This week sees thousands of children throughout the country wake up and realise with stark horror that the summer holidays are over and school beckons. Most adults can remember the sudden system shock of these mornings; the alarm going off unreasonably early, the shivering cold of the bathroom, the family gathered in stony silence around the table, munching forlornly on soggy toast. Games such as Resident Evil or Silent Hill have conjured few horrors that compare with entering a new classroom and meeting an unfamiliar teacher who may or may not prove to be an authoritarian sociopath. This sense of fear and loathing was perhaps why, when my dad used to get home from work and find me watching Grange Hill, he would always tut and say'haven't you had enough of school?'. But of course, for several generations of kids in the UK, Grange Hill was our way of confronting and processing the horrors of secondary education.