TV head hopes show will draw in parents

Jonny Mitchell also said staff and students at Thornhill Community Academy were starting to take their high profile in their stride after reaching the halfway stage of the Channel 4 documentary.

This week the school near Dewsbury opens its doors to prospective parents as it looks to secure applications for the next year.

Mr Mitchell said the school had already received around 20 applications from parents wanting to switch to the school in-year.

Now they are hoping to use their new found fame to get more pupils leaving primary school to make Thornhill their first choice.

Mr Mitchell said: “We are on the crest of a wave at the moment so we may as well surf it. We have to make the most of this opportunity. We have had a lot of interest, people contacting us wanting to work here and hundreds of people offering to volunteer at the school.

He added: “We think the reaction of the local community has been positive but we will not know how many applications we have had for places for next year until later this year.”

Thornhill Community Academy was chosen to feature in the Channel 4 series which has been made as a follow-up to the award-winning Educating Essex series.

At the height of its success the Essex programme, following Passmores Academy in Essex, attracted around 1.7 million viewers.

Educating Yorkshire has come close to doubling this already and has been the most watched programme on a Thursday night at 9pm.

The series has also caused a storm on the social networking website Twitter with praise coming from pop stars such as Kimberley Walsh and One Direction singer Louis Tomlinson.

However despite this high profile Mr Mitchell said the school was starting to get used to the attention.

“There is a cycle with all the comments which come after every show. I think people have stopped saying ‘Is that what I sound like?’ or worrying about their appearance and they are now starting to watch the programme in the same way the public watches it.

“We are more relaxed about it. After last week’s episode I didn’t even bother looking at Twitter afterwards,” he added.

Initially Mr Mitchell and Thornhill Community Academy’s teaching staff had received praise for the way they have dealt with some of the school’s more challenging students. Earlier episodes have had some hard-hitting storylines including allegations of racist abuse, snowballs being thrown at a pensioner and a disruptive pupil being denied the chance of going to the school’s end-of-year prom.

But the most recent episode had more of a happy ending as it showed how the school’s head of year 11 had helped to resolve a row between two best friends, Hadiqa and Safiyyah, in the run up to them sitting their GCSEs.

Mr Mitchell said he was pleased with the public reaction’s to the episode and told the Yorkshire Post it was important that people understood the role of schools in supporting and nurturing pupils.

He said: “I think the love is back for Educating Yorkshire after some negative comments surrounding more difficult episodes.

“I think what came across was the compassion of our staff. Our heads of year like Rachel Crowther and Lynn Marsden just ooze compassion. They can’t turn it off. This came across really well in the latest show.

“For some pupils we do act in loco parentis, we do need to nurture them because we are the only people who are going to do it.”

The series has been edited together by Twofour Productions who set up 64 fixed cameras around the school earlier this year.

Mr Mitchell said that during filming some pupils were asked to wear microphones but those who then attempted to act up to the cameras were told that this behaviour would not be included.

All pupils who feature prominently in the episodes have given permission for them to be shown on the programme.