Sir John Lawes School in Harpenden has radically improved its GCSE performance. Results are impressive. 9 out of 10 students get A* - C in five subjects and 84% obtain A* - C in English. Head of English Gweriydd Williams believes the school's success has four main causes: assessment, innovative teaching, modelling and the unusual move to separate boys and girls in the top two sets in Years 10 and 11. This programme investigates the school's approach by looking at four lessons in the school across Years 10 and 11. We enter the video courtroom for the study of Of Mice and Men, experience the back-breaking limbo dance to better understand Kamau Brathwaite's poem 'Limbo', and simulate the mildest form of apartheid in the classroom, to support the reading of 'Nothing's Changed', a poem about apartheid in South Africa.

Video Series: Improving Core GCSE Results
Release Date 2007