Ever wondered how  works behind the scenes? Â鶹ԼÅÄ Studioworks provides full studio and post production services for the annual live fundraising extravaganza and facilitates multiple pre-recorded specials: find out more in this blog, first published on the .

Â鶹ԼÅÄ Studioworks is providing studio facilities and full post production services from Elstree for the annual Â鶹ԼÅÄ Children in Need Appeal Show for the fifth consecutive year.

The annual charity fundraiser will transmit live from Studioworks’ 11,800 square foot Studio D today, Friday 17 November, in front of a studio audience of 500. Taking up presenting duties, Tess Daly, Graham Norton, Mel Giedroyc, Ade Adepitan and Rochelle and Marvin Humes will guide viewers through a night of dazzling entertainment and aim to raise millions of pounds for grants and projects in the UK which focus on disadvantaged children.

The night will feature an array of stars and show-stopping performances, including Katie Melua, The Vamps, Rita Ora and Craig Revel Horwood as Miss Hannigan from the West End musical Annie.

Setting the studio

Set assembly in Studio D began on Friday 10 November, as the colossal all-singing-all-dancing stage required 60 hours of building and technical rigging from Studioworks’ crew (watch a time-lapse film of the set up above). Controlled by six lighting desks, more than 170 pieces of lighting equipment have been fitted to illuminate the set and a ten camera set-up has been configured to capture all the action, including Sony 2500 and 1500 cameras, a Technocrane, a jib and hand-held cameras.

Studio D’s Sound Gallery will be the backbone of the Appeal Show’s audio set-up, with a Riedel intercoms system allowing for seamless backstage communication between the crew and a Studer mixing console will capture contributions from both presenter’s and guest’s microphones.

Pudsey Glitter Ball Trophy, EastEnders and the return of Anne Robinson

In addition to the live action in Studio D, a number of one-off specials of popular programmes will be screened. Studioworks’ George Lucas Stage 2 at Elstree was utilised for a Strictly Come Dancing special. Recorded in early November, six legendary Blue Peter presenters from the past 60 years entered the glitz and glamour of the ballroom in a bid to win the Pudsey Glitter Ball Trophy.

Studioworks also facilitated a special celebrity edition of the Weakest Link in Stage 8 at Elstree with seven brave celebrities facing the wrath of Anne Robinson in a bid to win £15,000 for the children’s charity.

EastEnders’ yearly contribution to the Appeal Show has also been pre-recorded by Studioworks. The cast have performed a selection of the most famous songs and dances from the classic musical Oliver!.

Perfecting the Post

On the night of the Appeal Show live feeds from multiple UK locations featuring fundraising and regional stories will be managed in the multiplexer, a bespoke build in Studioworks’ Elstree Post Production Village, that will intercut with performances from the studio. EVS XT3 servers will record this content onto a new Avid Nexis system. All Fundraising, Thank You and Appeal Film VT content will be played into the studio from the Multiplexer during transmission. Highlights montages will also be cut for inclusion into the live programme.

However, not all the post production action takes place on the night of the Appeal Show. Activities began in late October and will run up to the live show, as Studioworks’ Avid Symphony suites cut material for multiple live show features, with Avid Pro Tools used for dubbing and voiceovers. This includes the Strictly Come Dancing special, as well as EastEnders’ performance of Oliver!.

Once the live show ends, Studioworks will continue editing into the night with the turnaround of a 75-minute highlights programme for delivery and broadcast on Â鶹ԼÅÄ One on Sunday 19 November.

• Read also 

The Â鶹ԼÅÄ has a long and proud history of supporting charities. In fact, was for the Winter Distress League, a charity representing homeless veterans of the First World War. Back in 1923 this appeal - the idea of Lord Reith the first Director General - raised £26 6s 6d.

In 2014 people have continued to dig deep to support our charities – as well as donating generously to two Disaster Emergency Committee (DEC) appeals for Gaza and Ebola, which the Â鶹ԼÅÄ has aired with other broadcasters. It’s heartening that while people have given more than ever on the night of broadcast for Â鶹ԼÅÄ appeals, they’ve also generously supported these relief efforts.

In March, came from the Olympic Park in East London and raised a record £71.8m for causes around the world and here in the UK. This money is helping children like Raymond from Ghana - who has to crawl through dark tunnels while working in a gold mine – to go to school. During the festive season I’m pleased to know that Â鶹ԼÅÄ audiences are helping children like Raymond get an education - something that we so often take for granted in the UK.

In November, also raised a record breaking on the night total of £32.6m. Lots of the money raised for our major appeals comes from the activity around them - such as the on the One Show - and all the sponsored activity you take part in. We never cease to be amazed by the creativity, love and hard work that goes in to this at schools, colleges and workplaces across the UK.

And let’s not forget our local radio appeals which many of you donate to as well, raising a total of £660,000. They’ve made a real difference to communities up and down the country.

In October Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio Suffolk closed the books on their year-long appeal with Suffolk Family Carers with listeners helping to buy a mobile family carers vehicle and pay the running costs for two years.

Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio York raised a staggering £240,000 to buy a ‘Good Night’s Sleep’ for North Yorkshire families caring for children with life limiting illnesses – doubling the original target.

Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio Cumbria is in a partnership with Jigsaw, Cumbria’s Children’s Hospice until the end of January, raising £110,000 two months ahead of schedule. This extra money will go to funding respite care visits.

Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio Cambridge has helped towards the redevelopment of Thorpe Hall, a Sue Ryder Hospice. Meanwhile in December, Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio Cornwall distributed over £50,000 to 20 local charities in small grants from its charity fund.

But it doesn’t end there. We’ve been able to help another 32 people with a share of £320,000 from our fund to support, promote and encourage the performing arts across the UK. From choreographers, producers and writers, to a circus performer, a poet and a lighting designer, the recipients of this year’s grants from the Â鶹ԼÅÄ Performing Arts Fund are as diverse as the places they come from with two-thirds working outside London. The money is raised from voting lines on Â鶹ԼÅÄ One entertainment programme like The Voice.

Then there’s the monthly and the weekly which have supported the work of 60 smaller charities and has enlisted the support of presenters including Jack Osbourne and Michael Palin. And just this month the , now in its 88th year, raised £1m in its first week.

The money raised for that first Â鶹ԼÅÄ charity appeal in 1923 was about £1,025 in today’s money. The £107 million we have received so far this year shows we’ve come a long way since then - and it’s all thanks to the enduring support of you, the Â鶹ԼÅÄ audience.

Sally Flatman is Â鶹ԼÅÄ Charity Appeals Adviser.

• For more information on how to apply for an appeal visit the .
• Keep up to date with .

When I became Director of Music in March, I wanted to launch , the Â鶹ԼÅÄ’s strongest commitment to music in 30 years, on a grand scale with a film and song that audiences would enjoy for years to come. And I’m proud to say I think we’ve done just that.

The launch of God Only Knows marks a significant moment for the Â鶹ԼÅÄ â€“ an extraordinary performance featuring 27 of the most iconic and acclaimed music artists in the world, brought together by the Â鶹ԼÅÄ to form ‘The Impossible Orchestra’.

This evening at 8pm, the Â鶹ԼÅÄ came together for the very first time to celebrate music, and the role we play in bringing music to UK audiences every day. From Â鶹ԼÅÄ Two to Â鶹ԼÅÄ Asian Network, Â鶹ԼÅÄ World News to Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio Cumbria, all of the Â鶹ԼÅÄ’s outlets joined forces in the very first pan-channel broadcast.

It is also the launch of a new brand which will support and champion the best music and musicians across the Â鶹ԼÅÄ, bringing the very best music to audiences across Radio, Television, and Online.Ìý

God Only Knows showcases the power and potential of music – a modern masterpiece which inspired musicians and music fans nearly 50 years ago, but which continues to inspire today with its timeless beauty and quality.

If you look closely, it’s all here - a celebration of the rich musical diversity that we share with audiences every day – from the stunning talent of Â鶹ԼÅÄ Young Musician Martin James Bartlett to Â鶹ԼÅÄ Introducing’s Florence Welch, and globally recognised UK artists such as Brian May and Sir Elton John, as well as the latest wave of global British talent in One Direction and Sam Smith. It also features some of the Â鶹ԼÅÄ’s most recognised voices in music, including Jamie Cullum, Katie Derham, Jools Holland, Lauren Laverne, Zane Lowe and Gareth Malone, whose knowledge and passion for music fuels some of our finest programming. What's more, the recording will be sold to raise funds for , which makes this project even more worthwhile.Ìý

The performance, which has been so brilliantly led by music producer Ethan Johns and performed by the Â鶹ԼÅÄ Concert Orchestra, is a nod to the Â鶹ԼÅÄ’s musical heritage of over 90 years. The generosity of the commercial artists involved in the project was admirable as they all performed free of charge.ÌýÌý For Stevie Wonder to ask ‘would you like me to play the harmonica?’ after he had recorded his vocal contribution left everyone in the studio stunned – and of course we said yes, as you can hear on the track.

Music is hugely important to the Â鶹ԼÅÄ, and the Â鶹ԼÅÄ is a key supporter of the UK music industry. We take this responsibility seriously, and this is why we’ve gone further than ever before and have created a film that will hopefully be watched and enjoyed for many years to come.

This week marked the launch of , which will introduce classical music to a new generation of children. We will not do this alone, and will work with more than 200 partners across the UK – we are adopting a similar partnership approach with , working with the National Skills Academies and PRS for Music Foundation to widen access to the music industry, and offer some unrivalled opportunities to emerging artists.

On 11 December we will hold the first , a celebration of British music, and music on the Â鶹ԼÅÄ and we’ll be announcing more details about the Awards in the next few weeks. This programme marks the return of landmark music content on Â鶹ԼÅÄ One, standing alongside our regular and high quality programmes on Â鶹ԼÅÄ Four.

This is in addition to our existing commitment to music on the Â鶹ԼÅÄ, over 41,000 hours of content a year across Television, Radio and Online, spanning all genres, showcasing the best emerging UK talent across more than 15 new talent schemes. Â鶹ԼÅÄ Music will bring audiences some of the finest and most popular national events across popular and classical music.

A special moment. The start of a very special musical journey for the Â鶹ԼÅÄ I hope you will join.

Bob Shennan is Director, MusicÌý

• Find out more about Â鶹ԼÅÄ Music and on the .Ìý
• Follow on Twitter and on ; the hashtag is #LoveÂ鶹ԼÅÄMusic
• See how 'God Only Knows' was made on the .Ìý

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My name is Paul Wright and I’m the Executive Producer for this year’s programme, broadcast live on Â鶹ԼÅÄ One on Friday. I’ve been asked to blog about what’s been involved in putting together this year’s live charity fundraising TV show.

First, a little about me. I joined the Â鶹ԼÅÄ in 1998, working first in the newsroom on the sports news for News 24 (when it was still called News 24), progressing to Â鶹ԼÅÄ Sport working mainly on Match of the Day and a bit of Grandstand, the Athens Olympics and the European Football Championships for the next seven years or so. ÌýFor the past seven years I’ve worked in entertainment production, on documentaries like Comedy Map of Britain, entertainment shows likeÌýStrictly plus a load of behind-the-scenes documentaries for Â鶹ԼÅÄ Three too, like EastEnders Revealed.

My charity show experience started with Sport Relief a few years ago. I’ve been a Series Producer on Children in Need two years running, and now this year, I’m the Executive Producer.

By show night on the 15^th November we will have about 250 people working on Children in Need, including our production team, the crew, the charity staff, press, marketing and digital staff.

It’s a massive machine that makes seven and a half hours of live television. It’s something exciting to be involved in. Children in Need is seven hours of television to make. When we stare at the blank piece of paper back at the beginning of production, it can sometimes seem a bit daunting.

Like all big productions, Children in Need grows from small beginnings. Back in April of this year myself and a development assistant producer began exploring ideas in earnest for about eight weeks, trying and planning what we could do, working out what opportunities were coming up, which celebrities might be around, and Ìýbeginning to think in earnest what the show could be.

There are of course tried and tested ways of approaching it: we know we will go to the Nations and Regions for a certain number of times in the night; we know we will need about 12 appeal films; we know that we need to make a certain amount of ‘thank you films’. We work out how many music performances we need, how many entertainment items we’ll need on ‘tape’, and then how many studio items we need. The hardest job of all, I think, is getting the mix right, in such a way that it appeals to everyone in the audience from children to grannies, to mums and dads.

At the end of those eight weeks we don’t have a finished show so much, but we do basically have a plan, meaning we can put a lot of the early calls in to presenters, and get a lot of the booking done quite early.

Even after that initial eight week period, we still only have a small team working on production for the end show. A total of six producers work on Children in Need between June and November: me, a series producer and four other producers, supported by a small production team. That’s it.

Recruiting those producers is tough, because they need a wide range of attributes. For example, the person looking after the live Call The Midwife performance in the show, is the same person who’s looking after the pre-recorded Harry Hill sketch and the Catherine Tate sketch (pictured). So they need to be producers who can work with a wide variety of performers, but also need to understand how to produce and direct pre-recorded material and know how to work in a live studio environment. They might be working on sketches or highly choreographed dance numbers. Such a broad skill-set calls for great knowledge, and considerable amounts of experience and flexibility. It makes the role a unique job.

Like , our big challenge this year has been that Children in Need isn’t at Television Centre. That’s a huge change because the show has been at Television Centre for 32 years.

At Television Centre there was sense of a familiarity: we’ve known from experience for example that at TVC we require 54 dressing rooms and that we can turn them around three times during the broadcast, giving us capacity for 150 dressing rooms throughout the night. Elstree has nine dressing rooms. So we are building a campervan village at Elstree, shipping in campervans for the night, parking them up in the old Grange Hill car park, and constructing a cover over all of them. Essentially, we’re building one big dressing room village to house everyone coming to perform for the nation.

Collaboration has been the only way we can rise to these kinds of challenges. For this one night we’ve worked with people from Â鶹ԼÅÄ Resources, Â鶹ԼÅÄ Studios and Post Production, the Â鶹ԼÅÄ Academy, and Â鶹ԼÅÄ Ellstree site management. Children in Need is no small undertaking.

The great thing about Elstree this year is that there’s a fantastic 'playground' there for us. The EastEnders set and Albert Square is a great backdrop. EastEnders have always traditionally given us something for Children in Need, often it’s a song and dance routine, last year it was a comedy piece with Lord Sugar in the Square. What might they think about us using the square this year? Eastenders exec Dominic Treadwell-Collins and company manager Carolyn Weinstein have been totally supportive about the possibility of using the location.

So, on Friday you’re going to see JLS perform in Albert Square. You’ll also see the cast of EastEnders dance live.ÌýIt’s never been done live before, so that’s required a whole separate outside broadcast team to go into Albert Square. Our ambitions have really ramped up this year. Ìý

We’ve also collaborated with the One Show who have very generously let us have the finale of their Children in Need Rickshaw challenge so it will finish in Albert Square. That will be a fantastic moment, one I’m really looking forward to.

Children in Need and other charity telethons rely on the goodwill and collaboration of everyone on the programme. We rely on a great many other people across the Â鶹ԼÅÄ who want to participate in Children in Need in order to make the show a success.

They do it for one reason only, they do it because it’s the Â鶹ԼÅÄ’s charity. That’s what they tell us. ÌýWe are incredibly grateful for their generosity and enthusiasm.

You can find full details of the incredible line-up for the night on the , but let me use this opportunity to give you some of the highlights.

Harry Hill (above) parodying Aha’s iconic pop video Take On Me – I don’t want to give the game away particularly, but it involves Harry chasing a large sausage.

Catherine Tate’s sketch show favourite Nan will be back and will be laid up at Holby City where she will be the worst patient in the world. Frank Skinner has opened the doors to Room 101 specifically for children, giving three of them the opportunity to vent their pet peeves.

Ellie Goulding is performing the Children in Need single this year, How Long Will I Love You, One Direction will be performing in our studio, Doctor Who have given us a scene from the 50thÌýAnniversary episode. The stars of Call The Midwife will be performing in the studio and Matilda the Musical are coming in and they’re going to perform a medley.

The Strictly team have been brilliant, giving us an hour of their rehearsal time to record a special Strictly Come Dancing for Children in Need with Torvill and Dean: can the legends of ice-dancing pull off the same trick on the dance floor of the ballroom?

There’s a number of things to measure our success. The money raised on the night is massively significant, we want to raise as much as we possibly can. It’s with that in mind that probably, one of the best things about this job is the 12 appeal films you see during the show – which we make. When you see the appeal films it’s almost like a short-cut to make you realise why you are doing this job. I challenge anybody not to be moved by those appeal videos. That’s ultimately why we are doing it.Ìý If the money we raise helps the people who need it – the disadvantaged children in the UK who we see in the appeal films, that’s a real success.

For me this is about putting on the best show we can, and if we break the record, amazing. But, the bottom line we’re working to raise as much money as we possibly can. I really hope you enjoy the show on Friday night.

Paul Wright is Executive Producer, Â鶹ԼÅÄ Children in Need

• is on Friday 16 November 2013 on Â鶹ԼÅÄ One from 7.30pm.Ìý
• On Thursday 15 November 2013 at 8pm, Â鶹ԼÅÄ One broadcasts , a special line-up of musical performances from the Hammersmith Apollo.Ìý
• Last week we blogged about .Ìý
• Read more about what the of and some of the Â鶹ԼÅÄ's other .Ìý

Amid the low-key hubbub and reassuring drone of a waiting Eurostar, sharply-dressed professionals, and tourists with modest suitcases packed for a mid-week city break, stroll elegantly around St Pancras International station in London.

Some have their attention diverted by nine immaculately turned out stuffed bears sitting proudly in perspex boxes. In the brief time I've been here I've counted at least six bemused people pause and stare, before retrieving smartphones from their pockets to take some pictures of a much-loved bear.Ìý

The bears are all Pudseys with distinctive customised outfits designed by different celebrities. ( is available on the Children in Need website.) On the way here this morning - the first day the bears are exhibited for a special Children in Need auction - I've had to put to one side my pre-conceptions about how there can only be one bear: the yellow one with the multi-coloured patch over his eye. That one is a real bear - these others guys and gals are just imposters.

It doesn't take much before I change my mind. My inner-child isn't far below the surface. The same, I reckoned can be said for the small crowd of people gathering around the six exhibits in the concourse. Smiles spread across everybody's faces.

These aren't just your bog standard Pudseys (and even he's adorable), these ones are your upper class ones dressed in a full range of stylish, iconic garb including the obligatory Sergeant Pepper costume (Paul McCartney), strips of Coldplay's outfit from Viva La Vida (Chris Martin) and a Chanel-esque jacket (Joanna Lumley).

Whilst technically us staffers are not supposed to have an opinion nor show favouritism, I figure it's acceptable on this occasion to confess that although Brian May's Pudsey with his telescope prop and saucy Tam O'Shanter is terribly cute in his near-pomposity, that Helen Mirren's Pudsey in a bikini is quirky and Shirley Bassey's sequinned design is an eye-catcher, it is Joanna Lumley's sassy depiction that conjurs up so many happy memories of Absolutely Fabulous as to make hers the Pudsey I'd plump for.

Jon Jacob is Editor, About the Â鶹ԼÅÄ Blog and website.

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• The celebrity makeover Pudseys are on display at St Pancras station. More information including close up pictures of all the bears up for auction can be found on the .

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When people find out that I work for the first question they ask is, "What do you do for the rest of year?"

The truth is that the Charity is here all year round making sure that the money raised is going to projects that are making a real difference to the lives of children and young people across the UK.

At any one time we have over two thousand live projects. They are typically run by small charities and voluntary groups and may be dealing with issues including poverty, deprivation, abuse, neglect, illness and the challenges faced by disabled children and young people.

We can only support more projects if we raise more money, so from early in the year, we begin planning the campaign which culminates in November, and this year .

Our theme is "!", which we hope will give people the cue to get stuck into fundraising. What people here in the Â鶹ԼÅÄ will have seen over recent weeks, is everywhere and everything getting spottier by the day! We think a theme gives fresh impetus each year and more opportunity for people to use their imagination.

This Friday's Appeal show looks set to be a really special evening. The Executive Producer Elaine Paterson has put together an incredible line-up, with music from the likes of , , , and , along with some great entertainment including a and East Street where meet . There are also some amazing events across the UK, with big concerts in Belfast, Glasgow and a Pudsey take-over at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.

One of the most important parts of the evening for us is the opportunity to introduce some amazing young people to a wide audience and to show how the money that the public raises can help them to deal with the challenges in their lives.

This Friday the stories we tell will include amongst others that of 11 year old Nasreen, an amazing young lady who has a muscle weakness disease and who is totally dependent upon her family for daily activities. Nasreen attends Demelza Hospice, funded by Â鶹ԼÅÄ Children in Need, for respite care where she and her family get invaluable practical and emotional support.

This is also the week when I get constantly asked if we will beat last year's total. raised over £20.3 million on the night and a final figure of over £39 million by the end of the year.

At the moment we really don't know how things will go. We have heard about lots of fundraising that is going on and we have seen Pudsey stuff flying out of the shops, but the critical thing will be just how many people call on the night.

I also spend a lot of time at the moment encouraging people to fundraise and you should go to to find out how simple it is!

We know that times are tough and this means that children and young people are particularly vulnerable and really do need our help.

This will be a long week, but I know by Saturday morning, people across the Â鶹ԼÅÄ and across the UK will have come together and raised millions of pounds that will help to change lots of young lives.

David Ramsden is Chief Executive of Children in Need

To find out how you can get involed, head over to the brilliant , where you can , add and .

• is launched.
• Chidren in Need says
• How Big is Pudsey?: .

It can sometimes feel like an anxious time when annual reports are looming - the trenches of stats and information, probing questions from verifiers! Essentially though, I think external reporting is a thoroughly useful process - both for ensuring we keep our house in order and also for being more open with our audiences. Reporting creates a useful (and public) milestone and a chance to reflect on the year's achievements - which are by no means small.

For me, one of the highlights of the year has been seeing the strength of the - in spite of the current economic climate. Audiences have been incredibly generous. Both and exceeded their previous fundraising totals, raising £39m and over £40m respectively - a fantastic achievement that will benefit people across the UK and abroad.

I've also been incredibly proud of the support Â鶹ԼÅÄ staff have given to outreach initiatives that
extend beyond their day jobs. is just one example. It's a project that engages 11-14 year olds with Â鶹ԼÅÄ News - and one of the ways it achieves that is by drawing on the expertise of Â鶹ԼÅÄ journalists.

Staff provide mentoring support and help guide teachers, often including a visit to their matched school. In March, over 25,000 students from over 700 UK-wide schools took part in annual News Day by publishing their own reports, on news that matters to them. It's a fantastic moment in the Â鶹ԼÅÄ calendar and creates a truly unique opportunity for our young audiences to have their voices heard across Â鶹ԼÅÄ News.

Several of my team have been School Report mentors and they've got a great deal out of it. It's amazing how talking to young people about what you do can reconfirm the reasons you do it - not to mention developing communication skills - it's no small feat to hold the attention of a room full of 13 year olds!

Staff also get involved by volunteering with charity partners through the Â鶹ԼÅÄ Connect & Create scheme. Last year, an impressive 694 colleagues took part and I also continued providing mentoring support for the charity . Ten new national charity partners have now been selected and real effort has gone into ensuring these represent the diversity of our audiences - so staff can develop their understanding at the same time as developing specific skills. I look forward to seeing how these relationships grow over the year ahead.

Reporting on the Â鶹ԼÅÄ's environmental performance was another key focus for this year's Corporate Responsibility Report. We have continued to make progress towards reaching the targets set in the 2008 Environmental Action Plan and we're delighted to be on-track with this challenging task.

One of the most significant developments is that the team have been working hard to extend our environmental initiatives - to include how we make our programmes, as well as the way we run our business. As a result, later this year we'll launch "Albert" - a carbon calculator to help production teams assess and measure carbon emissions. I'm told the name has no particular significance - and can confirm that it's not the name of the project lead either (he's called Richard in case you wondered).

Â鶹ԼÅÄ Environment Action Plan targets for year end 2012/13:

While the year ahead will present challenges, we remain committed to corporate responsibility and are delighted to have retained Platinum status in - a benchmark for evaluating our impacts in society and on the environment.

I look forward to the year ahead and in particular we plan to focus on the community impacts of opening a new Â鶹ԼÅÄ site in Salford in 2010. We're already developing relationships with people on the ground and I'm optimistic that we can make contact with significant sections of the community in advance of the building even opening. Already we have met over 3000 local young people, through projects including media training and backstage tours for schools.

Alec McGivan is the Head of Â鶹ԼÅÄ Outreach

• Read the full

• Listen to highlights of the and find out what happened in schools around the UK and overseas, as students turned their classrooms into newsrooms
  
• Find out from students at schools who have been preparing for a big News Day.
  

It's remarkable to think that the Â鶹ԼÅÄ launched its first broadcast appeal for children in 1927 through a five-minute radio programme on Christmas Day. It raised £1,143 18s 3d and the proceeds were shared with four prominent children's charities. In 1980 the appeal was broadcast on Â鶹ԼÅÄ One in a new telethon format, hosted by Sir Terry with Sue Lawley and Esther Rantzen. We have come a long way in 30 years and raised a lot of cash.

The show has evolved to become one of the highlights of Â鶹ԼÅÄ One's entertainment calendar and last year saw audience figures peak at 12.5 million, with the great and the good of the worlds of showbiz and entertainment appearing to help raise the roof for Pudsey. So a big thanks to everyone who has helped in any way to raise money for the charity - we really do appreciate it, as do the children's charities who benefit from the grants we give.

Pudsey has also changed through the years from the very sad-looking brown bear with the red and white spotty eyepatch who graced our screens back in 1980, to the fresh-faced bear of today that we know and love, his last makeover happening in 2007. The first teddy bear Pudsey still exists in the , having been usurped by the sunny yellow bear who graces T-shirts and much more up and down the country.

I think the great thing about Â鶹ԼÅÄ Children in Need is that it is the people's charity. It is the fundraisers and supporters who take the initiative and create events across the UK in order to help us raise funds for disadvantaged children. We hear some great stories of what the nation is up to - the imagination of the UK knows no bounds! From a marathon space-hopper race and walking from Spain to Cornwall, to a spotty hug-a-thon and a sponsored ghost hunt, it can be quite overwhelming when you hear the lengths people go to for us.

It's important for us to empower our fundraisers and make sure they enjoy . In some ways it's their charity, not ours - we are just looking after it, making sure it's still a great entertainment-based charity for the next generation to enjoy. Lots of our fundraisers are kids, growing up with the simple message about children in the UK helping other children. It's quite humbling really.

You can see some of the children the charity has helped thanks to the generosity of the great British public on . We work hard with our grantees to locate and showcase a range of the great stories behind the projects we fund on the telethon. This is really important as it shows how the money that people work incredibly hard to raise and donate is helping to make a real difference to young lives, while also encouraging further engagement with us.

This week also marks the second of our four annual grant rounds. It means that to date we have given out nearly half of our total pot to help disadvantaged children all across the UK.

Last week I went to a project called based in Glasgow. They provide services to help children who have a range of profound sensory disabilities. Sense Scotland received a Â鶹ԼÅÄ Children in Need grant of £333,000 a few years ago to build a children's wing, and since then they have been able to secure millions of additional funding to extend their facilities in order to help more people.

It is really rewarding to be able to see that the money works hard for years after it is first awarded and to speak to the people our funding is helping.

We are also pleased to have been highlighted as a focus in the where we were identified as one of the events that bring communities and the nation together. Â鶹ԼÅÄ Children in Need is very much a national occasion with real local relevance and can create real community cohesion across the UK.

Gilda Witte is Director of Marketing and Fundraising, Â鶹ԼÅÄ Children in Need

"Pudsey's bigger every year, is that right?" I'm travelling home on the Manchester train the morning after a long fundraising night. Keiron, 10, sits opposite me and offers his views on and the latest fundraising telethon. He hadn't been allowed to stay up late to watch the show but he knew all about the money raised and which celebrities had appeared and he definitely wanted to buy the Peter Kay official Children in Need DVD. He's one of thousands of people across the country who this weekend raised money for Children in Need.

In fact, the total money raised for the studio night wasn't bigger than the previous year's. Just after 2 o'clock on Friday morning, it was confirmed that a fantastic £20,309,747 had been raised. The total was slightly down on last year, but very impressive in the current climate. The audience had been the highest since 2003.

There's an assumption that every year the Â鶹ԼÅÄ's charity appeals will make more and more money. But the reality is that each year Children in Need starts with nothing and it takes hard work and innovation from both the charity and the Â鶹ԼÅÄ to raise the money. In the run-up to the broadcast appeal this year there'd been intense speculation inside and outside the Â鶹ԼÅÄ, and especially amongst other charities, about how the night would go. At a time of deep recession, would the public still dig deep into their pockets?

In all the speculation about the amount raised, it's easy to forget that raising money is only part of the picture - making people aware of the problems and issues facing children across the UK and actually spending the money to change their lives for the better is the other crucial part.

Charities have been affected in different ways by the recession. For some, the need for their services has never been greater. Others, those with a large proportion of statutory funding, may be less affected. Charities which derive much of their income from interest on investments feel the impact of the recession keenly. But charities like and , which get nearly all their money from public donations, want to know if, when times are hard, people will still donate.

One of the reasons people donate to Â鶹ԼÅÄ appeals is that audiences trust the Â鶹ԼÅÄ to check out the charities it broadcasts appeals for. The charities we support should be well run, sustainable, have real impact and the money raised must go where the Â鶹ԼÅÄ said it would. My role as the is to make sure this happens.

The Â鶹ԼÅÄ can't make people donate to charity, nor should it, but it does provide opportunities to donate. One of the recent new opportunities is texting. Earlier this year there was a breakthrough when text service providers agreed to set up special charity numbers - the 7 codes and tariffs. This breakthrough meant that a healthy £1.5m plus Gift Aid was raised during Thursday night's Albert Hall rock concert.

So now all of us - programme-makers, fundraisers, donors great and small, and children's projects across the UK - wait for Children in Need's grand total. We won't know this until March. Can the Â鶹ԼÅÄ and its audience - an audience which each year raises up to £100m for charity - beat last year's Children in Need total of over £37m? I'll stick my neck out and say I believe we can come very close. Over and over again I'm humbled by the generosity of our audience.

At any given time, a wide variety of appeals are being planned or broadcast. For example, the Â鶹ԼÅÄ's newest charity, the , is working on a Â鶹ԼÅÄ Two appeal which will go out early in the summer next year and will look and feel very different from Children in Need and Comic Relief. At they're searching for a charity partner for an appeal which will involve and inspire their audience for the whole of 2010. And is running the Send a Smile Appeal, encouraging its young audience to make T-shirts into medical gowns, to support cleft repair operations for children in India. I'll let you know how they get on.