Why not put school lessons on television?

[spottedelk]

In Brazil, where a lot of families don't have wifi or don't have computers, at least one of the regional governments has set up a new TV channel and is using it to broadcast school lessons. The children have 2 opportunities a day to watch the lessons for their age group. Almost every family has a television set, even in a country which has very high levels of inequality.
I understand that different schools teach differently, that they don't do work in the same order, etc, but for the new school year surely this would solve a lot of problems? They just need to put together a small team of excellent teachers, with some technical support, and they can go a long way to solving the problems that so many of our children are having. My child will be in an exam year next year and will only get 2 days of school a week. So far, she's had no live or videoed teaching, just written homework. This would help her and others in her position so much.

@SoloMummy here is the link schoolsweek.co.uk/calls-to-end-bbcs-lockdown-lessons-will-hit-poor-hardest/

This article www.theguardian.com/education/2020/may/12/like-the-open-university-we-now-need-an-open-school-for-the-whole-country adds to the argument for having a national virtual school.

[quote lorisparkle]@SoloMummy here is the link schoolsweek.co.uk/calls-to-end-bbcs-lockdown-lessons-will-hit-poor-hardest/ [/quote]
Thank you.
I understand their sentiment, but feel that given this has government backing, that they really should persevere and I genuinely hope that they do.
The offering is available to every household with a tv/iplayer. I know there is 4% of households who don't pay for a licence etc, but I don't imagine many of those 4% don't still access the TV and iplayer.... But that's a different argument, as meeting 96% of households would in itself be a great achievement.

The Bitesize Daily is so variable and bitty in what it's covering that it's pretty crap in some areas really. It tries to do too much - and tries to do some things that are really not well suited to the way it's presented.

Things like the KS1 art where the presenter enthusiastically dabs a bit of paint for 20 seconds before getting onto the next segment really don't work well - but things like history where they're raiding the archives work much much better. Their section on how to talk about books is cringe as well - the excerpts from books work well, but the bit after is just dreadful.

I think they tried too much to cover the entire school experience and if they'd stuck to Maths/English/Science and History/Geography really they'd have done much better - since a lot of it is reusing old BBC content with the studio bits essentially as continuity links.

To be honest, if they'd just put some of the older BBC schools content up on the red button it would have been appreciated.

To be honest, if they'd just put some of the older BBC schools content up on the red button it would have been appreciated.

This.

BBC bitesize tries too hard to be cool and fun. The result is its just shit.

The content may not be perfect, but then no online/TV pandemic education provision will be.

For me, its at least aimed at what "should" * be happening. Is a daily 20 minutes educational bonus. On top oak, bitesize online, twinkl and a couple of others I dip into, it's helping me when I'm trying to work and educate a child!

So I personally, wouldn't be knocking it. If you don't like it, then don't watch it. No one's focred

It's better than nothing. But there could be full provision for next term, if the governments put their minds to it.
Just heard that one of the French national radio channels is doing teaching by radio. That would avoid any issues with the licence fee.

I wish they would stop cbbc and stick lessons on all day. My 11yr old might pay attention.
No point in Bitesize for her as she just heads off to YouTube to watch slime vids.

BBc schools is awesome i cant thank them enough, my kids love it (age 5-7 ones). gets them interested in stuff to go and do their own research. Maddie Moate is also awesome for those with you tube. We watch both every day and they are excellent.Also theres just tons online we are incredibly lucky with the stuff out there now.

I’ve found the online bbc Bitesize lessons great but the 20 minute TV show doesn’t really function as a “lesson”.

If your child is in an exam year next year OP that honestly wouldn't help. Different schools sit different exam boards. For example, I teach History at GCSE and we do Edexcel - but I am aware of other schools in our local area who do AQA, some who do WJEC, some who do OCR.

Each of these exam boards requires different topics and differently structured questions/mark scheme. Even in each exam board there are different options. We teach 4 separate studies - and there are options in each one. For eg the thematic study is a choice of three - 1000 years of either medicine, war or crime. It's a whole textbook on the theme your school chooses. Which means that even in those schools sitting History GCSE with Edexcel there is little similarity. There are four choices in the modern depth study - and 8 options for the British and Period depth study.

My maths ability can't cope with this - but you can see that even in one exam board with one subject the options are endless. It's not as simple as watching an hour's History programme a day - it needs to be really specific to your individual school.

We're in Scotland, and there's only one exam board for everyone. I get your point for England though.

Having a proper series of 10 lessons in each of 5 - 7 subjects on TV would be a dream come true!

But the BBC Bitesize provision, while great (for Scottish schools) does seem to be rather random and disjointed. It's difficult to get a sense of progression, when you just dip into a subject for 20 minutes and then move on to something else. It's a bit like those films of flying through space, with the planets appearing, giving a twirl and then disappearing out of sight.

An exception is the Wars of Independence series of clips, which were great for a 7- and 9-year-old. The Vikings ones were good in a different way, with topics like Living, Travelling, Ruling, Believing, etc.

But in general, in most subjects we've dipped into, each clip is about 2 mins or less long, so you can't just tell the children to sit in front of the computer and learn. What the clips are best for, imo, is as triggers for starting a topic (especially if you already know something about it and can explain it to the child), or for livening things up.

BBC Bitesize is cr*p though...

@TooGood2BeTrue Do you mean the TV programme? I haven't watched that.

RidingOn Yes, the TV one. Prefer Oak Academy and BBC Teach...

We like bbc bitesize here, dc in years 5 and 8. Younger dc will happily watch older dc stuff too. We don't watch every day but its nice to dip into. There is loads of other stuff available but not all in one place.

Thanks Pineapple I will look those up x

Riding - proper lessons are on Oak National Academy. Several hours a day, teacher talking, exercises etc

I am going to say now, I don't have a red button and the only way for me to access bitesize is through the internet, which I am lucky to have, but given what is going on our world, is going to have to be the next thing to be cut.

We both have prepay phones which we stopped topping up when my partner lost his job.

So, no its perfectly possible to have a TV and no internet and not be able to access bitesize

I wonder how many 70s and 80s school programmes are watchable now? They might need remastering for modern tv resolutions but I still remember stuff like magic pencil

Do they make you enter a special licence number to access the BBC websites? How do they prevent people who don’t pay the licence fee using a TV or iPlayer? When I last lived permanently in the UK, they just asked if you had one and people just lied? And it was a civil offence at the time? Maybe that could be waived given the pandemic so people aren’t worried about getting fined.

I had exactly the same thought. What is there now is ok but I found as RidingOn described. If the core subjects could be covered more thoroughly and progressively in a more engaging way (as the Live Lessons are, for example 500 Words) it would fill a need as well as being more accessible with less dangers as associated with online lessons. It’s not going to be a perfect solution but a helpful option to supplement. Or at least a good back up in case we are dealing with another wave around the usual flu season in the autumn term.

It could take pressure off teachers too couldn’t it?

The links to Power Points and worksheets and the odd video that we have received aren’t very engaging. My kids love ‘live lessons’ provided throughout the year, I expected Bitesize to be more like that.

Lelivre have you looked at the Oak Academy lessons online?

@PickUpAPickUpAPenguin

I wonder how many 70s and 80s school programmes are watchable now? They might need remastering for modern tv resolutions but I still remember stuff like magic pencil

Programmes that were on only 10 years or so ago would still work very well. No need for everything to be new. I realise that the NC has changed slightly since then, but it's better than nothing. And facts don't change. Programmes like Look and Read and Pod's Missions are great.