Schools broadcasting continues to borrow from mainstream television, importing high-profile presenters and using game shows, sitcoms and other familiar genres to educative ends. Primary school maths, for example, has discovered the game show, and adapted it for Megamaths (BBC2, from January 7), Maths Mansion 2 (Channel 4) and Maths Challenge (BBC2, both from January 9). Star Maths 4 (Channel 4, from January 10) is the exception here: no game show, but lots of animation and graphics coming to the aid of solving various mathematical problems.
Time travel is not only for sci-fi; it provides an obvious device for making history fun. So we join a group of 21st-century children as they go back into the past to experience the daily life of their counterparts in Tudor England ( How We Used to Live , Channel 4, from January 10).
Then, on Channel 4 from January 11, there is an imaginative drama about James VI (or James I for those south of the border), King Jamie and the Angel . And, at the end of this month, Tony Robinson is the obvious choice to front a series called Local History Search (Channel 4). It sounds like a cross between Time Team and Antiques Roadshow : members of the public bring in documents and artefacts which illuminate the history of their locality.
In March, How We Used to Live (Channel 4) goes back to Ancient Egypt, and Landmarks (BBC2) recalls the often harsh life of Victorian children. No game shows at school for them. Also for primary school pupils, Book Box (Channel 4, from January 11) continues its series on children’s writers, explaining what’s so good about Jacqueline Wilson, J K Rowling and Jamila Gavin.
In February, Geography Junction (Channel 4) heads for Pakistan, and from January 28 there are sparkling new Animated Tales of the World (Channel 4) from Australia, Burkina Faso, Denmark and other far-flung places.
There is a lot of new work for secondary schools in PSHE, including a football drama, Offside (BBC2, from January 22), which tackles multiculturalism in the context of a group of players with different backgrounds. We Are From (Channel 4, from January 10) listens to children in various European countries talking about how they live.
Children are not forgotten, as viewers or viewed. Stig of the Dump (BBC1, from January 6) and The Story of Tracy Beaker (BBC1, from January 8) should help to ease them into the new term. But if they can’t stop watching television, they may end up as subjects for BBC1‘s new series on Childhood Obesity. It reveals a serious problem, which we are not tackling effectively.nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;
- Picture: Stig of the Dump on BBC1
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