An edition of the Tyne Tees Television current affairs programme Northern Scene transmitted 22nd February 1979. In this edition, reporter Tony Cook looks at Yarm School, a new independent school conceived and opened in 1978 by parents of boys from the Cleveland area. Title: Tyne Tees Colour [titles over diesel commuter train pulling into Eaglescliffe railway station] Title: Northern Scene Three boys get off the train at Eaglescliffe station, each carrying various bags and hockey sticks....

An edition of the Tyne Tees Television current affairs programme Northern Scene transmitted 22nd February 1979. In this edition, reporter Tony Cook looks at Yarm School, a new independent school conceived and opened in 1978 by parents of boys from the Cleveland area. Title: Tyne Tees Colour [titles over diesel commuter train pulling into Eaglescliffe railway station] Title: Northern Scene Three boys get off the train at Eaglescliffe station, each carrying various bags and hockey sticks. They walk over a footbridge towards a waiting mini bus where Neville Tate, Headmaster, caretaker, and today bus driver of Yarm Independent School, is waiting. He closes the door of the mini-bus after the boys have climbed in. Mr Tate drives the bus through Eaglescliffe and Yarm toward the school in Yarm as the boys in the back chat and laugh. The bus turns off The Spital into Grammar School Lane. Title: The School the Parents Made [over footage of school] A bell rings and, outside the school building, a boy calls his fellow male pupils to attention. Neville Trotter walks up and down the lines of pupils carrying out his weekly dress, appearance and cleanliness inspection before making a number of school announcements. The pupils are dismissed. Interview with Mr Trotter from his office about school discipline. He says that he would use the cane if the circumstances are right. So far at the school he has not needed to use it. He sees expulsion as an important weapon which, as an independent school, is something available to him. He feel the state system should have a similar privilege. Pupils collect their bags laid out against a wall in a corridor and make their way to their classrooms. There are only sixty-six pupils at the school and no class is larger than nineteen pupils. Returning to interview with Mr Trotter, he talks about what benefits parents gain from sending their boys to Yarm School. His emphasis is on the hard work needed to gain entrance to universities and professions. He believe pupils in the state system are allowed to drift. Pupils and teacher Graham Simms, a language specialist, conduct a lesson in German. The teacher point at an image on an overhead projector. The school hopes to expand the school by sixty pupils in the next year. In the school dining room, cutlery is laid out on long tables while outside the food is being delivered by the local council in metal containers. In another classroom a science class is being conducted by Dr John Ray, Head of Science. Pupils pour liquid from one beaker to another, conducting an experiment. General views of pupils during the class. The door of the dining room is opened and Neville Trotter and other members of staff take their place at the head table. Mr Trotter leads prayers in Latin after which everyone takes their seats along benches. At the top table, a headboy rings a bell instructing those on a specific table to get up to collect their food, which is served to them at a hatch. General views of pupils eating their meal and chatting. Interview with Mrs Hazel Andrews, chairman and trustee of the school, and one of the original parents who helped form the institute. She talks about the need for such a school in the Cleveland area to provide freedom of choice and a grammar school type of education. The film cuts to show views of Red House School at Norton-on-Tees, female pupils coming out of Teesside High School in Eaglescliffe and views of Crathorne Hall near Yarm which was proposed as an initial site for the new Yarm School.  Views of the newly constructed Conyers Comprehensive School, a new constructed state school,also in Yarm. Pupils walk into Yarm School carrying cases. Yarm School is using the building that was once Conyers School. Back in the classroom Mrs Andrews talks about how she organised the other parents to help her prepare the school for opening. A bell hangs from a wall of one of the school buildings. Inside pupils and staff continue to eat their lunch. Interview with one of the pupils about what they think of the school and why he thinks discipline is good for them. Another pupil is asked about his relationship with pupils who go to state schools. Outside Mr Tate speaks with a group of boys. He continues to speak with three pupils as the others disburse to classes. Interview with one of the parents, Mrs Joan Styles, who talks about the importance of strict discipline going into industry and commerce, which comes as a shock, she believes, to many pupils leaving state school. A film is projected by Mr Tate for a classroom of boys. Mr Tate talks about the film they are watching about hovercraft. The boys watch intently.   Outside, a female coach practices a game of tennis by throwing the ball and encouraging the boy to hit it with his racket. At an indoor swimming pool, a man blows a whistle and a line of boys approaches the edge of the water. The whistle blows again and they dive in and begin to race. Interview with Graham Sims about the importance of sport in the school curriculum. On a field a group of boys use hockey sticks to move a ball around a number of tennis balls. Roy Holt, the school’s history and geography master, helps teach hockey skills to the boys. On a squash court Graham Sims coaches two boys in the game. Another pupil is interviewed in the changing room and asked how important games are; it isn’t that important to him but it keeps him fit. At the swimming pool another boy is interviewed and talks about how he has improved since starting at the school. Seated in a meeting room, a group of mothers known as the ‘Ladies Committee’ look over new curtains for the gym. In his office Mr Tate talks about his relationship with the schools parents and how important it is to him. Another meeting, this time of the Management Committee, which includes both parents such as Mrs Andrews and Mr Tate, who discuss the expected expansion of the number of pupils at the school. A woman seated next to Mr Tate is taking minutes. General views of parents stripping and painting walls at the school along with a number of their children. Interview with Hazel Andrews about what has been achieved, a dream coming true that she can’t believe to have happened. Valerie Gittings, a part-time music teacher, plays the piano leading a class of pupils in readiness to sing at the weekly Evensong at the local parish church. The film changes to show a number of pupils making their way through a churchyard towards St Mary Magdalene parish church in Yarm. At the end of the school day,  three pupils leave the school premises. Brothers Craig and Darren Meloni are at home doing their homework. Interview with both boys about the work they need to do and the change from being in state school. On the sofa their mother Jacqueline Meloni talks about the cost of sending the boys to Yarm School and the sacrifices the family has had to make. She is also asked what benefits the boys gain from going to this school. Back at the school Mrs Joan Styles is asked if the children who go to a school like Yarm School are ‘elite’. She thinks they are but says this would be dependent on if you think this is the most important thing in your life. A number of teachers are asked the same question, which they disagree with. However, one says it is a matter of what parents are willing to sacrifice for their children. Back in his office, Neville Tate is asked if they feel threatened by the current Labour government's dislike of independent schools. He doesn’t and he doesn’t think the government has plans to abolish such schools as they have too much respect for freedom. In a classroom a group of parents work together to paint the room in readiness for pupils. End credit: Executive Producer Leslie Barrett [Credits over boys walking through a gate past a metal sign that reads ‘The ‘Free School’ of Thomas Conyers was built here in 1509. Demolished 1885’.]  On the playing field, a number of boys practice a game of hockey. End credit: Reporter Tony Cook In the dining room catering staff lay tables for lunch. End credit: Camera Dave Dixon, Graham Brown In the swimming pool three boys dive into the pool End credit: Sound Bob Rhodes. Electrician Mike Harper A schoolboy looks intently at a teacher off screen. End credit: Film Editor David Walker Two boys play a game of squash. End credit: Research Robert Cowley Boys eat lunch in teh dining room. End credit: Director David Thomasson The film ends in the school assembly hall where a group of boys are singing along to a woman playing a piano. End credit: Producer John Sleight End title: Tyne Tees Colour © Trident Television Ltd. MCMLXXIX