For Schools, Colleges

Programmes for schools and colleges began on BBC television on 19th September 1960. For many years a pie chart symbol (above) with music was used to count down the last two minutes before each programme begun, in order to allow for class changeovers and getting the children settled.

Despite the introduction of colour to BBC1 in 1969, most schools programmes remained in black-and-white well into the 1970s. Indeed, it took until 1973 or 1974 for the first colour schools symbol to be introduced. Known as the schools diamond, this mechanical device served the same purpose as the pie chart.

Following the change in colours of the BBC1 globe, the diamond followed suit in January 1975. The clock, also frequently seen during schools presentation to link into the intervals between programmes, differed from that seen in the rest of BBC1's output, with yellow lettering rather than the usual white (top left). A diamond-styled slide (top right) was used during intervals before the diamond would appear in the last minute. See the schedules in Telly Years for examples of the scheduling of schools programmes.

In September 1977, the diamond was replaced by a countdown clock, similar to that seen on ITV, in order to give teachers a clearer indication of how long they had left to get their class to shut up. Still a mechanical device, a white dot would flip away every three seconds. And replacing the diamond slide, specific programme slides were now to be seen throughout intervals. Various pieces of music were now used, including the classic Abba medley, and even the Bee Gees!

During the 1970s and early 1980s, adult education and community programmes were normally shown on BBC2 on Monday or Tuesday afternoons. Presentation was generally in the standard BBC2 style, except for some reason the '2' symbol was missing from programme slides (above).

The schools countdown clock was updated in 1981 with the striped BBC1 logo, and shortly afterwards the legend in the centre of the clock was changed, and then the whole thing went electronic (above) - rather than flipping away into the ether, the dots now faded to black. But it was bad news for dots fans, as the countdown clock's days were numbered...

Daytime on Two

Schools programmes moved across to BBC2 on 19th September 1983, under the heading Daytime on Two. Quite why the change was made at this point is unclear, as BBC1 was still more than three years away from starting a full daytime television service.

Although the 'follows shortly' slides survived (left), the move to 2 saw the demise of the countdown clock; now programmes were introduced by a new version of the BBC2 symbol (above right) which would remain on screen for exactly ten seconds.

Since April 1986, schools programmes have been introduced by regular BBC2 idents, although for a while in the late 1980s a digital countdown clock superimposed in the top right hand corner would count down the last few seconds before the programme. But by the time the big 2 had been introduced in 1991, this had been done away with. Soon afterwards the music and 'follows shortly' slides that ran between programme also disappeared. These were no longer felt necessary now that most schools were using video recorders.

There is now little differentiation between the presentation of schools programmes and the rest of BBC2's output, other than the fact that programme slides are still in regular use (above).

In the late 1990s and 2000s, daytime schools programmes have gradually been chipped away at, with typically only an hour-and-a-half to two hours of output a day, and nothing at all on Wednesdays thanks to movement of Prime Minister's Questions. Only primary schools are now catered for in daytime hours; secondary schools programmes are now shown in blocks during the Learning Zone - see below.

BBC Learning Zone

The Learning Zone launched on BBC2 in September 1995, using the night hours for a sequence of Open University, language, business, training and schools programmes. At the time a special variant of the BBC2 ident was used.

Then in the all-encompassing October 1997 revamp it was became the BBC Learning Zone, now effectively a channel within a channel with its own presentation style (above), distinct from that of BBC2's. However, in case any viewers get confused, a 'BBC TWO' DOG makes an unwelcome appearance in the top left corner. Watch a clip

The BBC Learning Zone has long been the last bastion of the 'pure' 1997 BBC look (the ident has been in widescreen since late 2002).

Above: stills from a trailer shown some time after the main BBC2 output had changed over to using the purple box.

CBBC - Class TV

Unexpectedly, BBC schools programming was given a boost in February 2002 with the launch of the dedicated CBBC channel on digital - for as soon as it was realised that CBBC's target audience would actually be at school during the daytime, it was decided to transmit four hours of schools programmes a day, in a strand known as Class TV. Thus we saw the first distinct schools presentation from the BBC since the mid-1980s!

It wasn't like the old days though. There were no countdown clocks or static captions with music; instead, junctions were filled with an animated 'next' caption (left) and an ident (above right). Initially there were also filmed comedy skits or animations, before the next programme started.

Class TV showed a mixture of programming aimed at primary school children, most notably archive episodes of Look and Read, some of which had not been aired for over twenty-five years! (See the Eighties Zone for a little more on Look and Read.)

Above: Class TV's presentation between October 2005 and July 2007.

Over time Class TV seemed to increasingly become a grudgingly-included part of the schedule. Following the CBBC channel's relaunch in September 2007 the schools strand was reduced to just 75 minutes' worth around lunchtime, with no continuity whatsoever - one programme was now followed directly by the next; even the channel's annoying DOG was now removed.

Class TV failed to return at all after the 2008 Easter holidays. It transpires that CBBC's 'service level agreement', which committed the channel to broadcasting schools and factual programming, has been amended to cover factual programming only, and "the [BBC] Trust has agreed that CBBC may cease broadcast of schools programming" (link).

And so the CBBC channel's daytime output is now devoted to mainstream children's programmes (not all factual) such as Best of Friends and Bamzooki, broadcast to a target audience of 6-12 year-olds who at that time should not be able to view it. The move sits uncomfortably with the BBC's public service remit, as well as being a waste of precious digital bandwidth.

BBC2's schools output, meanwhile, remains unaffected - though one has to wonder how much longer before it, too, finally disappears.