Education, Education, Education

Warning: Political views expressed!

"It's May 1997. Tony Blair has won the election and Katrina and the Waves have won Eurovision. Channel 5 is a month old. No one knows who Harry Potter is. Britain is the coolest place in the world". So goes the introduction to this brilliantly funny and thought provoking play by The Wardrobe Ensemble which has just finished at the Bristol Old Vic. The Wardrobe Ensemble are a small group of theatre artists working together to make new plays that dissect the twenty-first century experience.

This was a Christmas present from my son and his girlfriend and a wonderful evening with pre-theatre supper before my first visit to the Bristol Old Vic. I picked the play because of its subject matter and it turned out to be perfect for the three of us - me because I have been in secondary education since 1992 so it was all very familiar territory and my hosts because they were teenagers in the 90s. The clever use of a 90s soundtrack (Oasis, Take That, The Spice Girls) and the inclusion of items such as the Tamagotchi (remember those!) takes you straight into the period. The play is fast paced with a minimalist set and evoked very well the days of "Cool Britannia" and healthier nationalism than that of today. The atmosphere at Wordsworth Comprehensive the day after Tony Blair won the election was just how I remembered it: excited staff who are delivering the best education they can with limited resources, full of hope with the expectation of investment to come.

Those were heady days: the sense of excitement, relief, almost disbelief after 18 years of Conservative rule. I remember crying tears of joy that morning and the anthem "Things can only get better" was truly what we all believed. Rather ironically, the play finished with the anthem and it once again brought tears to my eyes, only this time bittersweet - how hopeful we were then and how little things have changed.

Of course, it soon becomes obvious that, although things will change, it is too late for the current cohort of students, just about to take their GCSE's. Bright, but troubled Sophie, who is not allowed to join the school trip due to her poor behaviour, rails against the unfairness, having tried hard, but too late, to improve. I, and all the colleagues I have worked with over the last 25 years, have seen many Sophies. What is so heartbreaking and is shown so well, is the way these children, and their schools, are let down and blown hither and thither by changing governments, ideologies and education theories, and how children are simply sausages in the machine to be squeezed into uniform shape.

The teachers are very cleverly drawn and recognisable from every staffroom: the loud PE teacher, the enthusiastic but ineffectual head, the ambitious martinet of a deputy head, the English teacher who brings the subject alive but can't keep control. The acting is superb, not least that of the funny and deadpan German assistant on a placement. We know them all!

Lyn Gardner (Guardian Stage, 17 August 2017) reviews it perfectly: "..it is canny, slick work from a company that knows exactly what it is doing. It plays cleverly on the fact that audiences will be well aware of what has happened to education over the last 20 years and the way current Tory policies have seen demoralised teachers leaving in droves and have failed children, particularly the most vulnerable." I couldn't agree more and it saddens me enormously that not much has really changed or improved since I first entered education in 1992 (or rather it did for a while and is now being undone). Though I've spent the past 14 years in the private sector, my first 11 were in state comprehensives and I know how passionate and hard-working most teachers are, giving everything to their pupils despite criticism, change and increasing workload. But then the same is true of the rest of the public sector too ...

Education, Education, Education is playing at Shoreditch Town Hall (17-21 April), followed by Plymouth (24-28 April) with plenty more dates and venues round the country. At just over an hour, this is a slick piece of entertainment and a must-see for anyone in the education system, past or present. I loved it.