Ms Hammond has had the inspired idea of asking individual children to express an emotion – silently, facially. The other children must guess what it is and draw the actor’s features in charcoal.First up is “happy”. George and Harriet stand on the tables, adopting expressions of imbecilic rapture Then Roddy and Shaun get up to do “angry” This is more interesting. I look on with fascination as Greg England peeps his whistle, orders the rabble about like a dictator, points here and there – and I’m equally fascinated by the children who ask if they’re allowed to do this or that. It sounds as if they’d be happier with more rules rather than fewer.The last lesson of the day is art. Perhaps it’s because the class is so huge, and it takes ages to give everyone a go at reading the poem (Hilaire Belloc’s “Henry King”).

Perhaps because dividing into four PE groups is an organisational nightmare, there’s an atmosphere of suppressed wildness – the children are like prisoners wriggling out of jail.”You see Roddy there?” says Ms Hammond “Watch the two little dimples under his eyes If they suddenly get deeper, it means he’s about to go off. The only thing that works is to say, ‘If you’re going to be grumpy, Roddy, you must make a worse face than that.’ That usually makes him laugh. But you have to watch him all the time.” At lunchtime, a little madam called Karen says: “Goodbye, Mr Walsh, enjoy your lunch.”Outside on the PE court, 40 children play Star Wars, a complicated chasing game in which designated kids have special powers to release each other from captivity. They’re afraid the women will look at them as if they’re unemployed, or perverts or something We’ve encouraged fathers to come into the playground. If I’m there, I’ll say, ‘Hi, are you a father, would you like to join our group?’ Or I get an e-mail address.

There’s 64 on the list, and we’re getting more all the time.”By noon, I’ve met half the class They’re chatty, charming, lively – and strangely frustrated Things don’t go quickly enough for them. “Ten years ago, the whole educational system started focusing on girls because they weren’t keeping up with boys. They feminised the environment – ‘Sit still, speak when you’re spoken to, don’t do anything the system doesn’t allow.’ Boys don’t thrive in that atmosphere.”But the real trouble is, a lot of these dads just don’t see their kids. Many working-class parents have traditional views on the role of the father. They have blue-collar jobs and long hours, after which they go to the pub.

At the Dads Matter meetings, we get fathers to open up and express themselves. They talk about their children in a way they’d never have done before.”Greg cites Scandinavian law, which allows parents of both sexes to arrange flexible working times around their children’s educational needs. But as that’s not likely to happen in the UK in the next 50 years, what can fathers do right away?”It could be something simple, like taking the kids to school twice a week and coming in to the playground Many men won’t go past the school gates. They make “gift vouchers” for fathers to give children, the currency being one hour doing anything the child wants.

They encourage fathers and children to review books together. They invite fathers to find out about their children’s world, their favourite song, food, film, game, friend…Greg England, the de facto boss of Dads Matter, is taking Ms Hammond’s class for PE in the playground. Tall, precise and indefinably grand, Greg is a former IT whizz at Cable & Wireless who left the multinational a few years ago and is now a freelance consultant.Having taken his son Tom to rugby matches for years, and been impressed by the social ambience, he resolved to bring a touch of enlightened self-help to Lewisham. He was a great teacher.”My mum did other stuff, getting me ready for school, making sure I’d done my homework. She’s not very literate, so she couldn’t help with the learning.