''Mr Drew's School for Boys'' is a British television programme which aired on

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

from April until May 2014, set in the same universe and a standalone Spin-off to the British

reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 19 ...

programme

Supernanny ''Supernanny'' is a British reality television programme about parents struggling with their children's behaviour, mealtime, potty training, etc. The show features professional nanny Jo Frost, who devotes each episode to helping a family wher ...

. The programme follows "Mr Drew" (Stephen Drew), who previously featured in another Channel 4 documentary, ''

Educating Essex ''Educating Essex'' is the first series of the British documentary television program ''Educating'' produced by Twofour for Channel 4 that ran for seven episodes from September to November 2011. It uses a fly on the wall format to show the every ...

'' during his tenure as Deputy Headteacher at

Passmores Academy Passmores Academy is a 11–18 secondary school in Harlow, Essex. The academy has an annual intake of 240 pupils in Year 7, and in the (January 2013) is approximately 1,000 pupils. It featured in the 2011 television series Educating Essex. Th ...

. In the series, Mr Drew is the Headteacher of a summer school in Essex for boys who are challenging and have behavioural issues, with most of them being excluded from their schools. All boys in the programme were under the age of 12, with the youngest aged eight. The series premiered on 29 April 2014, with the first episode attracting a viewing audience of 1.7 million.

Background

The programme features eleven boys from around the United Kingdom who have challenging behaviour and have been excluded from school. In an attempt to improve their behaviour, the eleven boys have enrolled in a summer school programme, led by Mr Drew and a small team of teachers and pastoral support staff. The boys' parents also feature in the programme, with their parents receiving lessons and guidance on effective parental techniques and support which will hopefully improve their sons behaviour. The synopsis for the programme was inspired by UK Government statistics released at the time which revealed that boys aged 12 and under are almost six times more likely than girls to be excluded from school.

Cast

Summer school staff

* Stephen Drew; "Mr Drew": The headteacher of the summer school. Previously featured in ''

'' as one of the schools Deputy Headteachers (2011) * Dominic Volante: Teacher of PE * Mark Grist: Teacher of English & Drama * Lindsay Skinner: Teacher of Mathematics * Benjamin Vidler: Teacher of Science

Narrator

Nick Frost Nicholas Jonathan Frost (born 28 March 1972) is a British actor, author, comedian, painter, producer and screenwriter. He has appeared in the ''Three Flavours Cornetto'' trilogy of films, consisting of ''Shaun of the Dead'' (2004), ''Hot Fuzz ...

; 4 episodes

Series

Series 1 (2014)

Reception

Catriona Wightman from the ''

Digital Spy Digital Spy (DS) is a British-based entertainment, television and film website and brand and is the largest digital property at Hearst UK. Since its launch in 1999, Digital Spy has focused on entertainment news related to television programmes, ...

'' praised the series for its ability to "not paint these boys out to be absolute terrors", but also highlighted the "impossible task" that Mr Drew or Channel 4 had set for him, recognising the challenges of the boys' behaviour in the series. Pat Thomson, Professor of Education at the

University of Nottingham The University of Nottingham is a public university, public research university in Nottingham, United Kingdom. It was founded as University College Nottingham in 1881, and was granted a royal charter in 1948. The University of Nottingham belongs t ...

criticised the programme, claiming that the majority of boys from working families who may display challenging behaviour would not be able to afford fees associated with a summer school programme similar to what was featured in the programme. The ''

Metro Metro, short for metropolitan, may refer to: Geography * Metro (city), a city in Indonesia * A metropolitan area, the populated region including and surrounding an urban center Public transport * Rapid transit, a passenger railway in an urba ...

'' gave the series favourable reviews, claiming that "Mr Drew had been missed" since his last appearance on television in ''Educating Essex''.

Controversies

Many viewers commented on the lack of parenting that the boys featured in the programme received, with lack of attention, poor diet and lack of sleep routine being highlighted by viewers as contributing factors as to why the boys featured may display challenging behaviour. In Episode 2, Max, with PE Teacher Dominic Volante and his mum, Ruth, are walking into a local

Co-op Food Co-op Food is a brand used for the food retail business of The Co-operative Group in the United Kingdom. Prior to reintroducing the brand in 2016, the group used " The Co-operative" branding, which is still used by a number of consumers' co- ...

store to do some shopping whilst Max is seen wearing a tiger onesie with no shoes on. This gained attention on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

, with some taking to the platform to raise concerns regarding Ruth's choice of clothing for her son and the fact he was walking outside without shoes. Throughout the four episodes, concerns were raised by viewers regarding some of the behaviours displayed by the boys, such as attention seeking and

thumb sucking Thumb sucking is a behavior found in humans, chimpanzees, captive ring-tailed lemurs, and other primates.Benjamin, Lorna S.: "The Beginning of Thumbsucking." ''Child Development'', Vol. 38, No. 4 (Dec., 1967), pp. 1065–1078. It usually involv ...

. Despite the ages of the boys, between 8–12 years old, many found it "interesting" that boys of that age would still feel the need to suck their thumbs, something mostly associated with babies and young children, whilst some had claimed that by sucking their thumb, it was their way of "crying for help".

Legacy

Since the original airing of the programme, there has been some calls for a return programme focusing on the boys currently and how (or if) their behaviour has changed. One boy who featured in the show, Tom Roberts, aged 19 in 2021, admitted that his behaviour "was terrible" and since the programme had avoided jail time. He has embarked on working with other young people to advocate for positive destinations and positive behaviour.

References

{{reflist 2014 British television series debuts 2014 British television series endings 2014 in the United Kingdom 2010s British documentary television series Channel 4 documentary series British English-language television shows British high school television series Television series about educators Television series about teenagers