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Programmes for Schools and Colleges

(July 2010)

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TV
TVnut15
Having a look on TV Ark, I am reminded that before the normal daytime schedules were implemented, the daytime was taken up by Programmes for schools and colleges. From general memory, I don't recall seeing any schools programmes for a long time, on ITV or the BBC.
SP
Steve in Pudsey
Yeah, filling the daytime schedule with schools' programmes is a practice that dates from the time when the teacher would bring the class to the room with the telly, and hope that the diamond would hypnotise the little darlings before the programme started!

Schools will invariably record the programme and play it at their convenience, or get it supplied on DVD or a download. Some schools' programmes used to be played out overnight to be recorded.

There simply isn't a need to show Geordie Racer every year because anybody who needs it has a copy already.
DE
deejay
Schools programmes on ITV ended in 1987, with programmes transferring to Channel 4 (then a second channel licensed by the IBA and much more closely linked with ITV) in September 1987. Despite being on Channel 4, the strand was still known as ITV Schools until 1993 when it was renamed Channel 4 Schools (and later Channel 4 Education).
ST
Stuart
Yeah, filling the daytime schedule with schools' programmes is a practice that dates from the time when the teacher would bring the class to the room with the telly, and hope that the diamond would hypnotise the little darlings before the programme started !

It always worked on me! Wink
BE
Ben Founding member
These days there is Teachers TV, which is now internet only but used to be on digital platforms as well. They tend to broadcast information programmes for teachers but they have educational programmes available through the website.
AB
aberdeenboy
Daytime schools programmes on BBC2 only ended at Easter... although, of course, when there's been no special presentation for years a casual viewer may have mistaken them for children's programmes as they flicked through. C4's programmes ended at Christmas and, again, could easily have been mistaken by the casual viewer for general output aimed at teenagers.

As most teachers have long preferred to tape programmes and use them in their own time, I'm amazed they remained in the daytime for so long. I reckon schools could easily have been moved to the wee small hours in the mid 90s.

The only argument for keeping them in daytime once schools had VCRs would have been that viewers at home appreciated them too... but there's little evidence of this outwith a few strands like How We Used To Live in the 70s and 80s. Indeed Schools often only picked up a few hundred thousand domestic viewers, even when there was no general output to tempt people away!
SP
Steve in Pudsey
I suspect they remained during daytime because as largely repeats, they were cheap.
BR
Brekkie
C4 do seem to be doing more online to replace the ditched output - new projects seem to be announced quite frequently. The BBC though ditched theirs with much less fuss and seemingly no replacement - they'll probably end up banning themselves from doing anything online.

It would be good though if some slots were kept available for new programmes when required, whether a spare half-hour slot in the daytime schedule or somewhere where the target audience might actually watch it - Battlefront for example is surely more worthy of a slot on T4 than yet another repeat of Friends.

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