Jasmine Koreshi was an English teacher at Waterloo Road from Series 3 to 4. She was a strong believer in doing things by the book and her obsession with dotting every 'i' and crossing every 't' aggravated some of the more laid back members of staff, such as fellow English teacher Grantly Budgen.
Jasmine quickly became good friends with Davina Shackleton, and they were each other's confidantes throughout the series. However, their friendship was severely tested when Jasmine became besotted with Rob, the new PE teacher, and Davina found herself having to give Jasmine bad news about her new love - he had been giving Bolton Smilie illegal performance-enhancing drugs to help him box.
Jasmine had strong opinions but good intentions, such as when Kim Campbell turned out to have taken Grace and she thought that someone like that shouldn't work in a school. She was good friends with Matt Wilding too, who she is seen next to in the opening titles of Series 3 and whom she wrote the school play for in Series 3 Episode 10.
In Series 3 she made the mistake of crossing Michaela White, who was bullying a younger pupil along with her friends. Following this, Michaela targets Jasmine. Michaela gets one of her friends to give her a bruise on her face, and lies saying Jasmine caused the bruise. With all 3 girls and the bullied victim (who is scared of Michaela) sticking to their stories, Jasmine has no way out, and is suspended for a week. When the suspension is over she is still nervous about going back, especially because of a governors meeting that is taking place that day with Michaela and her father present. Later, feeling guilty about what happened, Michaela's friends own up and confess the truth, and Jasmine gets her job back.
Joining the school as an NQT, Jasmine was often at odds with her Head of Department Grantly who believed she wasn't up to the job, although she eventually earned his respect and he supported her as her union representative when she was falsely accused of hitting Michaela White. She had a mentor-student relationship of sorts with Deputy Head Eddie Lawson, who helped Jasmine overcome Grantly's constant pushing of his classes' marking onto her, and convinced her to come back to Waterloo Road after her brief suspension, despite considering a career change to become a lawyer.
In Series 3 Episode 2 Jasmine informed Head of Pastoral Care Steph Haydock that she was concerned about Paul Langley, one of her tutees, but Steph brushed it off as the overreaction of a new teacher. When Eddie discovered Langley was being physically abused by his uncle, Jasmine questioned Steph's attitude towards fellow staff members and whether she was committed to her role.
When Eddie challenged the staff to take exams for subjects they didn't specialise in to prove the pressure students were under, Jasmine was the only one to attain a B grade and she won a bottle of whiskey for it. She was also close with colleague Tom Clarkson, whom she helped as assistant coach of the girls' football team.
In Series 4 Episode 17, following on from Grantly's return to Waterloo Road after his "heart attack" during a theatre trip with Jem Allen, Jasmine was determined to make up with him as she blamed herself for his condition after compiling a dossier of his misconduct and stressing him out. Rachel appointed her Acting Head of English to allow Grantly to take it easy and she offered to take Grantly's workload, which included marking exam papers that Tom had pushed onto Grantly. She also brought Grantly lunch from the canteen and offered to teach some of his classes, but after Fleur Budgen arrived with Grantly's gallstones medication she realised Grantly was playing her for a fool, and he had never actually had a heart attack. She humiliated him in the staff room in front of everyone for taking advantage of the situation and gave all his undone work back, later deciding to continue her report on Grantly's misconduct. At the start of Series 5, possibly as a result of Jasmine's report, Grantly was removed from the position and Tom replaced him as Head of Department.
Early in Series 4 Jasmine made the decision to apply for the post of Deputy Head of English with some encouragement from Rob, but it was never mentioned whether she actually got the job, though later in the series she became Acting Head of English for a short while, so she may have succeeded in her application.
Quotes
- "I feel totally out of my depth." (first line)
- "If you spent less time floating like a butterfly, I wouldn't have to sting you with a D." (to Bolton Smilie)
- "If you didn't give me so much lip I wouldn't give ye a detention."
- "I bet this turns out to be Grantly's fault."
- Eddie: "Oh I see. You were bullied at school?"
- Jasmine: "The opposite. I was a bully. Well, part of the bully's gang, like Anjie and Sasha. Terrified to be bullied and just so grateful not to be. You know, we made a girl strip. Tied her to a tree. And she was begging and sobbing for us to stop."
- Eddie: "Flaming hell."
- Jasmine: "See, this is how I know that none of them are gonnae crack. Cos then they'd have to face Michaela White, and that's never gonnae happen."
- "Shhhh!" (final line)