Oranges and Lemons: Life in an Inner City Primary School

This warts and all look within an inner city primary school is an intimate and charming account of how people at Edith Neville primary school approach issues that face urban schools everywhere. The author's insightful journalistic eye focuses on how individuals cope with government initiatives, the needs of the pupils and of the community at large. Focusing on the progress of individual children, in some cases from the time they start nursery, this book illuminates contemporary urban school life and provides a human account of major and minor successes, and failures, over a twelve-month period in a passionate but complex educational community. The book highlights how: the school community works to give equal chances to all children staff strive to include children with special needs the school community enlist the support of parents who mistrust the system staff manage distressed and distressing behaviour. In the background the school's managers endeavour to meet targets and inspections, while containing teacher stress and retaining a vision of the broader purpose of education. What occurs in schools is a matter of incessant public debate. Yet with the exception of children and teachers, few people know much about what happens in them! until now.

Table of Contents:

1. Purple Nursery 2. Lunch at the Golden Tulip 3. Red Nose Day 4. Green Jelly 5. Kind of Blue 6. Brown Eyes 7. White Christmas 8. Grey Skies 9. Bright Blue, Beginning with T 10. In the Black 11. Strawberry Ice Cream 12. Pink Hearts

'Oranges & Lemons is a testament to the dedication of Edith Neville's highly capable teachers, and to O'Reagan's determined vision and flair. Wallace has written a remarkable book: an insight into what it really means to teach in the inner city in the UK today.' - Catalyst Jan-Feb 2006.

'Wendy Wallace's new book, Oranges and Lemons: The Highs and Lows of Life in an Inner-City Primary School, is different: she is a journalist observing with a kindly but detached eye. She has done a tremendous job and manages to keep the reader entertained, though she isn't remotely emotional in her comments ... The book successfully blends dramatised pictures of school life with broader reflections about education: Wallace is a very good writer with a novelist's eye for detail and a journalist's ability to summarise complex themes succinctly and clearly. But it is the portraits of the children that make this book unforgettable.' - Francis Gilbert, Timesonline.co.uk, September 2005

'If I had to recommend one book to explain what has happened to Britain's schools in the past 20 years, this would be it ... I approached Oranges and Lemons with high hopes. Wallace exceeded them.' - Francis Beckett, New Statesman, October 31st 2005

'If I had to recommend one book to explain what has happened to Britain's schools in the past 20 years, this would be it...I approached Oranges and Lemons with high hopes. Wallace exceeded them.' -Francis Beckett, New Statesman

'This is a highly readable account of a year in the life of Edith Neville Primary School.' - Church Times