Head On The Block (BBC1); Classroom Chaos (five): EDUCATION, education, education. Two documentaries in one night to give those of us whose schooldays were a long time ago an idea of what life's like nowadays in the classroom. It is not a pretty picture.

Classroom Chaos was an undercover, fly-on-the-blackboard look by a supply teacher at schools chosen at random around the country. She wasn't picking on one area, believing the problems permeate the whole education system.

"I couldn't believe what I saw," declared this woman, a teacher at state secondary schools in the 1970s before becoming an educational radio and TV producer.

Hidden camera footage was certainly eye-opening, although she admitted that traditionally pupils give supply teachers a harder time than regular members of staff.

It all looked like a scene from To Sir With Love before Sidney Poitier tamed the unruly pupils and gained their respect. She was warned that her 12-year-olds maths class were "a very spirited group". The description hardly did them justice. They used mobile phones during lessons, hid under desks and generally treated her as if she wasn't there.

Head On The Block showed the other side as cameras spent a year following the efforts of Jo Shuter, one of Britain's youngest headteachers, to turn around a troubled inner city comprehensive school. Her brief was to improve exam results and solve problems associated with gang violence.

She was much more patient and successful than the Classroom Chaos supply teacher. Here was a woman who listened to pupils and tried to help them, not by giving in to them but by laying down the rules, earning their respect and inspiring them to do better.

Shuter didn't play down the problems, knowing full well that "any day this school could explode". It would, she accepted, never be a quiet establishment.

The film focused on two pupils - 16-year-old Haji who, by his own admission, "was a really nasty piece of work". She made him a prefect. Now he sorts out the bullies and wants to pass his exams and become a teacher. "Jo turned my life around," he said.

Christie, 15, was typical of pupils who find school boring and are constant absentees. Part of Shuter's daily battle is simply getting children to attend school.

Unlike Classroom Chaos, this film was upbeat about the future of education, although the cost is high. This "extended school" is open from 7am to 10pm. It has its own team of youth and social workers as well as a nurse and policeman on site - which gives you an idea of just how serious the problems could be.

Published: 28/04/2005