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BBC School Radio is a division of the BBC providing audio learning resources for primary schools in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

.

History

The first broadcast to schools was organized by the privately owned

British Broadcasting Company The British Broadcasting Company Ltd. (BBC) was a short-lived British commercial broadcasting company formed on 18 October 1922 by British and American electrical companies doing business in the United Kingdom. Licensed by the British General ...

and given by the composer Sir Walford Davies, Professor of Music at Gresham College. It was transmitted from Britain's second ever radio station, 2LO in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, on 4 April 1924. Following the dissolution of the British Broadcasting Company on 31 December 1926 and the transfer of its assets to the Crown-chartered

British Broadcasting Corporation #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

...

, the

Carnegie United Kingdom Trust The Carnegie United Kingdom Trust is an independent, endowed charitable trust based in Scotland that operates throughout Great Britain and Ireland. Originally established with an endowment from Andrew Carnegie in his birthplace of Dunfermline ...

funded a project on broadcasting to schools based on feedback collected from teachers in

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

. In 1928 the Central Council for School Broadcasting (CCSB) was established; its first two Chairmen were Herbert Fisher and

Eustace Percy, 1st Baron Percy of Newcastle Eustace Sutherland Campbell Percy, 1st Baron Percy of Newcastle, PC (21 March 1887 – 3 April 1958), styled Lord Eustace Percy between 1899 and 1953, was a British diplomat, Conservative politician and public servant. He most notably served as ...

. For each curriculum subject covered in the broadcasts there was a Subject Committee, staffed by teachers. From 1929-57, the first Director of School Broadcasting was

Mary Somerville Mary Somerville (; , formerly Greig; 26 December 1780 – 29 November 1872) was a Scottish scientist, writer, and polymath. She studied mathematics and astronomy, and in 1835 she and Caroline Herschel were elected as the first female Honorary ...

. By the 1930s, secondary schools were included in the target audience and broadcasts were added covering foreign-language learning. Older listeners were also tuning in.

Second World War

During the Second World War, School Radio gained a new importance. Any regional variations were consolidated into a single home service for children with a five-minute news broadcast that was designed to explain the confusing circumstances. By 1942, half of all British schools were listening.

Post war

The School Broadcasting Council for the United Kingdom had been set up in 1947, replacing the CCSB, and included Scotland and Wales. In 1953, 25,691 British schools were registered for school radio; 9.55am, 11am and 2pm were for primary schools; 11.20am, 2.20pm and 2.40pm were for

secondary modern school A secondary modern school is a type of secondary school that existed throughout England, Wales and Northern Ireland from 1944 until the 1970s under the Tripartite System. Schools of this type continue in Northern Ireland, where they are usuall ...

s; 11.40am was for

grammar school A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented secondary school ...

s. After the Newsom Report in 1963, more series were made about the transition from school to work. The 1960s to 1980s were regarded as a 'golden age' for British schools radio broadcasting, and by the early 1970s, around 90% of schools were using the School Radio service. The BBC produced around 80 series per year for School Radio, which amounted to around 16 hours per week. From 1983, older programmes were available on cassette from the Centre of Educational Technology in Mold, Flintshire. Originally broadcast on the

BBC Home Service The BBC Home Service was a national and regional radio station that broadcast from 1939 until 1967, when it was replaced by BBC Radio 4. History 1922–1939: Interwar period Between the early 1920s and the outbreak of World War II, the BBC ...

, the programmes transferred to

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC's ...

when that network replaced the Home Service in 1967. They were broadcast on all frequencies until the start of the 1973/74 school year when they were heard only on Radio 4's VHF/FM frequencies. Programming aired on weekdays from 10.00 (9.05 on Thursdays) to 12.00 and from 14.00 to 15.00. In September 1990 they were transferred to BBC Radio 5 and

BBC Radio 3 BBC Radio 3 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It replaced the BBC Third Programme in 1967 and broadcasts classical music and opera, with jazz, world music, drama, culture and the arts also featuring. The sta ...

where they were broadcast in a single slot. On Radio 5 they were broadcast between 09.00 and 10.25. They were repeated during Radio 3's overnight downtime so that they could benefit from FM quality broadcast as Radio 5 was only available on the lower quality MW waveband. The Radio 3 reruns were supplemented by additional programmes and were broadcast between 01.00 and 03.10. In March 1994, Radio 5 was closed down to make way for the rolling news and sports service

Radio 5 Live BBC Radio 5 Live is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that broadcasts mainly news, sport, discussion, interviews and phone-ins. It is the principal BBC radio station Broadcasting of sports events, covering sport in ...

. Consequently, the daytime schools transmissions had to move so they were transferred to Radio 3, airing between 14.00 and 15.00, much to the chagrin of many of that station's listeners. From Autumn 1996, all programmes were broadcast overnight on Radio 3 where they could be pre-recorded. Finally, a few years later, they were switched to the digital version of Radio 4, and this arrangement continued until over the air transmissions finally ended on 28 June 2018. Since 2003, all school radio programmes have been available on the internet. The advent of

podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosin ...

ing has opened up a whole new avenue for the school radio service.

Diversification

TV broadcasting for schools began on 13 May 1957 (this had been hoped to begin in the late 1940s, but financial constraints prevented this). This was first broadcast by

Associated-Rediffusion Associated-Rediffusion, later Rediffusion London, was the British ITV franchise holder for London and parts of the surrounding counties, on weekdays between 22 September 1955 and 29 July 1968. It was the first ITA franchisee to go on air, ...

, not the BBC, though the BBC began schools television four months later. The BBC's television service had begun in 1936, and stopped for the war, to begin again in 1946. Schools television was shown on

BBC1 BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...

until 1983 when it moved to

BBC2 BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream a ...

. No commercial broadcasters have ever produced educational radio programmes for schools.

Anniversary

On 4 April 1984, John Dunn presented a programme entitled ''Faith, Hope and Clarity'', about the sixty years of BBC Schools Radio, on Radio 4. In the same year, from 3 to 5 July, a three-day festival was held at Pebble Mill Studios in Birmingham. It was hosted by Duncan Goodhew,

Sue Lawley Susan Lawley (born 14 July 1946) is a retired English television and radio broadcaster. Her main broadcasting background involved television news and current affairs. From 1988–2006, Lawley was the presenter of '' Desert Island Discs'' on BBC ...

, and

Rolf Harris Rolf Harris (born 30 March 1930) is an Australian entertainer whose career has encompassed work as a musician, singer-songwriter, composer, comedian, actor, painter and television personality. He often used unusual instruments in his performan ...

.

Broadcasting sites

In 1939 the School Broadcasting Department moved to Bristol.

Presenters

Presenters have included - * Sophie Aldred * Sandra Kerr *

Simon Mayor Simon Mayor (born 1953) is an English mandolinist, fiddle player, guitarist, composer and humorist. He is noted for a series of instrumental albums featuring the mandolin, live performances with his partner Hilary James and his groups The Mandol ...

*

Rhoda Power Rhoda Dolores Le Poer Power (29 May 1890 in Altrincham, Cheshire – 9 March 1957 in London), was a pioneer English broadcaster and children's writer. The highly regarded set of stories that make up ''Redcap Runs Away'' (1952) are set in the Mid ...

, sister of the historian Eileen Power, who produced historical output from 1927 until 1957 *

Andy Day Andy Day (born 15 May 1981) is an English actor, comedian, singer, dancer, songwriter and television presenter. He is best known for his work on the BBC's CBeebies channel. He is also a patron of Anti-Bullying Week. He was first on Friendly TV ...

* Cat Sandion *

Gemma Hunt Gemma Hunt (born 1 April 1982) is a British presenter who also used to be on the CBBC TV series '' Xchange''. CBBC Hunt joined the CBBC continuity team in 2002, since then she has presented on the CBBC Channel and also on BBC One and BBC Two. ...

* Ben Faulks * Steven Kynman

Structure

In 2011 School Radio moved from its home on '' Wood Lane'' in London up to the newly built BBC Bridge House at ''

MediaCityUK MediaCityUK is a mixed-use property development on the banks of the Manchester Ship Canal in Salford, Greater Manchester, England. The project was developed by Peel Media; its principal tenants are media organisations and the Quayside Media ...

'', also home to BBC Bitesize, BBC Teach, and BBC Children's (

CBeebies CBeebies is a British free-to-air public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the brand used for all BBC content for children aged 6 years and under. Its sister channel CBBC is aimed at older childr ...

and

CBBC CBBC (initialised as Children's BBC and also known as the CBBC Channel) is a British free-to-air public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the brand used for all BBC content for children aged 7–16 ...

). A small School Radio team is based in Scotland, producing programmes exclusively for Scotland's

Curriculum for Excellence Curriculum for Excellence is the national curriculum for Scottish schools for learners from the ages 3–18. It was developed out of a 2002 consultation exercise – the 'National Debate on Education' – undertaken by the-then Scottish Execu ...

. Broadcasts took place in the middle of the night (starting at 3.00) on Radio 4 Digital from Tuesdays to Thursdays. Programmes could be recorded under the Educational Recording Agency copyright laws, but podcasts are freely available, online and on the BBC iPlayer Radio app. On 28 June 2018 School Radio ended its run on BBC Radio, instead becoming an online streaming and podcast download exclusive service, with content uploaded throughout the year, rather than following strict broadcast schedules.

Content

Content is divided into twelve subjects: * Collective Worship * Curriculum for Excellence (programmes made exclusively for the Scottish curriculum). * Drama * Dance * Early Learning * English * Geography * History * Mathematics * Modern Foreign Languages * Music * PSHE - Citizenship The English section includes a selection of abridgements of classic stories told by celebrity voices, including '' The Wind in the Willows'', read by

Bernard Cribbins Bernard Joseph Cribbins (29 December 1928 – 27 July 2022) was an English actor and singer whose career spanned over seven decades. During the 1960s, Cribbins became known in the UK for his successful novelty records " The Hole in the Groun ...

, and ''The Tales of

Hans Christian Andersen Hans Christian Andersen ( , ; 2 April 1805 – 4 August 1875) was a Danish author. Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogues, novels, and poems, he is best remembered for his literary fairy tales. Andersen's fairy tales, consist ...

'', read by

Anne-Marie Duff Anne-Marie Duff (born 8 October 1970) is an Irish actress and narrator. She is an accomplished theatre actress and has been nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award. She has also received acclaim and awards for her television and film work. After ...

, Sir Derek Jacobi,

David Tennant David John Tennant (''né'' McDonald; born 18 April 1971) is a Scottish actor. He rose to fame for his role as the tenth incarnation of the Doctor (2005–2010 and 2013) in the BBC science-fiction TV show ''Doctor Who'', reprising the rol ...

and

Penelope Wilton Dame Penelope Alice Wilton (born 3 June 1946), styled Penelope, Lady Holm between 1998 and 2001, is an English actress. She is known for starring opposite Richard Briers in the BBC sitcom ''Ever Decreasing Circles'' (1984–1989); playing H ...

, amongst others. Pre-recorded programmes were previously available on CD or DVD from BBC Schools' Broadcast Recordings, but these were eventually phased out in favour of online podcast versions.

Former programmes

* ''In the News'' - produced by Radio News and School Radio in the early 1980s for ages 9 to 12 * ''Wavelength'' - youth culture programme, with content borrowed from

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including electronica, dance ...

in the 1980s * ''Talks to Sixth Forms'' - introduced in 1935, and had distinguished speakers such as G. K. Chesterton, T. S. Eliot and E. M. Forster * ''How Things Began'' - a natural history programme broadcast in 1943 * ''Make Up Your Mind'' - discussion programme for sixth formers

See also

*

BBC Switch BBC Switch was the brand for BBC content aimed at UK teenagers. The brand was launched on Saturday 20 October 2007 on BBC Two and ceased broadcasting on 18 December 2010. It included a block of television programmes on BBC Two, an online portal ...

, BBC output for teenagers from 2007–10 * The Big Toe Radio Show *

Newsround ''Newsround'' (stylised as ''newsround'', and originally called ''John Craven's Newsround'' before his departure in 1989) is a BBC children's news programme, which has run continuously since 4 April 1972. It was one of the world's first tele ...

* Becta – defunct agency created from what was the Council for Educational Technology * BBC Learning

References

External links

*
Podcasts

BBC Active at Pearson Schools

ERA

BBC Learning YouTube channel
{{Coord , 51, 30, 49, N, 0, 13, 44, W, region:GB-HMF, display=title BBC Radio Children's radio stations in the United Kingdom Distance education institutions based in the United Kingdom Education in Salford Educational broadcasting in the United Kingdom Educational organisations based in the United Kingdom Educational podcasts Music education in the United Kingdom Music education organizations Organisations based in Salford Radio stations established in 1924 1924 establishments in the United Kingdom