Top 10 Iconic Educating Yorkshire Moments

Top 10 Iconic Educating Yorkshire Moments

Welcome to WatchMojoUK, and today we’re looking at the funniest, most memorable, and most inspirational moments from “Educating Yorkshire”.

#10: Jack Turns it Around

With a record-breaking number of negative behaviour points, the entire school was worried about Jack in year 9. He struggled with every subject except history, constantly getting kicked out of lessons and picking arguments with people who looked at him funny. Unlike other misbehaving kids, the potential for Jack to do well is there and everybody sees it – including him. But if he wants to be allowed to do history as a GCSE, he has to work hard and prove that he’ll cope with the course and be able to thrive. It takes a lot of effort from everybody, but in the end, Jack goes over a month with no behaviour incidents once he returns from temporary exclusion, and he gets onto the history course.

#9: The Army

Who could forget Ryan, Thornhill’s resident old soul? He won us all over with his memorable comments and his lofty dream to one day be the prime minister. Well, he’s still got time to make those parliamentary dreams come true, so keep an eye out, but that wasn’t his only classic moment. He frequently popped up carrying a latte, telling his teachers about his love of coffee, but also had some comments about the military. He waxes lyrical with Mr Burton about his other dreams, including one day being a fireman – but he’d never join the army. He really is wise beyond his years.

#8: Tom Plays Truant

Another boy who gives the teachers plenty of trouble is Tom Foster, the school joker. But his behaviour gets worse, understandably, after his stepbrother suddenly passes away. Much to the school’s surprise, Tom’s parents send him to school anyway, and they’re left not knowing what to do with him. He skives and walks out of all of his lessons, unable to focus, and the teachers do their best to try and give him somewhere quiet to go where he can keep his mind busy but not disrupt his lessons. Like Jack, it was memorable and heartwarming to see them doing their best to help him through an unimaginable loss.

#7: Extra Maths

Mr Steer takes it upon himself to tutor a handful of year 11 girls in maths to try and ensure they manage to get that coveted C grade and pass the GCSE. This entire episode was a window into how devoted some teachers are, sometimes to the point of self-destruction. We learn that Mr Steer is plagued with allergies, all made worse by stress, and his fretting over the girls’ maths exam takes a physical toll. In the “one year later” episode, the girls are interviewed again and say they had no idea what he was going through until they watched the show themselves, while Mr Steer reveals he ended up in hospital once the exams were over.

#6: Snowballs

It’s winter and the snowballs are flying, but not only on school premises. An elderly member of the local community arrives to report some schoolboys for pelting her house with snowballs and spewing profanities when she came out to tell them to stop. The boys are rounded up and given a bollocking of epic proportions from Mr Mitchell, who takes community complaints seriously since he’s trying to improve Thornhill’s reputation around Dewsbury. Whether this worked is anyone’s guess since the ringleader was Kamrrem, who’s since gone to prison for getting involved in a pub fight that ended with a man’s death.

#5: Jac vs Georgia

A fight breaks out between Jac and Georgia after Jac-Henry’s accused of calling Georgia names behind her back. It quickly devolves into he-said-she-said, but they need to get to the bottom of things to work out whether Georgia needs a more serious punishment, i.e., being banned from the leaver’s prom at the end of the year. Eventually, though, it became clear that this torment had been going on for a while, with Jac and his friends often on the receiving end of comments and teasing from Georgia. In the end, Jac gets excluded, only for his best friend Brandon to vouch for him and insist that he talk to the headmaster about how he’s being wrongfully punished.

#4: Mr Moses on Tinder

In the fifth episode, we got to know Mr Moses, who was in charge of pastoral care. We also got to learn all about his dating woes, and how he’s never been able to find a woman to settle down with. But then we find out that he spends his downtime in the office swiping left and right on Tinder, which was still brand-new when the series was being filmed. He talks at one point about how a woman on Tinder got annoyed at him when he sent her a message correcting her spelling. Would you swipe right on Mrs Moses? Let us know below.

#3: Tom & Bailey

In the “one year on” episode, we find out that two fan-favourite pupils at the school, Tom and Bailey, have become an item. First loves and high school sweethearts weren’t covered much in the original series, so it was nice to see this indispensable, teenage experience finally represented. Bailey was there for him after his brother’s death, helping him through it as he eventually returned to school and started applying himself to his studies. As far as we know, they’re not together anymore – which isn’t exactly a shock since it’s been over a decade – but those first relationships are pivotal moments in any person’s life.

#2: Apology

This entire episode was dedicated to the spectacular falling out between former best friends Safiyyah and Hadiqa. For a while, the pair were inseparable, but then as often happens with teenage girls, they had a friend break-up that got so nasty, the school got involved. Hadiqa, alienated by Safiyyah’s other friends, was accused of spreading rumours about Safiyyah to her family. But this all culminated in a clip that went hugely viral, when the two are finally sat down and forced to talk to each other about what’s been going on. Will Safiyyah ever live this down? Who knows, but this scene was baffling to anybody not from Yorkshire.

#1: Musharaf’s Stammer

One of the most inspirational things we’ve ever seen on British television was Mr Burton’s tireless efforts to help Musharaf with his stammer. Using methods from “The King’s Speech”, like having Musharaf read while wearing headphones so that he couldn’t hear himself, Mr Burton boosted his confidence enough that he was able to get his words out. He ended up making a speech in front of the whole school by the end of the year and getting his prefect jumper back. Years on and Mushy has had a musical made based on his story and is a motivational speaker, while Mr Burton is now the head teacher at Thornhill.

Let us know in the comments whether you attended any of the schools in the “Educating” series.