These are amazing people' Pupils are the stars again as Educating Yorkshire returns

Basically, there's summat wrong with me. I'm like a psychopath. Genuinely!

- Sally Weale

A teenage girl with the face of an angel is confiding in Mr Wilson, one of the student managers. He listens solemnly, but his mouth twitches with the beginnings of a smile.

"I'm going to start by disagreeing with you," he says with all the seriousness he can muster. "You're not a psychopath," and the girl in the sky-blue hoodie relaxes and rewards him with a broad smile. Welcome back to Thornhill community academy on the outskirts of Dewsbury for Educating Yorkshire series two, where once again the 900 pupils - witty, sensitive, smart, vulnerable and endlessly engaging - are the stand-out stars of the series.

Much has changed in schools since Channel 4 last filmed at Thornhill more than a decade ago. TikTok, vapes, Andrew Tate, gender questioning, anxiety, mobile phones and high levels of school absence are now everyday issues. And of course there was Covid - the biggest disruptor to education since the war.

Negotiating these challenges is Matthew Burton, 42, the inspirational English teacher from the last series who moved the entire nation with his efforts to help the year 11 student Musharaf overcome his stammer. He is now Thornhill's head teacher.