With Rachel on a course Eddie is acting head and has his hands full when a community of travellers arrive,seeking to enrol their children in the school. There is instant mistrust of the new-comers with accusations of theft - including the lead from the roof. Eddie decides to try and reconcile matters with a football match but things get worse - the Waterloo Road kids are far superior to the travellers,who resort to dirty tricks. Eventually the council moves the travellers on,though Eddie is rueful as one of them,Kyle,seemed to have promise. Flick discovers her father's bribe and Marley's mother,dinner lady Rose,vows she will make up the money so the youngsters are free to see each other. Unfortunately she fails and hits the bottle again.
—don @ minifie-1