Gareth played a blinder!

Gareth Malone's 'extraordinary' eight week experimental teaching and learning methods employed with some junior age schoolboys in Essex paid off handsomely on the evidence of the last night's final instalment of the three television programmes about it. The play, written by the boys themselves, accompanied by music, performed in a local theatre and including girls in the cast too, was very clearly enjoyed and admired by all - proud parents and staff, and children with a clutch of happy memories of success, co-operative endeavour and self-esteem to look back on and build upon. Almost needless to say, the purpose of the experiment was vindicated: the boys' speaking, reading, and writing skills had improved by far more than in eight weeks would normally have been expected. - Well done, Gareth! - Well done, everybody! (See also my previous post about Gareth's Extraordinary School for Boys.)