I’m Going To Tell!!

Game of Thrones spoiler threat silences disruptive class

A maths teacher successfully silenced his disruptive class when he threatened to write the names of those killed off in the third season of the drama on the board

Forget litter picking and mopping dining hall floors, how about threatening a spoiler to deal with a disruptive class?

On being faced with a noisy classroom, a maths teacher in a school in Belgium, threatened to reveal the deaths that take place in the third season of Game of Thrones.

Asking his students which of them watched the fantasy drama, the majority raised their hands, to which the teacher responded: “Well, I’ve read all the books. If there is too much noise, I will write the names of the dead on the board.

Reported in the Belgian newspaper nieuwsblad.be, the teacher continued: “They [the dead] are enough to fill the whole year and I can even describe how they die.”

Although taking this initial statement as an empty threat, the pupils quickly got back to work in silence when the teacher began writing the names of those killed off in the third season on the board.

The story, which spread via social media, prompted one student to write “my maths teacher is a genius” – and with season four due to start in just over a week, the teacher will have plenty of ammo to continue this threat.

Considering the popularity of the drama, the punishment could - maybe - make a welcome addition to UK classrooms.

In December, Sir Michael Wilshaw, Ofsted’s chief inspector, warned of a “culture” of teachers tolerating misbehaviour and inattention in schools.

Last month, Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, set out a list of government-approved punishments, including “community service” sanctions, such as weeding school grounds and cleaning up graffiti.

This new guidance from the Department for Education is intended to ensure that more teachers take a “tough" line with disruptive pupils, and also includes writing lines, or loss of a prized responsibility.

Following a recent survey that found that almost one third of secondary school teachers do not feel confident using the powers they have to discipline children who behave badly, maybe the threat of a spoiler would be an effective method of dealing with class disruption.

Although unlikely to get on the government’s list of approved punishments, it could be worth a try.