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.