Jamie's Dream School is a seven-part British

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

documentary series made by Fresh One Productions, first aired on

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

. In it,

Jamie Oliver James Trevor Oliver MBE OSI (born 27 May 1975) is an English chef, restaurateur and cookbook author. He is known for his casual approach to cuisine, which has led him to front numerous television shows and open many restaurants. Oliver reac ...

enrols a group of teenagers with fewer than five GCSEs into his "Dream School" – a

school A school is an educational institution designed to provide learning spaces and learning environments for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is sometimes comp ...

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 a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

channel, which features

David Starkey David Robert Starkey (born 3 January 1945) is an English historian and radio and television presenter, with views that he describes as conservative. The only child of Quaker parents, he attended Kendal Grammar School before studying at Cambr ...

's history course and

Simon Callow Simon Phillip Hugh Callow (born 15 June 1949) is an English film, television and voice actor, director, narrator and writer. He was twice nominated for BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his roles in ''A Room with a View'' (19 ...

's drama lessons.

The school

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

biosphere The biosphere (from Greek βίος ''bíos'' "life" and σφαῖρα ''sphaira'' "sphere"), also known as the ecosphere (from Greek οἶκος ''oîkos'' "environment" and σφαῖρα), is the worldwide sum of all ecosystems. It can also ...

was constructed for lessons on the environment.

Teachers

Head Teacher A head master, head instructor, bureaucrat, headmistress, head, chancellor, principal or school director (sometimes another title is used) is the staff member of a school with the greatest responsibility for the management of the school. In som ...

: John D'Abbro, OBE *

Art Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...

Rolf Harris Rolf Harris (born 30 March 1930) is an Australian entertainer whose career has encompassed work as a musician, singer-songwriter, composer, comedian, actor, painter and television personality. He often used unusual instruments in his performan ...

* Cooking:

OBE *

Cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

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 captain for the test team from 2003 to 2008, the one-day international team from 200 ...

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), a ...

Daley Thompson Francis Morgan Ayodélé Thompson, (born 30 July 1958), better known as Daley Thompson, is a British 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 tim ...

CBE *English:

CBE *

History History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

: Dr David Starkey CBE *

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

: 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,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

(

Human Rights Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...

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

, CBE *

Maths Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

Alvin Hall Alvin D. Hall (born June 27, 1952) is an American financial adviser, author, and media personality. Early life Hall was born June 27, 1952, in Crawfordville, Florida, one of seven children to a family of farmers, day workers and fishermen. Inte ...

Music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspe ...

: Jazzie B, OBE *

Photography Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable 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 employe ...

: John "Rankin" Waddell *

Poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...

: Sir Andrew Motion *

Politics Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that stud ...

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

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, windsurfer, or kitesurfer), on ''ice'' (iceboat) or on ''land'' (land yacht) over a chosen cou ...

: Dame

Ellen MacArthur Dame Ellen Patricia MacArthur (born 8 July 1976) is a retired English sailor, from Whatstandwell near Matlock in Derbyshire, now based in Cowes, Isle of Wight. MacArthur is a successful solo long-distance yachtswoman. On 7 February 2005, ...

DBE *

Science Science is a systematic endeavor that Scientific method, builds and organizes knowledge in the form of Testability, testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earli ...

(

Biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...

): Prof. Lord Winston *

(

Environment Environment most often refers to: __NOTOC__ * Natural environment, all living and non-living things occurring naturally * Biophysical environment, the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism or ...

Jane Poynter Jane Poynter is an 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, a private near-space exploration ...

Pupils

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

Danielle Harold Danielle Amy Louise Harold (born 30 May 1992) is an English actress. She is known for her role as Lola Pearce in the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'', which she played from 2011 to 2015, and reprised the role from 2019 to 2023. Career Before H ...

— 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, ...

hosted by kickboxing-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 speaks four languages and is a Bu ...

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

Maarten van Rossem Maarten van Rossem (born 24 October 1943) is a Dutch historian, presenter and commentator. He specializes in the history and politics of the United States. As an expert on America, he is a frequent guest on television talk shows. His public care ...

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 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 __NOTOC__ Floortje Dessing (born 31 August 1970 in Heemstede) is a Dutch radio and television presenter, producer and travel writer, best known for her various travel TV shows. Since 1995 Dessing has covered more than 120 countries in TV progra ...

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 i ...

, 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 ...

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 Hanneke Groenteman is a Dutch journalist, radio broadcaster and television presenter who tends to focus on culture-related topics. Early life and education Hanna "Hanneke" Groenteman was born in the Rivierenbuurt quarter, on the south side of ...

and Sylvana Simons 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 English-language television shows Television series about teenagers {{UK-reality-tv-prog-stub