Brendan James Murray has been a secondary school teacher for more than ten years. In that time he has seen hundreds of kids move through his classes - troubled, brilliant, funny, passionate, struggling: every single one brings unique qualities or circumstances into school with them, every day.

In this astonishing powerful portrait of a single school year, Brendan James Murray shows the ups and downs of school for teachers and students: the dedication of colleagues, the bureaucracy of the curriculum, the passion and fire he tries to light in his students, and their responses, hilarious, heartbreaking and true.

A magnificent clarion call for the art of teaching, a must-read for any parent, The School is a heartfelt, behind-the-scenes picture of modern education, and a timeless story of a teacher and their class.