A Rebel Education: Virgin Media school series is like Educating Yorkshire with a unique Cork flavouring | Irish Independent
Flor Lynch
‘A Rebel Education’ (Virgin Media One) 4/5
'A Rebel Education: Inside Carrigaline Community School' features science teacher and TikTok star Tadgh O’Donovan
Carrigaline Community School teacher Tadgh O’Donovan (left) and principal Paul Burke in ‘A Rebel Education’. Photo: Virgin Media/Tyrone Productions
Alannah O'Mahoney, one of the stars of 'A Rebel Education'
'A Rebel Education: Inside Carrigaline Community School' features science teacher and TikTok star Tadgh O’Donovan
Carrigaline Community School teacher Tadgh O’Donovan (left) and principal Paul Burke in ‘A Rebel Education’. Photo: Virgin Media/Tyrone Productions
If you’ve ever watched Channel 4’s Educating Yorkshire, you’ll more or less know what to expect from A Rebel Education (Virgin Media One, Sunday, October 12, and on Virgin Media Play).
It’s effectively the same series, but with a uniquely Cork flavour, right down to having The Young Offenders star Alex Murphy provide the jaunty narration and his co-star Shane Casey talk to students about mental health with a bluntness teachers aren’t permitted: “If you need help, ask for f**king help!” Sound advice.
If you’re going to cog from someone else’s copybook – or more likely in modern classrooms, someone else’s tablet – you might as well cog from the very best.
This excellent four-parter follows a year at Carrigaline Community School, which has 1,100 students.
Overseeing this bubbling cauldron every day is Paul Burke, the model the modern, compassionate, clued-in school principal: firm he has to be, yet fair and open-minded.
He’s fully aware that some students might be having problems away from school that aren’t immediately obvious to teachers. Kids who are regularly late, for instance, are not always just lazy. “You never know what a child is going through in the morning,” he says.
For sixth-year student Alanah, who turned 18 during the school break, going to school every day is a struggle “I wasn’t made for school,” she says.
Alanah has missed a lot of school. It’s obviously not a lack of intelligence or maturity (if anything, the opposite is the case). More likely, a shortage of confidence is at the root of her struggles.
Alannah O'Mahoney, one of the stars of 'A Rebel Education'
During transition year, Alanah found something that engaged her interest and made her happy: volunteering in the kitchen of Cork Penny Dinners.
Her self-esteem, which had hit rock bottom, surged. “Every time I step in the door it just feels like home for me,” she says. Heartwarmingly, the other people working there have all become invested in her future.
Hardworking fourth-year Adele sees TY as “a prize” for everything the students have done. Her parents, Emmanuella and Fernand, however, are divided on whether she should do it.
Fernand would much rather she her go straight into the Leaving Cert phase. Adele’s glowing Junior Cert results change his mind. “She’s the queen!” he says, beaming, as proud parents and high-achieving daughter head home.
'The Young Offenders' star Alex Murphy provides the narration
A person would need the patience of an oyster to teach a class of teenagers. At Carrigaline, the oysters’ patience is tested to breaking point almost every day by second-year serial messer Kalen.
None of his teachers doubt he has ability, if only he’d cut out the disruptive behaviour. “He does everything except what he should be doing,” says his exasperated French teacher Eugenie Mbowua.
Detention hasn’t worked. Kalen’s behaviour has become so out of control and distracting to that Paul reluctantly goes for the nuclear option and summons Kalen and his mother, Michelle, for a sit-down.
Kalen loves sport and is very good at it. Paul gives him a blunt ultimatum: carry on as he is and he won’t be representing the school on the sports field. For the first time, Kalen is lost for words. Will it work? We’ll see.
'A Rebel Education: Inside Carrigaline Community School' features science teacher and TikTok star Tadgh O’Donovan
Third-year besties Giselle and Sadie are like a female Kalen times two. But, like him, Giselle also excels at sport, in this case athletics. Boasting a bedroom full of medals, she trains every day and is at the elite level in her age group.
She wants to get a sport scholarship in America. As Paul points out, though, what she needs to understand that it’s an academic programme with a sideline in sports.
Thanks to social media and smartphones, life for teachers as well as the kids they are teaching has changed beyond recognition. Tadgh O’Donovan’s funny social media content has earned turned him into a bit of a TikTok star and a favourite with the students.
But it’s all in aid of teaching the children about how to look after their mental health amid the flood of toxic slop. He sets them a challenge to make their own social media content that’s positive.
A cynic will point out that A Rebel Education, like Educating Yorkshire, edits a school year down to a few hours of TV that emphasises the positives. It does. But since when has positivity not being something worthy of celebration?