Kelly Jo Rafferty is a Year 11 student at Waterloo Road High School. She is the daughter of Debbie Rafferty, the niece of Nicky Walters and the cousin of Preston and Tonya. She is also close friends with Samia Choudhry.
Kelly Jo is a troublesome pupil who earns the ire of teachers like Coral Walker, who punishes her severely for acting out in class. During a workshop on communication led by Amy Spratt, Kelly Jo threatens other students with wooden blocks used during a building exercise and smashes a window using the set decorations after Fred, Amy's friend who set up the workshop, insults her. She breaks down to Amy afterwards about how nobody understands her and in a meeting with Kim Campbell and her mother, Amy says that she thinks Kelly Jo has ADHD and organises a referral for her to potentially be diagnosed.
Series 11[]
At the start of Series 11, Kelly Jo participates in the protest-turned-riot against the school being called "William Beswick High", and she nearly gets sent to the new Behavioural Unit (BU) after ripping up a noticeboard about the British Empire on history teacher Neil Guthrie's classroom wall.
A few episodes later, Kelly Jo becomes overwhelmed and freaks out during a mindfulness class taught by Amy Spratt and Amy's old university roommate Fred. Fred offers to work with Kelly Jo and calm her down, but when she jokes about him being "a sad old tosser with a bald head", he cruelly says to her "You've got a real attitude problem, you know that?" and "I wonder what hole you'll end up in?", and she completely flips out, throwing wooden blocks everywhere and ending up launching the class's "thought tree" through the window. When headteacher Kim Campbell tries to send her to her office, Kelly Jo instead runs away, and Amy finds her outside freaking out by the school gates, where she successfully calms her down and convinces her to come back inside. Then, in a meeting with Kim, Amy, Kelly Jo and Kelly Jo's mother Debs, Kelly Jo explains that she often has outbursts when things get on top of her, and that stuff that doesn't bother anyone else bothers her, and she doesn't know why she gets easily overwhelmed. Amy, inspired by Donte Charles mentioning that his son Tommy has ADHD, says that the school are going to refer Kelly Jo for an ADHD assessment, and Kelly Jo is relieved that there might be an explanation for why she is the way she is, though she is devastated when Kim says that she has to go to the BU, but agrees to when Kim explains that it's not a punishment, but that it's for people like her who need extra support.
During her time in the BU, Kelly Jo begins a relationship with Dean Weever, and Samia disapproves when she finds out, causing a falling out between the best friends, especially when Samia accuses Dean of being behind the 'Hot or Not' group chat in which some of the boys have been rating the girls' looks, but Samia and Kelly Jo make up after Samia discovers that her own boyfriend, Kelly Jo's cousin Preston, created the group chat.
Kelly Jo later writes a poem and plans to perform it at the end of term show, but just as she is about to go on, the school is partially evacuated and the remaining pupils including Kelly Jo are shut in the hall, because of Danny Lewis stabbing Vinny McCullen. When Samia asks Kelly Jo to distract the teachers so that she can escape from the hall to go see Danny, Kelly Jo stands on a chair and loudly performs the poem.
Series 12[]
The day of the meeting about Kelly Jo's ADHD assessment results comes around in Series 12, however her mother Debs is nowhere to be seen on the morning of, stressing Kelly Jo out, but Debs's sister Nicky calms Kelly Jo down and agrees to go into the meeting with her instead. On their way in, Kelly Jo lets slip to Nicky that Debs has been medicating her with diazepam, and is shocked when Nicky says that that is illegal. During the meeting, Kelly Jo is formally diagnosed with ADHD, before Debs suddenly bursts in late and stinking of booze. An argument quickly breaks out between Debs and Nicky, during which Nicky blurts out about the diazepam for everyone in the meeting to hear. Kelly Jo later has to break up a physical fight between her mother and her aunt, and after the Raffertys' house is searched for drugs by the police, Debs is arrested at the school in front of a horrified Kelly Jo.
A couple of episodes later, Kelly Jo has her first day out of the BU, as a trial to see how she will cope back in the mainstream school. There are a few hurdles, such as when Myles Massey deliberately tries to wind her up, though she keeps her composure, and when deputy head Joe Casey is too busy for the one-to-one session he had promised Kelly Jo at lunchtime. She instead goes to meet Dean, who had said that he has a surprise for her. He reveals a makeshift barbecue round the back of the school, but Kelly Jo reacts badly, desperate not to get into trouble on her trial day out of the BU, but he convinces her to sit down and let him cook food for her on the barbecue, though the food fails to cook quickly, prompting her to help him with it. Donte then turns up and catches them, prompting Dean to quickly throw the barbecue into the bucket that was holding it in an attempt to hide it, but the bucket immediately bursts into flames. Kelly Jo extinguishes the fire and then runs away, until she encounters Joe in the corridor, to whom she says that she thinks she needs to go back into the BU, and tells him about the fire, before running away again. She ends up in the school's multi-faith prayer room, where she sits and silently watches Norullah Sayyid praying for a while. When he finishes, she asks him about his prayers and he shows her one on his phone, which she silently listens to after he leaves. Dean later enters the room, apologetic about the fire and asking what he can to to make it up. She asks him to sit in silence with her, which he does. Joe later catches them leaving the multi-faith prayer room, and Kelly Jo explains that she was just cooling off. Dean explains to Joe that Kelly Jo just needs quiet time, and Joe later shows them the prototype of a 'sensory room' for neurodivergent pupils, where Kelly Jo can go when she needs a quiet space to calm down when she gets overwhelmed.
Towards the end of the series, Kelly Jo starts thinking about how serious her relationship with Dean is getting, after Samia tells her that she thinks that her own boyfriend Danny wrote "I love you" on her back with his finger. Kelly Jo asks Coral how long one should be in a relationship for before saying "I love you", but Coral basically advises her that actions speak louder than words. Kelly Jo later draws a heart on Dean's back with her finger, and tries to encourage him to do the same on her back, but he fails to take it seriously and writes something dirty, much to her annoyance. Kelly Jo is later left devastated when her cousin Preston suffers a cardiac arrest during the school's charity run.
Series 13[]
In Series 13, Kelly Jo discovers that Dean and Noel have bee catfishing Neil Guthrie with a fake social media profile pretending to be Coral Walker, and comes up with the idea of sending Neil a photo of Dean's feet, painting Dean's toenails with red nail varnish to make Neil think they are Coral's feet.
As part of the school's mentoring scheme, Kelly Jo is partnered with new girl Jess Clarke, who inspires Kelly Jo to take an interest in her own heritage. Debs tells her that her father, named David, was Jamaican, which inspires Kelly Jo to explore her identity further with the support of Lindon King, who organises a Jamaican culture day at school and encourages Kelly Jo to record a podcast discussing her experiences. Debs later admitted that she didn't actually know where David was from, upsetting Kelly Jo. At the same time, Kelly Jo thinks that she is pregnant, and attempts to take a pregnancy test in the girls' toilets, but Libby Guthrie catches Kelly Jo with the test, and proceeds to deliberately wind Kelly Jo up for the rest of the day by dropping pregnancy-related hints that nobody else would pick up on without context. When Kelly Jo gives a talk to some of the pupils about Jamaica, Libby continues this hint-dropping until Kelly Jo snaps and attacks her. Kelly Jo later tells Dean that she thinks she is pregnant, and he waits outside while she takes the test, but bottles it and runs away before she emerges with the positive result. When she later tells him that he is "off the hook", Dean takes this to mean that she is not pregnant and reacts with visible relief. Kelly Jo later goes home and tells her mother that she is pregnant.
In Series 13 Episode 5, Kelly Jo finally reveals to Dean that she is pregnant. His first reaction is to question the paternity of the child. Kelly Jo keeps her composure and tells him she wants nothing more to do with him. When one of Nicky's kitchen staff arrives with her baby, Tyson, she turns a blind eye. Dean and Noel chance upon the child and offer to babysit. When Tyson starts crying, the duo find themselves adept with babies, leading Dean to offer his support to Kelly Jo. Kelly Jo however has decided to have a termination.
In Series 13 Episode 6, Samia learns of Kelly Jo's pregnancy from Dean and pays her friend a visit. Kelly Jo interprets this as a proxy visit from Dean in yet another attempt to make her change her mind about the termination, but asks Samia to accompany her for support. After the procedure Kelly Jo seeks out Dean to set matters straight, but discovers him with Libby, who seems quite entertained by the ensuing argument. Dean is desperate to patch things up with Kelly Jo after this, but at the end of the series, she tells him that she cannot trust him not to cheat on her again.
Series 14[]
In Series 14 Episode 1, Kelly Jo discovers that Libby is being cyberbullied via anonymous texts. After finding Libby crying in the school toilets, and suspecting Dean of being the cyberbully, Kelly Jo pretends to Dean that she is amused by the cyberbullying, tricking him into confessing that it was him. When he realises that she tricked him and is actually on Libby's side, he kicks off big time, screaming at Kelly Jo, threatening Libby and ultimately getting permanently excluded after trying to punch Neil.
In Episode 3, Kelly Jo, sick of Nicky and Debs fighting over the rolls of banknotes that Barbara left following her death, steals the box of cash and empties it out of an upper floor classroom window, spraying notes to a stunned group of staff and students below. She later takes Preston and Tonya aside and reveals to them that the majority of the cash she tipped out of the window was actually toy money from the pound shop, and equally divides the real money between the three of them, saying that they should put it away for their future and not waste it.
In Episode 4, Kelly Jo grows concerned that Noel has a crush on her, feelings that she definitely does not reciprocate. She helps the rest of the sixth-form kids to smuggle musical instruments out of the music department with the intention of holding the school's planned Battle of the Bands competition elsewhere in protest after they believe that Val Chambers has been sacked, however Amy catches them. Amy ultimately allows them to take the instruments, telling them that a mate of hers runs a local youth centre and owes her a favour, and she arranges for them to hold the Battle of the Bands there. At the event, the penny drops for Kelly Jo that it is in fact her mother whom Noel fancies, as he constantly looks at her while he performs.
Amy wangles a volunteer job for Kelly Jo at the youth centre, which Kelly Jo comes to love. She is devastated when she learns that the youth centre is to be closed due to council cutbacks, and in Episode 6 she launches a petition to save the centre. When local MP Mel Parkinson visits the school, Kelly Jo interrupts the class she is visiting to give her the completed petition (albeit with most of the signatures either duplicated or fake), but is disappointed when the MP doesn't even keep it. She later tricks Mel into entering the youth centre itself, continuing to urge her to do something about its closure. Mel tells her that the decision to close it will have been made for good reasons, and is out of her hands. She is, however, impressed by Kelly Jo's passion and grit, and offers her a free scholarship at a Russell Group university. Initially considering it, Kelly Jo ultimately realises it is not what she would really want, and turns it down.
In Episode 8, Kelly Jo reveals that she will be leaving Waterloo Road to take up an apprenticeship working with young adults like herself in the community.
Trivia[]
- There is some inconsistency with the hyphenation of her name; it is "Kelly Jo" without a hyphen in the credits and in an on-screen overlay showing text messages at the start of Series 11 Episode 1, and in a similar overlay showing missed calls from her to Nicky in Series 12 Episode 6, but it is hyphenated as "Kelly-Jo" on a similar on-screen 'incoming call' overlay in Series 13 Episode 6.
- In Series 11-Series 13, Kelly Jo was in Year 11 at Waterloo Road. However, in Series 14, it’s revealed Kelly Jo is in Year 12 (First year of sixth form).
Quotes[]
- "Mate! Mate - MATE! YOU ARE NOT RONALDO! KEEP WALKING!" (first line)
- "Is it me, or is Danny Lewis looking hot?"
- "Nah, it was them two morons right there. Oi, you! You're an actual minger, mate."
- Neil: "That's because we should be paying attention to the historical record, and not whoever shouts the loudest."
- Kelly Jo: "Is he talking about me?"
- "No no! Cos what d'you expect? When you're all like 'Oh, well William Beswick did good too'! What, cos he paid for some museums and that? Yeah, yeah no cos, cos I woulda been dead impressed while I was chained up in the bottom of his boat."
- "My name's Fred. Yeah? You know, all my drama school mates are rich, and they're famous, and I'm a sad old tosser with a bald head!"
- "Like...like, like this morning, I flipped out cos...cos I couldn't find my right socks. And I can never get myself together. And everything's always too much. Or too hard. And it's...it's the same in class, Miss. It just feels like I'm supposed to be doing something, but...but I don't know what. Like, I've missed what we're supposed to be doing, and it's...it's the noise, and the people on at me, I just...I just blow. Sorry."
- "Nah, Dean. I wanna hear her say it. Go on, Sam. If you're so right, you're so smart all of the time, just say it. Say that I am stupid, and I am thick, and that I belong in there without you. Well...yeah, that's what I thought. Some best mate you are, yeah? Come on, Dean."
- "Frog! Froghead! Dickhead! Slag! Drip drip drip from a leaky tap! She should cover her face with a 20p bag for life! Cos she don't need to adhere to a set of rules, just like she don't need to wait for you to decide that she is worthy of basic respect! But how - how sad - how sad for you, that you are so scared of my strength! But, laugh it off, Kelly Jo, can't you take the bants?! Cos what? Don't they see? Don't you actually see, Sir, that I am sinking fast?!"
- "I know she's my mum, but...I do wish that you were sometimes, cos...at least you act like one. She doesn't even know how to spell ADHD, you know."
- "Just go home, Mum. I don't wanna be anything like you when I grow up. Just go home."
- Kelly Jo: "Yeah. Yeah, I think I need to go back into the BU, Sir, I think Myles was right."
- Joe: "What-what you talking about?"
- Kelly Jo: "I can't handle it. I think I'm broken."
- Samia: "Listen. So, I think he wrote 'I love you'. What?"
- Kelly Jo: "Well...you think he wrote it, that...that just doesn't count."
- Samia: "Well, does Dean say it to you?"
- Kelly Jo: "Urgh, if he said that, I'd chin him!"
- "So they're a buncha WRONGUUUNS!"
- "What is this? Right, tell me, or one of you are about to get hurt. Right, you know what, both of you are gonna get hurt, what is that?!"
- "'Does it matter'? Mum, my whole podcast, yeah, is about Jamaica, and now you're telling me that my dad might not even be from there? I can't believe this!"
- Libby: "What's the matter, Kelly Jo? Have I said something to upset you?"
- Kelly Jo: "You know you have, you evil COW, LIBBY GUTHRIE!"
- "You know, today was meant to be about...it was meant to be about me finding myself. The only thing I found out, Mum, is that I'm pregnant."
- "I didn't say I wasn't pregnant, Dean. I just said that you were off the hook."
- "D'you know what, Sam? Everybody thinks that this is easy. And it's not. I think this is the hardest thing I have ever, ever done in my life. And you know all it is, yeah? I just don't wanna be a mum yet. That's it."
- Samia: "Look who's back."
- Kelly Jo: "Yeah, I thought I could smell desperation."
- Libby: "In't that insulting your boyfriend?"
- Kelly Jo: "Oh, oh, well, he's not my boyfriend, and you need to watch your back."
- "Yeah, you know what, I take it all back, I'm banging, me."
- Kelly Jo: "I don't care what she did. You coulda just said no, yeah?"
- Dean: "Yeah, I've told you already, I thought I explained it all-"
- Kelly Jo: "Yeah, you'll do it again, and again, and again. And I deserve so much better."
- Kelly Jo: "Y'alright? I don't think I've ever seen you cry."
- Libby: "Yeah, well, your lucky day."
- "You are hiding behind a computer screen saying disgusting things about her!"
- "Who said that you had talent? Nan? Preston, nans think that you have talent if you wipe your own bum."
- "Will you two just stop? You should be grieving over Nana, not scrapping over her money. It's embarrassing."
- "There's more important things going on right now than your bum."
- Kelly Jo: "Sir! Sir! Have you signed the petition yet?"
- Neil: "Uh, yes, you cornered me by the staffroom yesterday morning."
- "I don't get why you can't try and do summat. What's the point of being an MP? You're meant to care about us kids!"
- "Yeah, yeah, I'm gonna be working in the community, helping people like me. And not everybody knows yet, but...it's gonna be 'Goodbye, Waterloo Road'."
- "Give it up for Waterloo Road!" (final line)