School uses Sachsgate transcript for GCSE lesson on foul language

Obscene phone calls made by Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross are being studied as part of English

GCSE students at Hampstead school are preparing for exams by analysing the notorious answering machine messages left for Fawlty Towers actor Andrew Sachs during Brand's radio show in which Ross shouts: "He f***ed your granddaughter", referring to 26-year-old singer Georgina Baillie, who had an affair with Brand.

The move sparked a complaint by one child's mother, but headteacher Jacques Szemalikowski defended it as "totally appropriate".
Brand resigned and Ross was suspended after their lewd comments were aired on the BBC Radio 2 show three years ago.

Year 10 pupils at Hampstead school used a transcript of the show during a practice exam for their English language GCSE on Friday.
Mr Szemalikowski, who has been head at the Hampstead comprehensive for five years, said: "I think it is a totally appropriate thing to be doing. We are in the real world and children live in the real world."

He added: "It is quite likely that the children would have talked about it and seen it in the press. We discuss what's in the news, we don't sweep things under the carpet."

Mr Szemalikowski said pupils have to analyse a radio transcript as part of the verbal section of the English Language GCSE and that the transcript would continue to be used.

The students also watched reaction to the incident on Newsnight, read newspaper articles on the subject and discussed it in class. But today Chris McGovern, chairman of the Campaign for Real Education, said: "This is completely unsuitable. I can't seen any circumstances where it would be valid at GCSE level to be looking at that sort of text. It was an appalling event and to give it the status of academic study is wrong."