Educating … Episode Rating Graph

Exams are approaching at Thornhill and it's not just the students that are feeling the pressure. From highly experienced deputy head Mr. Steer to newly qualified teachers, everyone is feeling the demands of the school's ever increasing targets. Mr. Steer is in charge of the school's attainment and, as a rapidly improving academy, must ensure that results are the very best they can be. He is also a star maths teacher and this year has a particularly tough challenge as he takes on a group of girls more interested in hair, make-up and parties than algebra and trigonometry. Despite their current U grades, he's determined to get them that crucial C in maths that will ensure them places in college. Meanwhile, new teacher Miss Stephens is tasked with getting Sheridan through her geography GCSE, but engaging Sheridan in an academic debate around the European Union is not easy. As the clock ticks down to the all-important exams, Mr. Steer pushes himself to the limit...

This programme follows the fallout from a chance clash between the queen bee of the 'cool group' and a member of the quieter crowd. In their quest to prepare every student for life beyond the school gates, Head Teacher Mr Mitchell and his team are left with difficult decisions about who needs to be dealt with and how. The students anxiously wait to learn their fates - for one, this means seeing if she will suffer the ultimate punishment of not being allowed to go to the end of school prom.

As leavers' day, exams and the all-important prom approach, the school tries to prepare two very different students for the future. Fifteen-year-old Ryan, a recent arrival at the school, has Asperger's. Unsure of what the future will hold, the teachers attempt to equip him for life beyond the security of the school gates. While Ryan wishes he could stay at school forever, troubled top-set student Vinni can't wait to leave. He voluntarily went into temporary care earlier in the term and now the staff work tirelessly to keep him on the straight and narrow. Will Vinni leave the care home to move back to his family, can the teachers help him to leave with the grades and opportunities his abilities deserve, and will his behaviour improve enough for him to attend the prom? Perhaps more nervous than them all, however, is headteacher Vic Goddard. He finds it hard to sleep in the run-up to results day as he waits to see whether the school will achieve its targets.

Has deputy head Mr Drew finally met his match in clever but complicated student Mollie? As Mollie finds herself on report to him so begins a series of demanding, but often delightful, daily encounters between teacher and pupil. Another regular with Mr Drew is Mollie's equally bright sister Charlotte, who viewers saw bantering with the deputy head earlier in the series. Can the school's teachers coax the two talented girls to finally apply their energy to their academic work? For all the pouting and tantrums it soon becomes clear that Mollie is actually very fond of 'Drewy' and that student and teacher have more in common than they might have once thought. But will she listen enough to achieve the grade As she is capable of?

This episode follows new Head Teacher Mr Mitchell on his mission to improve the school's fortunes. He's 18 months into his first ever headship and wants to revolutionise the school's ethos, results and reputation. But every day his vision is challenged by the trickiest of adversaries: teenagers.

This time at Frederick Bremer School in East London it's all about the boys, and Head Teacher Jenny Smith is determined to set two strong-minded pupils off on the right path. Halil thinks he is the coolest kid at Frederick Bremer School, but despite his infectious laugh and "cheeky chappy" persona, he can't stay out of trouble. Meanwhile, Lemar doesn't like the stereotype of London "hoodies" hanging around the streets in big groups. His main ambition is to make it as a professional footballer, but staff are working hard to ensure he has other options available

Being a head teacher often keeps Ms. Smith awake at night. She has 900 pupils in her care and feels responsible for every one of them. Some of the students' family dramas can impact on school life, and in this episode, alongside Ms. Smith, English teacher Mr. Bispham and deputy head Miss Hillman have to find a multitude of ways of engaging with the kids to help them leave their sometimes unsettling troubles at the gates. The programme also meets Hazel, an East-Ender born and bred, and a non-teaching pastoral support worker at Frederick Bremer. She's the first port of call when kids are sent out of the classroom and can be found patrolling the corridor, walkie-talkie in hand, often notching up as many as five miles a day. Excluded from her own school when she was younger, her own experiences of a personal family tragedy means= she feels particularly close to those hard-to-reach students she works with.

This episode meets three boys at different stages of their school life. Twelve-year-old Louie has just started secondary school at Frederick Bremer; he struggles to make friends and starts to bunk off. With his attendance record steadily getting worse, it's time for home support worker Emma Austin to step in. Devonté, who's also 12, is another of Mrs. Austin's charges. He loves rap music and is constantly found playing songs through his phone in lesson time and rapping at inappropriate moments. Due to his responsibilities at home, helping to care for his mother, Devonté relaxes at school instead, and often gets into trouble. Charlie, who's 16, is one of the top students in his year group, but the pressure of exams is resulting in panic attacks. He finds that playing music helps him relax. His band are going to play at the school concert, but will he get over his nerves and manage to perform on stage in front of 200 other pupils?

Those all-important GCSE exams are creeping ever closer, but while the pressure is on for the students of Year 11 to knuckle down to some much-needed revision, for many of the girls - Paige in particular - their attention has a habit of turning away from study, and instead toward friendships, proms and boys. She and her closest friends Georgia and Yasmine are three of the most popular girls in school, and while the younger girls look up to them, the boys have crushes on them. The girls are expected to do well in their exams, but they are very aware that the pressure on them is mounting, and cracks soon start to appear in the friendship and threaten to undo all the hard work they have put in so far

Charming but cheeky Vinni was a model student when he started at the school. But since the break-up of Vinni's parents' marriage his behaviour has deteriorated. So much so that head teacher Mr Goddard worries whether Vinni will make it to the end of Year 11. And some staff question how far the school can go to keep him in school. When Vinni's home situation dramatically changes, it has a huge impact on his school life and leads Mr Goddard to one of the most heartbreaking moments in his career.

This programme features the age-old problem of bullying. From cyber-harassment to an old-fashioned scrap, bullying is something that every school faces. As headteacher Mr Goddard says, it's only by acknowledging this that a school can tackle the issue. And while technology may have changed, with texts and social media, the issues of falling out and fitting in remain the same. Rebel Sam and model student Gabby come from opposite ends of the academic spectrum, but both of them, in different ways, have been affected by bullying. When Gabby starts to receive threatening text messages, deputy headteacher Mr Drew plays detective as he tries to discover the culprit and bring them to justice. And when Sam - who has been bullied in the past for being 'different' - falls out with close friend Dean, Mr Drew is called upon to act as referee as Dean's irate mum and sister arrive at school demanding action.

Carrie and Ashleigh are at the heart of the biggest and loudest clique in school: they love clothes, boys and parties. But teenage girls also love a drama and as the best friends fall out, the argument looks set to disrupt more than their friendship, with the effects spilling into the classroom. In a modern school, arguments are harder to contain as the issues spread from the classroom to Facebook and BlackBerry Messenger . The school grapevine is soon buzzing. Meanwhile, Ashleigh's ex-boyfriend Brad is prepared to fight for her love and the teachers discover how tough it can be to keep students focused on academic work and their futures when there are so many distractions.