''Jamie's Dream School'' is a seven-part British

television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

documentary A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

series made by Fresh One Productions, first aired on

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

. In it,

Jamie Oliver Jamie Trevor Oliver Order of the Star of Italy, OSI (born 27 May 1975) is an English celebrity chef, restaurateur and cookbook author. He is known for his casual approach to cuisine, which has led him to front numerous television shows and o ...

enrols a group of teenagers with fewer than five

GCSE The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is an academic qualification in a range of subjects taken in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, having been introduced in September 1986 and its first exams taken in 1988. State schools ...

s into his "Dream School" – a

school A school is the educational institution (and, in the case of in-person learning, the Educational architecture, building) designed to provide learning environments for the teaching of students, usually under the direction of teachers. Most co ...

in which lessons are taught by celebrities who are specialists in particular subjects. Both pupils and teachers gave evidence to the

Education Select Committee The Education Select Committee is a select committee of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The remit of the committee is to examine the expenditure, administration and policy of the Department for Education and any asso ...

in June 2011. The lessons from the show are available through a dedicated

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

channel, which features

David Starkey Dr. David Robert Starkey (born 3 January 1945) is a British historian, radio and television presenter, with views that he describes as conservative. The only child of Quaker parents, he attended Kirkbie Kendal School, Kendal Grammar School b ...

's history course and

Simon Callow Simon Phillip Hugh Callow (born 15 June 1949) is an English actor. Known as a character actor on stage and screen, he has received numerous accolades including an Olivier Award and Screen Actors Guild Award as well as nominations for two BAFT ...

's drama lessons.

The school

An empty building was converted into a school for two months. On the grounds, a

biosphere The biosphere (), also called the ecosphere (), is the worldwide sum of all ecosystems. It can also be termed the zone of life on the Earth. The biosphere (which is technically a spherical shell) is virtually a closed system with regard to mat ...

was constructed for lessons on the environment.

Teachers

Head Teacher A headmaster/headmistress, head teacher, head, school administrator, principal or school director (sometimes another title is used) is the staff member of a school with the greatest responsibility for the management Management (or managing ...

: John D'Abbro, OBE *

Art Art is a diverse range of cultural activity centered around ''works'' utilizing creative or imaginative talents, which are expected to evoke a worthwhile experience, generally through an expression of emotional power, conceptual ideas, tec ...

Rolf Harris Rolf Harris (30 March 1930 – 10 May 2023) was an Australian musician, television personality, painter, and actor. He used a variety of instruments in his performances, notably the didgeridoo and the Stylophone, and is credited with the inventi ...

Cooking Cooking, also known as cookery or professionally as the culinary arts, is the art, science and craft of using heat to make food more palatable, digestible, nutritious, or Food safety, safe. Cooking techniques and ingredients vary widely, from ...

OBE *

Cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

Michael Vaughan Michael Paul Vaughan (born 29 October 1974) is an English cricket commentator and former cricketer who played all forms of the game. He served as England cricket captain, England captain for the England test team, test team from 2003 to 2008 ...

OBE *

Diving Diving most often refers to: * Diving (sport), the sport of jumping into deep water * Underwater diving, human activity underwater for recreational or occupational purposes Diving or Dive may also refer to: Sports * Dive (American football), ...

Daley Thompson Francis Morgan Ayodélé Thompson, (born 30 July 1958) is an English former decathlete. He won the decathlon gold medal at the Olympic Games in 1980 and 1984, and broke the world record for the event four times. He was unbeaten in competit ...

CBE *English:

CBE *

History History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

: Dr David Starkey CBE *

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

: Prof. Dame Mary Beard DBE *

Law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...

(

Human Rights Human rights are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both Municipal law, national and international laws. These rights are considered ...

Cherie Blair Cherie, Lady Blair (; born 23 September 1954), also known professionally as Cherie Booth, is an English barrister and writer. She is the spouse of former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Tony Blair. Early life and education Booth was born ...

, CBE *

Maths Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, theories and theorems that are developed and proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many areas of mathematics, which include num ...

Alvin Hall Alvin Darnell Hall (born June 27, 1952) is an American financial educator, author, and media personality. Financial adviser Hall studied for a Bachelor of Arts in English at Bowdoin College. After a period working as a college professor (teac ...

Music Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...

Jazzie B Trevor Beresford Romeo OBE (born 26 January 1963), better known as Jazzie B, is a British DJ and music producer. He is the founder of music collective Soul II Soul. Life and career Jazzie was born in London UK to parents of Antiguan descent ...

, OBE *

Photography Photography is the visual arts, art, application, and practice of creating images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is empl ...

: John "Rankin" Waddell *

Poetry Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...

: Sir

Andrew Motion Sir Andrew Peter Motion (born 26 October 1952) is an English poet, novelist, and biographer, who was Poet Laureate from 1999 to 2009. During the period of his laureateship, Motion founded the Poetry Archive, an online resource of poems and a ...

Politics Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with decision-making, making decisions in social group, groups, or other forms of power (social and political), power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of Social sta ...

Alastair Campbell Alastair John Campbell (born 25 May 1957) is a British journalist, author, strategist, broadcaster, and activist, who is known for his political roles during Tony Blair's leadership of the Labour Party. Campbell worked as Blair's spokesman an ...

Sailing Sailing employs the wind—acting on sails, wingsails or kites—to propel a craft on the surface of the ''water'' (sailing ship, sailboat, raft, Windsurfing, windsurfer, or Kitesurfing, kitesurfer), on ''ice'' (iceboat) or on ''land'' (Land sa ...

: Dame

Ellen MacArthur Dame Ellen Patricia MacArthur (born 8 July 1976) is an English retired sailor and charity founder. MacArthur is a successful solo long-distance yachtswoman – on 7 February 2005, she broke the world record for the fastest solo circumnaviga ...

DBE *

Science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...

(

Biology Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, History of life, origin, evolution, and ...

): Prof. Lord Winston *

( Environment):

Jane Poynter Jane Poynter is an Citizenship of the United States, American aerospace executive, author and speaker. She is founder, co-CEO and CXO of Space Perspective, a luxury space travel company. She was co-founder and former CEO of World View Enterprises, ...

Pupils

*Angelique — Age 17 *Aysha — Age 17 *Codie— Age 18 *Charlotte — Age 17 *Chloe — Age 17 *Conor — Age 17 *

Danielle Danielle is a modern French female variant of the male name Daniel, meaning "The God(dess)" in the French language. The name "Daniel" originates from the Hebrew Bible and is associated with the prophet Daniel. In Hebrew, the name is composed of ...

— Age 18 *Emily Brown — Age 16 *Georgia — Age 18 *Harlem-Iaren — Age 18 *Henry — Age 17 *Jake — Age 16 *Jamal — Age 18 *Jenny — Age 16 *Jourdelle — Age 18 *Latoya — Age 19 *Michael — Age 18 *Nana Kwame — Age 18 *Ricki — Age 16 *Ronnie — Age 18

International adaptations

A South African and an American adaptation were aired in late 2013. A Dutch version of 8 episodes (and a reunion episode seven months later) followed in early 2017 on public broadcaster

Omroep NTR NTR is a Dutch public-service broadcaster, supplying television and radio programming of an informational, educational, and cultural nature to the national public broadcasting system, Nederlandse Publieke Omroep (NPO). NTR was created in 2010, f ...

hosted by

kickboxing Kickboxing ( ) is a full-contact hybrid Martial arts, martial art and Boxing (disambiguation), boxing type based on punch (combat), punching and kicking. Kickboxing originated in the 1950s to 1970s. The fight takes place in a boxing ring, norma ...

-champion

Lucia Rijker Lucia Frederica Rijker (; born December 6, 1967) is a Dutch professional boxer, kickboxer, and actress. Rijker was sometimes dubbed by the press "The Most Dangerous Woman in the World". Early career Rijker was born in Amsterdam to a Suriname ...

and headmaster Eric van 't Zelfde. The first season included Maarten van Rossem,

Karin Bloemen Karin Bloemen is a Dutch actress and singer. She has appeared in several films and television shows in the Netherlands. Since 1983 Bloemen is a singer and cabaret artist who is very extrovert and likes to draw attention to herself with her str ...

and

Peter R. de Vries Peter Rudolf de Vries (14 November 1956 – 15 July 2021) was a Dutch Investigative journalism, investigative journalist and crime reporter. His television program (''Crime Reporter''; 1995–2012) covered high-profile cases and set a Dutch te ...

as celebrity-teachers. A second season (10 episodes) started on 26 February 2018. Teachers were

Eva Jinek Eva Jinek (born 13 July 1978) is a Dutch-American journalist and television presenter. Biography Jinek was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma and grew up in Washington, D.C., where she attended Sheridan School.Duncan Stutterheim Duncan Stutterheim (1971 in Purmerend) is a Dutch entrepreneur who is best known as the founder of the Dutch event company ID&T. Career At 18-years-old, Stutterheim founded a courier company. A year later in 1992, Stutterheim and friends Irfan va ...

and Joseph Klibansky among others.The third series (11 episodes and a reunion 9 months later) started on 18 February 2019. Floortje Dessing,

Trijntje Oosterhuis Judith Katrijntje "Trijntje" Oosterhuis (; born 5 February 1973) is a Dutch singer and songwriter. She formed the band Total Touch in 1990 with her brother Tjeerd Oosterhuis before she started as a solo singer. She represented the Netherlands ...

, Wilfred Genee, Ahmet Polat and

Lodewijk Asscher Lodewijk Frans Asscher (; born 27 September 1974) is a Dutch politician and jurist who served as Leader of the Labour Party (PvdA) from 2016 to 2021 and parliamentary leader in the House of Representatives from 2017 to 2021. Asscher worked as a ...

and others were teaching the class of season three. The fourth season, of 13 episodes, started on 3 March 2020.

Klaas Dijkhoff Klaas Henricus Dominicus Maria Dijkhoff (born 13 January 1981) is a Dutch legal scholar and politician who led the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy in the House of Representatives from 2017 to 2021. He previously was Minister of Defence ...

, Jimmy Nelson, Hanneke Groenteman and

Sylvana Simons Silvana Hildegard "Sylvana" Simons (Dutch pronunciation: Help:IPA/Dutch, ɪlˈvaːnaː ˈsimɔns born 31 January 1971) is a Suriname (Kingdom of the Netherlands), Surinamese-born Dutch politician and former television presenter. She served a ...

were some of the teachers.

References

2011 British television series debuts 2011 British television series endings 2010s high school television series British high school television series Channel 4 documentary series British English-language television shows British television series about teenagers {{UK-reality-tv-prog-stub