Skip Channel4 main Navigation
The series
What makes this course different from other literacy courses is that it's being taught by the inspirational, controversial and award-winning teacher, Phil Beadle. In Channel 4's Unteachables, he remotivated reluctant secondary kids to enjoy Shakespeare. Now he takes on his most challenging teaching role. Can he teach a class of adults to read, some of whom can't even sound out a single word and not one has ever passed an academic exam?
Phil spends six months working as an adult literacy teacher and concludes that the Government's adult literacy materials are 'worse than useless'. Describing Government provision as a 'national scandal', he believes it deliberately makes no attempt to teach illiterate people to read and is targeted towards giving certificates to people who can already read; and that the claims that a higher level qualification is equivalent to a GCSE A-C grade are 'farcical'. 'Had I used the government's materials,' says Phil, 'many of my class would still be faced with the daily burden and barrier of complete illiteracy.' Can Phil do for adult literacy what Jamie Oliver did for school dinners?
Phil spends six months working as an adult literacy teacher and concludes that the Government's adult literacy materials are 'worse than useless'. Describing Government provision as a 'national scandal', he believes it deliberately makes no attempt to teach illiterate people to read and is targeted towards giving certificates to people who can already read; and that the claims that a higher level qualification is equivalent to a GCSE A-C grade are 'farcical'. 'Had I used the government's materials,' says Phil, 'many of my class would still be faced with the daily burden and barrier of complete illiteracy.' Can Phil do for adult literacy what Jamie Oliver did for school dinners?
Before the course starts, Phil goes to see some of the people who'll be on his course. He meets James, 28, who can only write his own name, and 46-year old Linda, who cannot read a word and yet is desperate to read Shakespeare. Phil's daunted by the prospect of teaching such adults who are literally putting their dreams in his hands. He's never taught adults before; in fact, he's never taught anyone to read before, not even his own children.
As the lessons start – two sessions a week – Phil's 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, while 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.
As the lessons start – two sessions a week – Phil's 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, while 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.
Over the three programmes, we see the intense struggles faced by Phil's class as they struggle to learn to read and write. But the goal is clear throughout: this is their last chance to gain the skills which will quite literally transform their lives. At the end of the course, Phil is determined that his class will take the government-approved Adult Literacy exams which will overturn his pupils' view of themselves. Not a single one of them has ever passed an academic exam. Will Phil be able to prove to his class that they really do have the skills and the confidence to say that they have learned the seemingly impossible – that they have succeeded in learning to read and write?
