly
I WAIT for the 8th year for our Bang! Here they are! I meet
first lesson. These opening forays them trundling down the corridor.
Actor’s appeal
are crucial. Get it right and the Let’s go! Line up! Straighten up!
year’s a breeze. Get it wrong and Seating plan! Look up! Sit up!
I’m toast. Doomed. They kill the Heads up! Hands up! Shut up!
weak. So I must be well hard. I Good morning! I call their names
must teach ugly. and tell them mine. There’s faint
to football’s
I rehearse those dreary mirth from a clot called Fionn. I
nostrums you’ve just heard in unleash the thousand-yard stare.
New Year Behaviour Workshops. It stops. I am calm. Right! Books
Zero tolerance, high expectations, out. Start story. Abomination by
low cunning, tough Robert Swindell. Never
pushy parents
love, severe gravitas, fails. I read with the
clear aims, and no usual tawdry histrionics.
ambiguities, no Most follow. Some
compassion, no don’t. Some can’t.
jokes, no nonsense, Shkelzen doesn’t know
by Emma Lee-Potter
no prisoners, and no I’m reading. He gazes at
smiles ‘til Christmas. me baffled. I might be just A hard-hitting film starring actor
No real education. That talking. I might just be a Ray Winstone aims to stop pushy
can come later. Control nutter! Or lonely. It breaks parents shouting abuse at their
over content. I must be your heart. But not today it children during football matches.
tough. Especially with doesn’t. I’m well hard, me. The new 75-second Football
8th years. My least “Who wants to read?” Association film, entitled Elders So far, 35,000 clubs, a third of
favourite year. It’s a sort Hands up! Teodora. and Betters, calls on parents to the youth clubs in the country, have
of academic Bermuda Terrific. Thank you. Elias. change the way they behave signed up to it and are reporting
triangle. An intellectual Excellent. And now Trish. La towards youngsters before, during positive results.
doldrums. They go all antic Lunk. Fluent and charming. So and after matches. The film follows on from the
and pointless and distrait and there. Thank you. Even those It intersperses Mr Winstone’s FA’s Two Rays film, also starring
shrill. They just wear me out. who can’t really read offer. anti-bullying appeal with scenes Mr Winstone, which was released
Then I let things slip and get too “We’ll be ‘ere til Christmas!” from a youth game, where a father earlier this year following research
lax or too soft until my classroom says Fionn. Another thousand aggressively berates and intimi- showing that thousands of young-
resembles a jumble sale. yarder. I’ll have him. We approach dates his son for a supposedly poor sters had stopped playing football
Well, not this year. the end. Plenary given. Homework performance on the football pitch. regularly because of too much
I survey mugshots of the set. Books in. Class out. Job done. “Over half our young football- pressure from their parents.
class. I gaze on their tough, fresh Nothing learned. No matter. ers have to put up with pressure Alongside the film, the FA has
faces. I ponder on their little We have order. They seem to like and abuse from their elders and bet- produced a Respect parent guide,
lives. So many nationalities. it. I don’t. This ugly stuff may be ters,” comments Mr Winstone. which gives help and advice to
Polish, Albanian, Iranian, Iraqi, necessary, but it’s a dreary slog. “Ain’t it time we gave it a rest?” parents on improving conduct on
Turkish, Kurdish. So many Can I keep it up ‘til Christmas? Elders and Betters is being dis- the sidelines.
war zones. So many on free tributed to 15,000 youth clubs across It also encourages parents to pro-
meals. Billy Boy, Wild Steven, • Ian Whitwham is a former the country this month as part of the mote themselves as positive role
Shkelzen, Fionn, Niloufar, Jeton, teacher. A collection of his best FA’s Respect programme. models, with the ultimate aim of
and Trisha. Trisha! Trish Lunk! columns, At the Chalkface: Great The Respect campaign was keeping youngsters playing football.
Wehey! Sister of the dread Sid? Moments in Education, is out launched at the start of the 2008/09 To find out more, and down-
Give me strength! But I must now priced £8.99 from Hopscotch season to highlight and tackle load the parent guide, visit Respect: The Football Association’s new campaign, backed
avoid self-fulfilling prophecies. Books. Order on 01722 717022. unacceptable behaviour in football www.thefa.com/Leagues/Respect. by actor Ray Winstone, is aimed at stopping abusive
matches. aspx parents putting their children off the sport
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Film: Superman
20 SecEd • September 10 2009
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