Ahead of the Class is a 2003 book and 2005 dramatic television film based on real-life events.

Plot

Marie Stubbs is a diminutive Glaswegian headmistress who is close to the age of retirement. After being Head teacher at The Douay Martyrs School

The Douay Martyrs School

The Douay Martyrs RC School is a Roman Catholic school for 11-18 year olds, based in Ickenham within the London Borough of Hillingdon. It is a voluntary aided mixed comprehensive secondary school which serves around 1500 pupils from a wide range of social backgrounds. The school is designated as...

, Ickenham, she takes on one last challenge: to improve the fortunes of St George's School

St George's Roman Catholic Secondary School

St George's Roman Catholic Secondary School is a secondary school situated in Maida Vale, London, England. It made the headlines in December 1995 following the murder of head teacher Philip Lawrence, who was stabbed to death when he tried to break up a fight between the school's pupils and a local...

 in North West London. The school is facing closure after its previous headmaster, Philip Lawrence

Murder of Philip Lawrence

Philip Ambrose Lawrence QGM, was a London-based headmaster who was stabbed to death outside the gates of his school when he went to the aid of a pupil who was being attacked by a gang.-Biography:...

, was murdered in 1995, while breaking up a fight between his pupils and students from a rival school.

Cast

• Julie Walters
  Julie Walters
  Julie Walters, CBE is an English actress and novelist. She came to international prominence in 1983 for Educating Rita, performing in the title role opposite Michael Caine. It was a role she had created on the West End stage and it won her BAFTA and Golden Globe awards for Best Actress...
  
   as Marie Stubbs
• Inday Ba
  Inday Ba
  Inday Ba , also known as N'Deaye Ba, was a Swedish-British film, stage, and television actress born in Gothenburg, Sweden....
  
   as Trudy Gower
• Reece Dinsdale
  Reece Dinsdale
  Reece Dinsdale is an English actor of stage, screen and television.-Acting career:He trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama from 1977 until 1980...
  
   as Sean Devlin
• Michelle Fairley
  Michelle Fairley
  Michelle Fairley is an Northern Irish actress of film, stage and television.-Life and career:Born in Coleraine, Northern Ireland to well known publicans Teresa and Brian Fairley, she grew up in Ballycastle, Northern Ireland she appeared in a range of British television shows including The Bill,...
  
   as Sonia Venning
• Tony Slattery
  Tony Slattery
  Anthony Declan James "Tony" Slattery is an English actor and comedian who has appeared on British television regularly since the mid 1980s, most notably as a regular on the Channel 4 improvisation show Whose Line Is It Anyway? As a film actor, both comedic and serious, his credits include The...
  
   as Stuart Stiles

Awards and nominations

Royal Television Society

Royal Television Society

The Royal Television Society is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present and future. It is the oldest television society in the world...

• 2006: Nominated, "Best Single Drama"
• 2006: Nominated, "Best Actress" - Julie Walters