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In this first episode, award-winning teacher Phil Beadle takes on the task of teaching nine adults how to read and write. Each one of them spent over 10 years in the school system – and yet they failed to learn the most basic skills. The class includes a whole range of people who left school unable to read: a businessman, a plumber, a single mum and an unemployed 21-year-old.
Phil is daunted by the prospect of teaching such adults who are literally putting their dreams in his hands:
'I've never taught adults before, I've never taught anyone to read before, not even my own children, I was never particularly good with those who are lower-attaining, and I've got just six months to do it. It just can't be done' says Phil.
Phil taught for 10 years in the system which has failed so many kids, so he has a personal reason for getting involved in teaching adults – a sense of guilt.
'I got a bit a bargain with myself as well, that if I can sort out the reading and writing of a number of adults… perhaps I can forgive myself for the for the fact that I failed quite a few kids at school.'
Before the course starts, Phil goes to see some of the people who'll be on his course. He meets James, who's 28, and who can only write his own name, and 46-year-old Linda who can't read a word and is desperate to read Shakespeare.
As the lessons start – two sessions a week – Phil finds that he's not only teaching his class their letter sounds, but he's dealing with the raw emotions that have dogged these people all their lives. Linda finds the lessons almost unbearable:
'I can't think, I can't work, my head's in bits!' she storms at Phil, 'and I'm telling you that I'm not coming back next week'.
Meanwhile James is so upset by confronting his inability to read again, that he's taking days off work.
But Phil takes heart in the fact that 58-year-old Teresa, who burst into tears when faced with a reading test in her first lesson is able to grapple with reading a children's book after just three weeks of lessons. 'Those sounds have given me a life', she says.
By the end of the first few sessions, some of the class have made huge progress, while others are still struggling, so Phil tries out a kinaesthetic approach with them – letting them form the shapes of the letters in 3D. It's a breakthrough for Linda, who finally begins to feel like she can keep up with the rest of the class.
Phil's still confident that his adult learners, who have come so far in the past few weeks, will be able to take the Adult Literacy exams at the end of the course. But with writing still to be tackled, will the emotional uphill struggle prove too much for the learners? Or will Phil be able to help them achieve what they thought was impossible – being able to read and write?
Programme one | Programme two | Programme three
