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25 years since ITV Schools ended.

(May 2018)

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KE
kernow
Riaz posted:
I think it was probably the case that schools in the South were more likely to insist on only BBC schools programmes being watched and schools in the North more likely to concentrate on ITV schools programmes, though of course there would have been many exceptions.


Evidence please.



I know there are (or have been) north/south divides regarding certain things, but I've never heard of a north/south divide between the BBC and ITV.

I went to school in the South, and actually only remember watching schools programmes from ITV/Channel 4 at school, and my only memory of BBC Schools programmes was from recording the overnight bitesize revision programmes at home.
UKnews and Night Thoughts gave kudos
RI
Riaz
In the pre National Curriculum era schools effectively cherry picked programmes according to what the teachers wanted to teach. BBC schools might have had more prestige in the minds of many teachers than ITV schools but I find it hard to believe that there were any significant regional divides with the possible exception that ITV programmes might have been a bit more popular in the ATV / Central region because they were the biggest and most prominent producer of them.
IS
Inspector Sands
Riaz posted:
In the pre National Curriculum era schools effectively cherry picked programmes according to what the teachers wanted to teach.

This is still the case with some schools, not all have to stick to the national curriculum
RI
Riaz
This is still the case with some schools, not all have to stick to the national curriculum


Academies do not have to follow the National Curriculum but almost all of them closely follow it. If they are primary schools then they have to teach English and maths to the standard of the KS2 SATS exams as well as science and religious studies.

Therefore academies are a far cry from the 1970s and 80s schools that often did not teach science or non-Christian religions because the teachers didn't understand these subjects or think that they were important even though schools programmes existed for them at the time.

14 days later

SC
Si-Co
Just picking up on the discussion earlier in this thread about regional variations, I’ve just discovered a document compiled by Ben Clarke from the Broadcasts for Schools website that lists some local schools programmes, and there are quite a few I wasn’t aware of.

We are familiar with the Scottish companies, HTV Wales and UTV opting out to show local content, and the large players like YTV, Thames and Granada going their own way at times to showcase their own schools series (repeats of formerly networked programmes as well as some unique to the region). However, it surprised me that some of the smaller companies like HTV West, Anglia, Southern, Westward, Tyne Tees and even Channel occasionally showed locally-produced programmes in the 60s and 70s, presumably pre-empting a networked offering or slotted into the mid-morning break - or, in the earlier days, tacked into the end of the day’s schools schedule. These programmes were most likely not produced specifically for schools (Channel’s En Francais being a possible exception) but rather repeats of series they had previously shown outside school hours. Anglia’s offering was normally Survival, which became part-networked after a while.

So - in answer to the question of which (weekday) ITV companies did not produce any schools programmes (and classing mainstream series repeated for schools as “schools programmes” for this exercise), it would appear that only the Border region produced nothing itself, though they did take some of STV and Grampian’s local programmes). I also can’t see anything by TVS, TWW or WWN in Ben’s list (the latter two surprise me, so possibly their programmes aren’t documented) - and I don’t think the post-1993 companies produced anything during the short time their franchise coincided with the ITV Schools service.

ATV/Central probably had the facility to opt out locally to show a different programme to the one they were feeding to the network - in fact, I think one term they took Anglia’s feed of Survival and played it out to the Midlands, whist feeding The English Programme from Thames to most of the other regions.
RI
Riaz
Can anybody confirm that TVS and LWT did not produce any schools programmes? Any ideas how many were produced by TSW - if any at all?
PE
peterh
When we got to channel 4 schools how were Scottish and northern Irish opt outs handled
NW
nwtv2003
When we got to channel 4 schools how were Scottish and northern Irish opt outs handled



They weren’t. All regional opts from STV, Grampian and UTV stopped by (and correct me if I’m wrong) the end of the 1991/92 school year, knowing that Channel 4 would be selling its own advertising from January 1993. I’m sure there’s a clip online somewhere of a programme caption for a Gaelic Schools programme that was being shown nationally.
SC
Si-Co
Riaz posted:
Can anybody confirm that TVS and LWT did not produce any schools programmes? Any ideas how many were produced by TSW - if any at all?


The only TSW “schools programme” I’m aware of is An Canker Seth, a Cornish language series shown on TSW only in Summer 1986. This had originally been shown outside school hours, and also on S4C, so although it wasn’t specially commissioned for ITV Schools, it was repeated under that banner.

As for LWT, I see no reason why they would have produced schools programmes, as they were never on air when schools broadcasting was transmitted. I also can’t imagine another company choosing to schedule an LWT-produced programme during schools hours.
Last edited by Si-Co on 30 June 2018 1:25am
RI
Riaz
Si-Co posted:
The only TSW “schools programme” I’m aware of is An Canker Seth, a Cornish language series shown on TSW only in Summer 1986. This had originally been shown outside school hours, and also on S4C, so although it wasn’t specially commissioned for ITV Schools, it was repeated under that banner.


I'm wondering whether it was mere coincidence that the two 'new' ITV companies from the 1980 franchise round did not produce schools programmes or was there a deeper underlying reason behind it.

Quote:
As for LWT, I see no reason why they would have produced schools programmes, as they were never on air when schools broadcasting was transmitted. I also can’t imagine another company choosing to schedule an LWT-produced programme during schools hours.


I suppose that LWT could have theoretically partnered with a smaller ITV company (Border?) to broadcast schools programmes in return for a half decent timeslot at the weekend for their own programmes. Whether LWT would have made much money from this arrangement is a different matter.
SC
Si-Co
Regarding your first point, I would say coincidence coupled with the fact that generally speaking there were a lot less regional variations in the 80s than there had been previously. The mid-morning “intermission” disappeared in 1980-1981, and regions had often made use of this gap in broadcasts to schedule their own programmes.
IS
Inspector Sands
Riaz posted:

I suppose that LWT could have theoretically partnered with a smaller ITV company (Border?) to broadcast schools programmes in return for a half decent timeslot at the weekend for their own programmes. Whether LWT would have made much money from this arrangement is a different matter.

Theoretically maybe, but logically why on earth would they want to do that?

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