BBC Television for Schools begins

Image: Boys at a Kent secondary school watch the 'Science Helps the Doctor' series on BBC Schools Television in October 1957.

In these days of interactive whiteboards and on demand viewing it is hard to recall a time when viewing television for schools involved gathering round a massive television set and waiting while the schools’ television clock counted down to the start of the programme. BBC television programmes for schools began at 2.00pm on 24 September 1957 and participating schools changed their timetables to watch it.

The first programme was Living in the Commonwealth – on life in British Columbia. The rest of the first week continued to show the wider world outside the classroom, with Science Helps the Doctor, Spotlight on the Middle East, and Young People at Work.

The limits of the school timetable were no restraint on imaginative programme making. Dramas - such as Dr Faustus, Julius Caesar and Androcles and the Lion - were presented in lesson sized chunks that were broadcast over the weeks and analysed in class, supporting the curriculum in new and inspiring ways.

Other schools series remembered with affection are Watch, Look and Read and People of Many Lands. Ground-breaking sex education and PSHE programmes would follow in later decades.

With the coming of the video recorder it became possible for teachers to record schools programmes to show at a time that suited them. Today, a wealth of diverse BBC programmes for schools is available online at any time, enriching the learning experience for both pupils and teachers.