Waterloo Road on BBC 1?

The lady who plays the headmistress in Waterloo Road was recently interviewed on television and said that she receives many letters telling her how true to life the series is. I know it's thirty years since I was last at school but, even so, can things have really become so bad in the space of thirty years? I like the programme, but this series is the first I've seen of it. I really hope that it's not a true representation of the state of British schools. If it is, then teachers should be paid danger money and issued with body armour.