Film Class

J.K. Simmons puts in a commanding performance as psychotic music teacher Terence Fletcher, determined to drive Miles' Teller's Andrew to great artistic heights. We discuss his philosophy that praise leads only to mediocrity, as well as considering his somewhat idiosyncratic approach to ensuring a disciplined learning environment. Is such a regimented ideology necessary for artistic excellence, or is it anathema to creativity? All t...

'I'm right and you're wrong, I'm big and you're small, and there's nothing you can do about it!'

Danny DeVito's Matilda has been one of our most requested films to discuss from the very beginning of the pod, and we finally got round to it (and we think it's one of our best episodes!). We discuss the dichotomy between Agatha Trunchbull and Miss Honey, two extremes of teaching we think are manifest in all practitioners. This leads to...

This week we watch Ken Loach's classic debut film Kes (1969), starring then newcomer David Bradley as Billy, a working class boy from Yorkshire with little hope for the future. Loach captures the low expectations and bleak brutality of schools in the 1960s, leading us to discuss corporal punishment, Thatcher's revolution of the education system in the 1980s, and the cruelty of the classroom in the past. Spoiler alert: PE teachers m...

We're back! In our first episode of Season 2, we talk the Jack Black classic School of Rock (2003), in which a dosser poses as substitute teacher Mr Schneebly and insists his pupils learn the hard rock canon. We discuss whether or not leaders can ever be friends with those they manage, the difficulties of substitute teaching and whether teaching children nothing other than rock is any less biased than the national curriculum. P.S. ...

In our last episode of season one, we discuss the darkest Harry Potter films: Deathly Hallows Parts One and Two. We talk Harry's transition to young adulthood, the use of education as propaganda, teachers who scarred us, and McGonagall's fascist turn. (Bloody hell, that all sounds very dark- let's do School of Rock or something next).

We're currently coming up with ideas for Season Two in 2021 so please email or DM us with films ...

In this week's discussion of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, we are joined by self-professed gifologist (and staunch Gryffindor) Ele! We discuss Mad Eye's terrifying lessons, Dumbledore's decision to share politically sensitive information with students and, most importantly of all, the terrible hair decisions made by almost every adolescent character in this film.

We also touch on the fact this is the most superficially 'di...

This week we are lucky enough to be enjoyed by BBC Bitesize's own Mr Firth! He shares his analogy that the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher Gilderoy Lockhart (Kenneth Branagh) typifies the toxic behaviours of your average EduTwitter celebrity. We discuss our Hogwarts houses (with Sean trying to overcome his Hufflepuff shame and overcompensating in the processs...) and the school's appalling safeguarding. Keeping an educati...

In the first of our festive series on the Harry Potter films, we talk all things Hogwarts! Shain is a staunch member of Team Snape and his no nonsense approach to the classroom, while Sean is all for McGonagall's mastery of warm/strict. We discuss which subjects we'd like to teach and how they correlate to real life curricula, Dumbledore as an ideal headmaster (at least at this point...), and think about Hogwarts as an elitist spac...

We were both surprised by how much we enjoyed Freedom Writers, starring Hilary Swank as real-life English high school teacher Erin Gruwell. Although the film is much more nuanced than the similar Dangerous Minds, it does also make some very unrealistic expectations of what makes an excellent teacher. (No, we won't be taking on third jobs and buying hundreds of dollars worth of books ourselves).

We also talk the pitfalls of condes...

In this special Halloween episode, we dissect the 90s teen cult classic The Faculty, directed by Robert Rodriguez. Featuring a panoply of stars (including Famke Janssen, Josh Hartnett, Clea Duvall, Piper Laurie, Salma Hayek, Elijah Wood and -bizarrely- Usher!). We recognise it as one of the first films in the 90s teen pop culture boom to frame high school as a terrible experience, especially in shitty football towns in the middle o...

The film that made Matt Damon and Ben Affleck famous got us both feeling reflective: what is the purpose of education? Furthermore, what is the purpose of LIFE ITSELF (yes, we got that reflective). Robin Williams gives ones of his most poignant performances that led us to reflect on the important of pastoral care (while also breaking our OFSTED based ranking system). We also talk about the literal cost of education: Minnie Driver's...

We discuss Maïmuona Doucouré's controversial debut feature, Cuties (or Mignonnes), which led to calls to cancel Netflix after an uproar over marketing many felt was inappropriate and sexualised the child actors involved. We think about what a teacher could do in a situation like the one depicted; Amy, a Senegalese Muslim girl now living in the suburbs or Paris, falls in with the 'Cuties', a daring tween dance troupe. This led us to...