Episode 1

In this two-part series, theory and practice meet head on as education expert Professor Dylan Wiliam sets up an experimental school classroom. For one term, he takes over a Year 8 class at a secondary comprehensive to test simple ideas that he believes could improve the quality of our children's education.

His first radical technique is to ban hands up when the teacher asks a question and instead choose students at random. The idea is to get everyone in the class to engage, not just the handful of students who usually participate. The change though is met with resistance as both teachers and students have to break habits of a lifetime.

The challenge only increases when he asks the school to organise ten minutes of daily exercise for the pupils. It becomes apparent that trying to get 24 teenagers to turn up early for a burst of PE is going to be no mean feat.