The contract to produce BBC Education’s long running Live Lessons brand has been won for a second year by youth content specialists The Connected Set.
The 9 x 30 minute series will be simulcast on CBBC, iPlayer and the BBC Teach website. The series was awarded to The Connected Set after a competitive tender process run by BBC Children’s and Education.
The nine interactive long-form live and as-live programmes are designed to support primary school teachers and bring curriculum content to life, delivered throughout autumn and winter 2023/24 to coincide with key events including Anti-Bullying Week, Safer Internet Day and World Book Day.
This time round, BBC Teach is extending the commission from eight to nine 30 minute episodes, adding an episode to coincide with Mental Health Awareness for the first time and including a special link up with Steve Backshall and Deadly Mission Shark for a live show planned to be broadcast on 31st January 2024.
As The Connected Set kicks off production for the second indie-produced series of Live Lessons, the company plans to build on the creative concept of making Live Lessons feel like virtual school trips, by broadcasting from culturally significant locations across the UK, transporting viewers to places that may be out of reach or not possible for many schools, to provide important context to learning. Episode locations already confirmed for this series include The Story Museum in Oxford, The Vindolanda Roman Fort in Northumberland, and the Imperial War Museum North in Salford.
Jake Cassels, Managing Director, The Connected Set, says: “We are thrilled to be entrusted with Live Lessons for a second series. It is such an important resource for primary teachers and pupils across the UK that we are determined to keep true to the values of the series. We’re really excited to be embarking on a new series of what we see as ‘virtual school trips’ to even more cultural gems across the UK.”
The first episode of the new series is the ‘500 Words 2023 – Live Lesson’, due to be broadcast live from The Story Museum in Oxford at 11am on Wednesday 27th September on CBBC and simultaneously streamed on the BBC Teach website. The episode will offer story writing tips from the 500 Words story-writing competition judges, authors Frank Cottrell-Boyce, Charlie Higson and Francesca Simon.
Pippa Considine
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