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Unit 1
Narrator: St Ann’s is a neighbourhood in Nottingham, England.
People from other areas think St Ann’s is a bad neighbourhood,
but the teenagers who live here are proud of it.
Girl: A lot of people say it’s a bad area, but I grew up here – I think
it’s a pretty good area to be honest.
Narrator: St Ann’s has a good community spirit – people know
their neighbours and help each other.
Nicky-Lee: Everyone watches out for each other.
Narrator: But there aren’t many activities for young people in
St Ann’s.
Nicky-Lee: There’s not a lot of things to do round here.
Narrator: Olympic ice-skaters Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean
want to change that, by helping local teenagers put on an ice-
skating show in the heart of their community.
Jayne: We actually grew up in Nottingham. Because I had the
opportunity to go to the ice rink that’s where it all started for
me. Our idea is to build an ice rink on the estate, with a view to
putting on a show.
Chris: What we need is you.
Narrator: At first, the local teenagers aren’t very interested in
Jayne and Chris’s idea – only a few volunteer. But interest
grows and at the first training session hundreds of young
people attend. The volunteers find out that skating can be very
difficult. But, gradually, Chris and Jayne teach them how to
dance on ice with each other, in preparation for the big show.
The show will happen on a specially made ice rink behind the
school. Volunteer Nicky Lee hopes that the pop-up ice rink will
change the way people think about St Ann’s.
Nicky-Lee: I think the pop-up ice rink will open people’s eyes and
see how good St Ann’s actually is – it’s not that bad.
Narrator: The whole neighbourhood comes along to the show.
And, thanks to all their practice, the kids perform very well.
Friends and family are amazed by how good the show is.
Woman: Absolutely amazing! Absolutely loved it!
Narrator: They have put on a great show for their community
thanks to Chris, Jayne, and their own hard work. Everyone has
come together for this special occasion – and that’s what makes
St Ann’s a good place to live.
Unit 2
Narrator: The Kanneh-Masons are a bit different to most families,
because all seven children are excellent musicians. Their mum,
Kadie, thinks they are good because they practise a lot.
Kadie: How was your day?
Sheku: Good. Good, good, good, good.
Kadie: As soon as they come home from school the children in
their heads, think – well the first thing is food, then it’s music
and they just go straight to it. I never have to ask them to do it.
That’s just part of the structure of their lives.
Narrator: And they don’t just practise in their bedrooms!
Kadie: They all practise anywhere they can, in bizarre spaces.
Aminata: I practise in there – the green bathroom. I think because
I can play in front of the mirror.
Narrator: Another reason the Kanneh-Masons are so successful
is because they help each other – as seventeen-year-old Sheku
explains.
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Sheku: We always come into each other’s practice rooms and
give each other comments. Your … So your … If you look. If you
look at my wrist …
Narrator: Sheku is the family’s biggest success story. He started
playing when he was six years old.
Kadie: The moment he picked up the cello you could see that this
was something that he was always going to do. And his focus
and his passion and his seriousness about it was incredible.
Narrator: Sheku practises for at least two hours every day after
school, and then on Saturdays he travels two hundred miles to
London for lessons with expert teachers at the Royal Academy
of Music. And all that practice has paid off – Sheku won the
2016 UK Young Musician of the Year competition. But in some
ways Sheku is just like any normal person his age: he goes to
school and plays football with his friends. And if he feels like
doing even more cello practice while he’s there, he can use the
sports hall. Sheku practises so much because it means that he
can do what he loves the most – play concerts.
Sheku: It’s more the result of practice that I enjoy as opposed to
the actual practice. Because I love the feeling of being able to
perform to an audience. That kind of motivates me to do my
practice.
Narrator: And in 2018 he performed in front of a very important
audience – at the royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan
Markle! Sheku has gone from his bedroom to the concert hall
because of hours and hours of practice. And all the hard work is
definitely worth it.
Unit 3
Narrator: These Santa Barbara Middle School students produce
their own TV news show – Teen Press. For the past few years
the Teen Press team have interviewed movie actors at film
festivals.
Boy: OK we’re live at the film festival on the red carpet – we can’t
wait and it’s really exciting.
Will Smith: OK, that’s a very good question.
Narrator: They’ve interviewed some big stars! Each semester,
eight new students join Teen Press.
Ella: I signed up because it seemed like an amazing opportunity
and I’d never done journalism before and it just seemed like
something interesting.
Narrator: The students have to practise skills – like how to meet
new people.
Sofia: I’m not all that good at meeting people. At first, I don’t
have that much self-confidence … Yeah, I wanted to ask her …
Alexis: I mean it’s awkward when you’re, like, you know, ‘nice to
meet you’ and you’re looking, like, straight into somebody’s
eyes. I mean, especially our age, we don’t, like, when we meet
a new friend, it’s not like – ‘nice to meet you.’
Narrator: The students also need to arrange interviews – which
means making lots of phone calls.
Jayden: Hi, this is Jayden from the Santa Barbara Middle School
Teen Press.
PA: Hi Jayden, how are you? How can I help you?
Narrator: Jayden arranges an interview with a Personal
Assistant – but it’s not easy!
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Jayden: That was really nerve-wracking.
Narrator: This semester, instead of interviewing movie stars,
the students are interviewing politicians and business people,
so they need to work extra-hard on their research. Nico and
Jayden are interviewing a successful businessman named
Christian George, who started out with nothing.
Nico: So, people say there are no ‘rags to riches’ American dream
stories anymore. What do you say to that?
Christian: There are no rags to riches? Oh, rags to riches. Well,
first of all, I didn’t even know English when I first decided to
come to America.
Nico: It’s something that really inspires me. I love when people
come from something like nothing and they turn it into
something; that just … that just hits my heart.
Narrator: The students also interview important politicians
like Congressman John Lewis and important business people
like Yvon Chouinard, the founder of outdoor clothing brand,
Patagonia. Having conversations with these important people
boosts their confidence.
Ella: I’m taking away from Teen Press more confidence but also a
power that you feel that you can speak to people that normally
you feel like you don’t have the authority to speak to.
Narrator: Being part of Teen Press has helped Jayden, and the
seven other team members, to find their own voices.
Jayden: I think I learned that I actually have a story as well. I don’t
think I really realised that before now. I don’t think I realised I
had anything to say. But I feel like after seeing all these different
people who have something to say I feel like I have something
to say about my life and myself as well.
Unit 4
Narrator: These British teenagers go to different types of
schools. Bemrose is a state school. State schools are run by the
government. Warminster is a private school. Private schools
are independent, and parents pay for their children to go
there. Now, for one week, Warminster and Bemrose students
are swapping schools to see how different they really are …
and what they can learn from each other. Brett is a Bemrose
student. At Bemrose he finds it difficult to focus and he often
messes around in class. But in class at Warminster, Brett has
to behave better. Discipline in lessons is stricter – students
who talk over the teacher are immediately sent out of the
classroom. Class sizes are smaller at Warminster too, usually
with only fifteen students. At Bemrose most classes have thirty
students. But even though the classes are bigger, John, who
is a Warminster student attending Bemrose for the week,
thinks that teachers like Mr Thomas might be better than his
Warminster teachers.
John: He’s constantly helping you, he’s walking around, he’s being
interactive. It’s maths which is one my less enjoyable lessons,
but I really enjoy maths when I’m being taught by Mr Thomas,
which is a really good thing.
Narrator: John also likes that at Bemrose classes finish at
3 o’clock so he can leave school and play Xbox. At Warminster
classes don’t finish until 5 p.m.! When he’s at Warminster
John is a boarder – which means he sleeps at the school. When
Brett goes to Warminster for the week he has to share a room
with John and two other boys. And every morning at 7 a.m.
a teacher wakes them up!
Teacher: [singing] … blackbird has spoken, like the first bird.
Morning! Wakey wakey!
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Narrator: At Warminster, unlike at Bemrose, students have to
attend clubs and do activities in their spare time. Brett has
joined the army cadets – which he enjoys. Brett thinks that the
extra activities available at Warminster are a good thing.
Brett: You can concentrate on this kind of stuff because, like, it’s
more practical than sitting at a desk writing about stuff. I like
more practical things.
Narrator: In fact, Brett likes Warminster so much, that he’d like
to stay!
Brett: Everyone’s so nice, man. It’s, like, better than my school.
I actually really do like it here. I really would like to stay.
Narrator: But Nazh, another Bemrose student who is attending
Warminster for a week, isn’t so keen.
Nazh: I don’t think I would be happy here. I feel like if you’re going
to a private school you’re almost, like, separated from the other
half of the world. I’m not that kind of person that would want
to come here.
Narrator: By doing the school swap, both groups of students
have learnt almost as much about themselves as they have
about the difference between private and state schools.
Unit 5
Narrator: British teenagers Joe, Faith, Sam, Alice and Ellie are
visiting Cambodia in Southeast Asia. They are going to live and
work with people who make some of the everyday things the
children take for granted. Today, they are working in a clothes
factory. They will be making onesies for high street shops in
the UK. To get paid, they need to learn quickly and do a good
job, just like the eight hundred people who work in the factory
every day. Their first challenge is the most difficult job in the
factory – sewing cuffs on the onesies. The girls are competing
with the boys to see who can do the most in one hour. And
they need to be perfect, or the factory will reject them! Joe is
finding it difficult. And so is Alice.
Alice: Oh! I can’t do it.
Narrator: But she works hard and starts to do much better.
Alice: I did it!
Narrator: Soon it’s time to find out who has done better, the boys
or the girls.
Presenter: So, the girls … managed fifteen. Boys … you didn’t
even manage one. Zero.
Alice: Aw, boys!
Narrator: The girls win. The boys’ work is so bad that the factory
rejects all of their onesies.
Joe: It’s kind of embarrassing that we didn’t even do one
together as a team.
Narrator: So Pat, the factory boss, gives Joe and Sam an easy job
next: ironing the onesies. But the boys find this difficult too.
Joe: Sam, how are you doing?
Sam: That’s way too hot.
Joe: Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow. Too hot.
Narrator: Pat is not impressed by their work.
Pat: You see this one, not good.
Sam: So, I’m ironing in creases.
Pat: You have to do it again.
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Narrator: The boys are much too slow – Joe has only ironed one
onesie. A local worker irons 150 in the same time. It’s another
failure for the boys. For the final task, packaging leggings, the
girls and boys are working together. But they argue with each
other and do this task badly too. Five regular workers at the
factory can package five thousand pairs of leggings in an hour.
But our team can’t even package one pair correctly. At the end
of the day Pat decides which team members deserve to be
paid for their work. Only one of the teenagers gets paid, Ellie,
because she did really well in the first challenge. Everyone else
gets nothing. The group has learned that working in a clothes
factory isn’t easy … and perhaps they will think about their
time at the factory when they go shopping for new clothes
back home.
Unit 6
Narrator: These ring-tailed lemurs live in a zoo in Ireland. But,
unlike most zoo animals, they don’t live in a cage. Instead they
live in a large forest area, which they sometimes have to share
with visitors. And the lemurs enjoy their freedom. They love
to climb trees, play with their friends and family, and eat the
delicious bananas that the zoo-keepers give them. This year
the lemurs at the zoo have had a record five babies! Kitty has
twins, Olly and Orla. Olly and Orla are very lively. Like all lemurs,
they love to play, jump around and climb trees. By exploring, the
twins learn the skills they will need as adults. But play can be
dangerous. In the wild, half of all baby lemurs die before they
are one year old. So, Kitty needs help to make sure the twins
are safe. Catherine and Louise work at the zoo on lemur patrol
– they help Kitty look after Olly and Orla. If the twins go too far
from their mum, Catherine and Louise bring them back to the
group with tasty food! And it’s not just the zoo-keepers who
look after the twins – the other mother-lemurs help Kitty too,
by babysitting for her. Which means every so often she can take
a break to do a bit of sunbathing! And the dads help out too.
Catherine: When there’s a lot of people in the park babies and
mothers tend to get separated but I’ve actually seen a male go
back, pick up the baby and take it back to its mother. So, the
males do have an important role to play as well.
Narrator: These lemurs might not live in the wild, but life at the
zoo can still be dangerous for babies. By working together – and
with a little help from lemur patrol – the adult lemurs have
happy, healthy, curious little kids like Olly and Orla.
Unit 7
Narrator: For hundreds of years, people have celebrated special
occasions with cakes. But nowadays, it’s not enough for a cake
to look and taste good – it also needs to have the ‘wow-factor’.
And one way to get that is by hiring one of the UK’s ‘extreme
bakers’. From chameleons to cows, carousels to sculptures,
and dinosaurs to helicopters – they can bake a cake into any
shape, for any occasion! Nastassja is creating a sculpture cake
to celebrate the opening of an art gallery. It’s very difficult to
make – because the design has a big hole in the middle!
Nastassja: I think the artistic design on this one has definitely got
ahead of my cake-making skills.
Narrator: But in the end she gets it right, and the cake is a huge
success – though it does confuse some people.
Client: People that are here are asking about the cake, saying ’Is it
a cake? Is it not a cake? Can we eat it? Can we not eat it?’. They’re
just asking questions, so, we’re quite happy with the result.
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Narrator: Karisha is making a very big wedding cake.
Karisha: With a 42-inch base and standing over two metres tall it
is definitely for me the biggest cake that I have ever done.
Narrator: Karisha’s cake has a horse carousel at the centre! The
bride and groom love how it looks, and the wedding guests like
the taste of it too!
Bride: It’s really good.
Narrator: Extreme baker Molly is making a cake for a local show.
It’s the main attraction so it needs to be very special. As the
show is in the countryside, Molly wants to make a giant cow
cake. First, Molly builds a wooden structure to support the
weight of the cake. Then she makes the cow’s body out of
chocolate fudge cake. It’s hard work.
Molly: This bit is just a lot of work. You get quite tired after this
bit.  It’s just building up and building up. It’s just the weight we
have to worry about, really.
Narrator: Next Molly makes the skin out of icing. And then she
paints the cow’s markings with food colouring, before adding
the final touch – the eyelashes. The attention to detail makes
Molly’s cow the star attraction of the show.
Man: The icing is delicious. The cake is very nice. Absolutely
fantastic.
Narrator: Extreme cake makers like Molly are like artists and bakers.
And whatever the occasion, their special cakes always give the
guests something to look at, talk about – and eat, of course!
Unit 8
Narrator: These eleven girls from the United States are preparing
for an amazing trip. They are going to hike up a mountain in
Peru! The girls are excited, but also nervous. Most of them
have never been abroad before. Alexis is interested to see how
people live in Peru.
Alexis: How they live is just amazing to me. It’s not even that I’m
so into travelling or anything. It’s just, there’s girls around the
world who do the same things as I do and just … it’s just cool to
get a different perspective of it.
Narrator: When they arrive in Peru, the girls enjoy the new sights
and sounds. They spend time at a local school, playing with the
young children. The children are very excited, and the girls have
a great time too.
Kendal: It was really empowering to me to feel so important to
them. I couldn’t even believe how happy they were over it. It’s,
like, really motivating and inspiring.
Narrator: The next day the girls start on their trek up the
mountain. They’re joined by some Peruvian girls their own
age from the local school. The Peruvian girls are used to the
altitude, so the hike is easy for them but some of the American
girls find it difficult. The altitude makes Alexis feel sick.
Alexis: I feel so bad.
Group leader: Don’t feel bad – we’re all in this together.
Alexis: I was getting, like, dizzy and headaches and stomach-aches,
but like, it was more mentally, so it was mind over matter.
Narrator: So, she carries on with the help of a horse! And soon,
the group reach the snow-line. It’s the first time many of them
have ever seen snow.
Eloise: Being able to travel to a new country for the first time and
seeing snow there …
Eloise’s sister: Like, we’ve never seen snow before.
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Narrator: When they finally reach the top of the mountain the
girls are really happy.
Alexis: Reaching the summit I think was probably the best
moment of my life.
Narrator: Before going home, the group has one more site to see –
the amazing ancient city of Machu Picchu. The girls have seen
a lot of new things and had many exciting adventures in Peru.
They’ll remember these experiences for the rest of their lives.

Unit 9
Narrator: The Ashby-Hawkins family are spending the next four
weeks going back in time – to the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and
1980s. They are changing everything in their lives: from their
house to their clothes and hairstyles; and their food to their
technology. For Daisy and Seth, the biggest change will be how
they spend their free time. They both go on social media a lot,
and they can’t imagine life without the internet.
Seth: I don’t really remember life before the internet because I’m
only twelve.
Daisy: The whole ‘not being able to message my friends’ – I’m
dreading that. No wi-fi – really, really dreading that.
Narrator: So, the family’s first week in the past – in the 1950s –
is going to be difficult! The family are having fun in their living
room – 1950s style! Daisy is sewing, while Seth is doing a jigsaw
puzzle.
Seth: I’d normally be on, like, my phone or watching TV. I haven’t
really made a lot of jigsaws since I really turned ten.
Daisy: The only thing that you have to entertain yourself is
a piece of cardboard with a bit of a picture on it.
Narrator: Life in the 1960s is a bit more fun and free, with
TVs arriving in most houses … trips to the fairground on
weekends … and phoneboxes in the street. Unlike today,
telephone communication was not very mobile in the 1960s!
The 70s brings more activities for Daisy and Seth to do – with
swing ball, keyboards, and even the first computer games!
But surprisingly, the thing they enjoy most about the 70s is
spending more time as a family:  going camping and playing
games like darts.
Seth: It seems that it’s just a lot more family time now that’s
being spent in the 70s. So, it just seemed a lot … nicer now.
I don’t know why, it just felt a lot nicer.
Narrator: The 1980s brought even more fun things to do – from
arcade games to break-dancing, and home computers to
karaoke. But Daisy prefers the 1970s to the 1980s.
Daisy: The best decade for our family time was the 70s. It was
just entertaining. And you forget how funny your family are
when you’re upstairs all the time, so it’s really nice to spend
time with them and I think it really made us so much stronger.
Narrator: The Ashby-Hawkins’ house has returned to the present
and they’re using their modern technology again. But they
are going to keep doing one fun thing from the past: they are
going to spend more time together as a family.

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