RIP Schools Programmes in daytime

So BBC 2 broadcast its last daytime Schools Programme on Friday... and it all ended with 'Look and Read'.

was surprised they were still going actually

children at school hardly seem to watch educational programmes anymore, well not in the schools I've worked in over the last seven years, toom many time constraints by Ofsted

Aren't CBBC Channel still doing Class TV in term time school hours?

For some years the BBC were showing some schools programmes one night a week in The Learning Zone overnight, intended to be recorded for later viewing. Will all their schools programmes be shown in The Learning Zone in future?

No, it finished a few years ago in favour of standard programming throughout the day.


Yes.

With the evolution of digital content and portals such as the iPlayer, this type of thing has really become somewhat redundant for teachers who now go online for content instinctively.

Not to say it won't be missed though!

Although a sensible decision for the reasons you all point out, it's amazing yet again the BBC can drop a key PSB element with relatively little fuss - zero press coverage and no regulatory intervention - whilst C4 had to jump through a few hoops in order to drop them.

Are the BBC committed to moving it's educational output online or anything, and if so sooner or later it'll probably be deemed outside the BBC's remit and be dropped anyway.

I don't think you've all (except for Jonny) realised that primary programmes aren't going away, they're moving to the overnight Learning Zone.

Indeed. I doubt that these programmes had any viewers from their target audience when they were actually broadcast, merely a collection of DVD recorders which can function just as easily at 3am.

It seemed pointless to use the daytime schedule to transmit them. If any of the programmes are suitable for a wider daytime audience then they can still be re-packaged and transmitted as part of the normal schedule.

Are the BBC still actually making new programming though - a lot of the stuff seems as old as me!

And what will BBC2 air in their place - more CBeebies and more BBC1 daytime leftovers? Frankly BBC2 during the day only has any purpose when it's airing live sport (IMO of course), something which the BBC seem to want to cut back on.

Not all that long ago actually, only as recently as March 2008. Since then it's been regular programming.
It would appear the BBC Trust changed the remit of the CBBC Channel at this time so that it didn't have to broadcast schools programming any longer.

That's sad! Lng gone are the days when I would stay home from school and watch stuff from BBC Two and ITV schools on Channel four with that rotomotion thing and "The Journey and "Just a Minute" playing before schools programmes!

Sad!

I agree, the BBC really needs to do something with BBC2's daytime schedule. The channel seriously needs an identiy of it's own. It seems since BBC4 launched a few years back, all of BBC2's high brow programming moved to that channel and ever since, the BBC has been shifting all of it's leftovers from the other BBC channels, onto BBC2 such as CBBC programming, BBC1's daytime programming in the afternoons and BBC3 and BBC4 comedies and documentaries. Pretty much all of BBC2's daytime schedule is programming from other BBC channels, no original, unique BBC2 programming in sight.

It's a shame that the schools programming has come to an end on BBC2 daytime as this was the only shred of original BBC2 programming left in the schedule (it used to be called Daytime on TWO in the 1990's). I think we can probably expect programmes such as 'Castle in the Country' or 'Animal Park' to replace the schools programming from next month. Not ideal far from it, but that's unfortunately probably what we're going to get

I have compiled my own fantasy BBC2 schedule below, see what you all think. Out of all the channels that needs to be improved is BBC2. I'm amazed the BBC don't treat it with more respect with it being one of the BBC's longest serving channels...

6.00am CBeebies.
7.00 CBBC
9.00 Horizon. Rpt.
10.00 Old film.
12.00pm The Daily Politics.
12.30 Working Lunch.
1.00 Old film.
3.00 Documentary/Top Gear.
4.00 New quiz show.
4.45 Ready, Steady, Cook.
5.30 Doctors (repeated edition shown on BBC1 earlier)
6.00 BBC Switch.
7.00 Documentaries/general entertainment programming.
10.30 Newsnight.
11.00 Newsnight Extra.
11.30 Late film/documentary.
1.30am Late film.
4.00-6.00am The Learning Zone.

I would reduce the hours of CBBC/CBeebies in an instant. I wouldn't remove it completely from the schedule, but I would reduce it from 5 hours to 3 each morning from 6am until 9am (instead of 6am till 11am). The BBC only ever used to show 5 straight hours of CBBC during the school holidays. The BBC should consider going back to a timetable like that again, showing the 5 hours of CBBC only during the school half term break or summer holidays.

Other changes I've made are showing BBC Switch at 6pm everyday. I know Switch and Blast are facing the axe, but the BBC could still show teen oriented programming in this 6pm slot, like they used to in the 1990's (like DEF II for example). I would also split Newsnight into 2 sections. Show a regular edition for 30 minutes and an extra 30 minutes for general chat/debates on the day's news headlines. I would probably show an hour long Newsnight Review show every Friday night at 11.30pm as well.

I would also remove the overnight BBC News 24 programming as well. Showing the news on BBC2 (or even BBC1) alongside the news channel is just pointless scheduling. I'm sure come the Digital Switchover (DSO) in 2012, the BBC will be removing those elements from both the BBC1 and BBC2 schedules. They would be seriously taking the mickey if they didn't/don't

Very subtle changes really, but at least this would give BBC2 an identity of some form and more importantly they would be showing something that no other broadcaster would be showing at the same time of the day.