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�鶹Լ�� Bitesize is 20

2018-09-04T09:00:00+00:00

Bitesize didn’t exist when I was doing my GCSEs. My generation had to rely on a tall stack of textbooks covered with the scrawls of pupils who’d gone before. When it came to revision, you were very much at the mercy of your own handwritten notes stored chaotically (in my case) in hefty lever arch files. Bitesize changed all of that. Back when the world wide web was still very much in its infancy, it launched - initially as an TV programme then as a website; with the sole aim of making it much easier for young people to learn and revise.

Fast forward 20 years and Bitesize has gone from strength to strength, helping to educate generations of children across all four nations. Those first young people who used Bitesize to help them with their studies in 1998 are now well into their careers and it’s their children who are now our core audience. Around 80% of secondary school students and 40% of primary school students use it, making Bitesize the most popular dedicated educational site in the UK. Almost 100,000 students each year say that they wouldn’t have passed a subject if it wasn’t for Bitesize. And for everyone on the team, it is always incredibly rewarding to see the flow of ‘Bitesize saved my life’ tweets – particularly around exam season.

We’re hugely proud of all that’s been achieved over the past two decades but we’re very much focused on the future. This month sees the first iteration of a transformed Bitesize. We’re introducing a new look and improvements to the way the audience can find and use the content. For the first time, all students will be able to sign in, whatever their age, allowing us to start to build personalised learning journeys to help maximise attainment. Over the coming months, we’ll also be expanding our content provision – going beyond the curriculum for the first time to support young people with key life moments: preparing for the first day of school, coping with exam stress, choosing what options to go for and providing career inspiration and advice.

We want to make Bitesize work harder for our audience and do whatever we can to support them with all the challenges of growing up. If we get it right, there will be plenty more Bitesize birthdays to celebrate in the future.

Sinead Rocks is Director of Education, �鶹Լ��

Learn more about �鶹Լ�� Bitesize at: https://www.bbc.com/bitesize

Why we've established a day to celebrate vocational qualifications

2018-08-15T12:32:01+00:00

For the first time on mainstream national media, I have set up a day across �鶹Լ�� News to celebrate vocational qualifications. Let me explain why.

As a financial journalist I visit lots of different businesses. Unsurprisingly, one of the biggest problems they talk to me about is the skills gap.

I also spend a lot of time working with young people on careers. There’s a common problem: if a kid is not good at exams, they often think they are not skilled. Yet many of them do have the skills employers are looking for - but often we don't show them that, or teach them how to develop them, or celebrate them.

During a careers event I was hosting in my hometown Middlesbrough, I asked the forty 16-year-olds in front of me to write down what skills they thought they had. They didn’t write anything. I was devastated. Desperately clutching for something, I asked one of them what he had been doing at the weekend. His reply: "Well, not much, because I was working in a Chinese takeaway."

I was shocked he didn’t recognise his skills: "So you serve customers? You deal with the till? You help package up the food?" I bombarded him with questions.

"Yeah, of course," he replied, looking at me like I was mad.

"Well get writing them down," I shouted.

"But I don’t want to work in a Chinese takeaway for the rest of my life so I don’t see how it’s relevant," he shouted back.

It turned out that everyone in the room had part-time jobs, or were carers or mentors, or played sports, or had another interesting hobby, but they didn’t know that those experiences also gave them transferable skills to help make them employable in lots of areas. They thought skills were just academic things, like being good at algebra.

We are not making young people value what they are good at. I appreciate this is a sweeping generalisation and there are some great initiatives and wonderful teachers and schools out there who are doing this.

But it’s not happening enough and I personally feel schools, on the whole, are creating exam monsters. I don’t blame teachers, they are judged on exam performance. And as a society we feed that by constantly focusing on academic results. But they’re not the whole story when it comes to being employable and valued.

Why as a society can’t we celebrate people who are skilled practically? Or people who are good with people? We see things as being soft skills. Well in my line of work being good with people is the most important skill I need and there is nothing soft about it.

If someone chooses a vocational route, why do they not get the same respect in society as someone who just does a pure academic route? Why do we celebrate A-Level results but not BTEC or City and Guilds or NVQs results?

The 1.5 million people who did A-Levels last year got a day of national media coverage, but what about the 3.8 million people who took vocational qualifications? This is why I pushed for �鶹Լ�� News to do that today.

I believe there should be parity of esteem for whichever route you choose. Some people I went to school with were written off as being thick by the education system yet they are now highly successful tradespeople and business leaders.

I was applauded because I was the school swot. I was an exam monster. I was that kid who opened her A-Level results on the local �鶹Լ�� news. But that is not the reason why I think I am successful. It’s because, through my school, I had direct links with industry.

From a young age I had a real sense of the world of work. This is what vocational education gives you. You learn about jobs by doing them and then the theory relates directly to it. But yet, this type of training is viewed by many in society as inferior.

The most rewarding, insightful and challenging year of my life was my 'Year in Industry' working as a trainee engineer at Black & Decker, which involved studying part time at college. I went to university after this, but only because I felt I had to, so that society would judge me as ‘clever’.

I am not criticising people who work hard for their degrees, I just wish we would give the same respect to people who choose the vocational route. Also not all vocational courses are brilliant, but there are a lot that are.

The media has an important role in helping change the perception about education. Despite covering many huge news stories for the �鶹Լ��, I think celebrating vocational education will be the thing I am most proud of.

Serving everyone, rather than being everything to everyone

2018-07-24T13:00:00+00:00

Greg James and Nick Grimshaw

Ofcom published a report last week about UK media consumption.

It tells a now familiar tale of the continued rise of on demand digital, especially among the young, accelerated by powerful internet companies.

If you take audiences as a whole most of their time spent watching and listening is to broadcast TV (71%) and live radio (75%).

For 15-24s the figures are 46% for TV and 36% for radio.

What should traditional broadcasters do to remain relevant to all audiences and especially younger ones?

Announcing the report, Ofcom Chief Exec Sharon White said UK broadcasters “have a history of adapting to change. By making the best British programmes and working together to reach people who are turning away from TV, our broadcasters can compete in the digital age.”

That’s true. The British creative industries need to collaborate to compete.

Netflix was described in the FT last week: "[Netflix] doesn't want to be a leader in video, or even the leader in video - it wants to monopolise the consumption of video; to become TV."

Monopolisation plays no part in the �鶹Լ��’s mission. We’re proud that the iPlayer helped create the video-on-demand market - with space for other PSBs to have their own players.

We do want to serve everyone – the �鶹Լ�� is owned by all of us so we feel a moral duty to do that. A lot of that’s about entertainment (which has always been part of our mission).

Radio One’s Greg James and Grimmy hit the spot with their inspired game of hide and seek last week. As schools broke up it was an end of term prank that perfectly captured the mood of its audience.

But we’re matching other teenage mindsets and needs in really distinctive ways too. We’re commissioning a range of new content for 13-15 year olds which offers insights into teenage lives, gives them a platform to express their thoughts on sex education, relationships and parents.

We’re expanding �鶹Լ�� Bitesize beyond exam revision into helping students with career orientation or emotional skills like resilience.

And we’ve launched �鶹Լ�� iReporter, an online interactive game to help young people in the UK identify ‘fake news.’

That’s how we can serve everyone without being a monopoly – by making a difference. A difference to your day – with that show or prank that makes your day. A difference to you as an individual, whether by helping you pass your exams or discovering a lifelong passion for classical music. Or a difference to society by combating fake news or disinformation.

�鶹Լ�� Education social mobility update: from primary school to preparing for work

2018-07-23T14:54:08+00:00

As summer kicks in, teachers and their pupils will be getting a well-earned break. Things aren’t quite so quiet for the �鶹Լ��’s education team, though.

We’re preparing to support students when they get their exam results in August, finalising some improvements to Bitesize in time for the new academic year, and stocking up on new curriculum-linked programming for use in the classroom on �鶹Լ�� Teach.

We’re also making progress on the development work we announced a few months ago when we set out our new vision for education at the �鶹Լ��. It’s all about increasing the impact of our educational content by exploring, in partnership with others, what more we could do to encourage social mobility across the UK.

We’re particularly focused on two key areas:

• improving literacy rates by reducing the language gap that kicks in before children even start school. According to the Sutton Trust, by the age of five the UK's most disadvantaged children can be 19 months behind their more affluent peers in vocabulary development and this deficit can have life-long consequences
• championing the wider needs of children and young people by expanding Bitesize beyond just curriculum support so that it includes career inspiration and discovery, content that builds resilience and self-esteem, encourages critical thinking and provides opportunities for personal development

We’ve been delighted by the support we have received from other organisations who want to work collaboratively with us as we develop our thinking and our plans. From the off, we’ve known that partnerships will be key to making a lasting difference.

With the help of the National Literacy Trust, we've set up a Language Advisory Group, made up of a range of early years language and communication experts including Lucid, Ican, The Communication Trust and the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists. Together, we’re exploring the messages, material and action most likely to give every child the language and communications skills to start school on the same page.

With Bitesize, we’re adopting a twin track approach to its transformation. It’s already a much loved service for five-16 year olds seeking out support for their study, revision and homework. But some of its technology is outdated and it can be a frustrating experience at times and so our first task is to change that. Our audience can expect to see the first fruits of that labour when the new academic year kicks in.

Alongside that, we’ve begun to commission and produce material that goes beyond the curriculum. Our partnership with the CBI has been crucial in this area, and we’re working alongside the likes of The Careers & Enterprise Company, the Gatsby Foundation and others to develop content that will bridge the gap between education and employment. We want to inspire young people, to help them make informed choices about potential careers, and then support them as they strive to reach their potential.

Our overall goal is to make Bitesize work harder for our audience. It has supported the curriculum needs of students for close to 20 years, but we want it to also be there for other key life moments – preparing for your first day at primary school, making the move up to secondary, dealing with exam stress and the more general pressures that come with growing up – all the way through to preparing for the world of work and figuring out what to do if you don’t get the results you need.

Education is a core part of the �鶹Լ��’s overall mission and we believe that these new initiatives have the potential to make a significant impact, at a time when it has arguably never been more important.

�鶹Լ�� Radio and Education – how are we doing?

2018-03-14T17:00:00+00:00

We’ve got the latest data in about our audiences for �鶹Լ�� Radio and �鶹Լ�� Children’s and if you’ve read my blog before you’ll know that for radio we’ve set ourselves a target of stabilising audiences who are in the 15–44 age bracket, because in recent years that number has been in decline.

So in the last quarter (Oct-Dec 2017) 55% of this age-group listened to �鶹Լ�� Radio. That’s down a smidge (1.2%) on the previous quarter but broadly stable.

Across all audiences more people were listening to �鶹Լ�� Radio than in the previous quarter with Radio 1’s Breakfast Show doing especially well.

But we shouldn’t forget Radio 1 is getting 1.95m views a day on YouTube and Vevo and a million views a month on its �鶹Լ�� iPlayer channel.

In Children’s we’ve got the data in for December – we measure the number of parents with children under 6 for CBeebies and 6–12 year olds for C�鶹Լ��.

On TV CBeebies did a little bit better than November (+1.6%) but is slightly down year on year. And although C�鶹Լ�� claimed the top 5 most-viewed TV programmes viewing was down 5% compared to the previous year. Traffic to the C�鶹Լ�� website was more or less stable.

Our online study service �鶹Լ�� Bitesize continues to make a real difference to young learners with 82% of users saying it has helped them to understand their schoolwork or homework more and 58% of GCSE users saying it helped them to achieve better grades in their GCSEs. �鶹Լ�� Food had a great quarter – with use up across a range of metrics.

There aren’t any surprises in these numbers – gradual linear decline coupled with gradual digital growth.

The reach of the �鶹Լ��’s TV and Radio services is measured by people listening live and the success of those services is often judged by those measurements.

And don’t get me wrong, we celebrate when the linear numbers go up as they did with Nick Grimshaw’s Breakfast Show.

But if we really want to understand the true value of the �鶹Լ�� then we need to take account of and talk about how audiences consume and interact with content across our services, both inside and outside the linear schedules; downloading and streaming.

That’s why we want to get all our audiences signing in to �鶹Լ�� ID – the more we know about what they enjoy when, the better we can offer everyone a personalised service.

And it’s why we’re developing a new measurement system that will capture and compare all the ways in which our audiences consume, across linear, on-demand and online. We’ll have more to say about it later this year.

James Purnell is Director, Radio & Education

�鶹Լ�� Education: How we can encourage social mobility in the UK

2018-03-08T09:33:51+00:00

In an age when education is widely recognised to be the most significant element in determining life chances; we’ve been considering how the �鶹Լ�� can ensure that everything we do in this space is as impactful as possible.

Our overall mission is to inform, educate and entertain and we take the education part very seriously: we already deliver a range of programmes and services that promote and support learning for all ages.

This includes CBeebies with its support for the early years framework, Bitesize which provides study and revision support for children across the UK; �鶹Լ�� Teach for inspirational classroom learning; major educational campaigns such as the �鶹Լ�� micro:bit and Super Movers working in partnership to tackle defined societal needs; as well as extensive specialist factual programming that engages millions of people week on week.

We’re not as well known for educating as we are for informing and entertaining so we’ve been thinking about how what we do for education could have more impact. We want to renew our commitment to education for the benefit of our audiences and the UK as a whole. Over the past year, we’ve consulted a wide range of major organisations to identify key priorities that we will explore in partnership.

Our first priority is to improve the UK’s literacy rates amongst pre-school children.

It’s fair to say that the UK has a problem with social mobility; in fact it’s worse than in most of the developed world and extensive research suggests that poor literacy is a key contributing factor. By the age of five, the UK's most disadvantaged children can be 19 months behind their more affluent peers in vocabulary development (according to Sutton Trust, 2012).

We want to do something about this. And so, alongside the National Literacy Trust, we’re inviting others to join us in an unprecedented multi-year campaign that seeks to close the language gap that kicks in even before children start school. If we can get others to support us, we’ll make under 5s language and literacy a key �鶹Լ�� priority and focus our educational efforts, content and marketing in this area, highlighting to new parents the importance of talking, singing and reading to their child from birth.

But what the �鶹Լ�� can do is only one part of the solution. We’ll also need boots on the ground, the expertise of those already on the front line and the support of a range of other organisations if we are to truly make a sustainable change. It’s a massive challenge, but one we feel worth taking on as if we can tackle it, the benefits to young people in the UK will be huge.

Our second priority is to champion the wider needs of children by building resilience and self-esteem.

We want to do more to help children and young people during their school years and beyond. Bitesize already helps most students to study better; the curriculum support it provides benefits around 80% of teenagers across the UK but we think it can do more.

We want to build on it to support the other challenges our audiences face during these formative years – inspiring curiosity and critical thinking, building resilience and self-esteem; supporting their mental health just as much as we support their academic needs.

Our third priority is to open up the world of employment to young people.

Recent research by the CBI has revealed that 84% of UK businesses feel the quality of careers advice young people receive is not good enough. We want to open up the world of employment; empowering young people to make informed choices about their future and putting them in control.

Working closely with the CBI and other organisations, we will build on Bitesize to help young people prepare for the world of work – bridging the gap between education and employment and shining a spotlight on the changing nature of jobs. We’ll support vocational training as well – focusing in particular on the skills the UK needs most.

Our final priority is to make it easier for adults to retrain; equipping them to thrive in a changing labour market and an increasingly digital world.

And as we build on the links between education and prosperity, we will explore with our partners in the Open University, opportunities to do more for adults too. We are keen to find out if the �鶹Լ�� is able to play a role in providing people with the tools to adapt to a changing world and a changing workforce. We don’t have the answers to that just yet – but we want to know if the lessons we learn through expanding Bitesize can help us find them.

It’s early days for all of these potential new initiatives but we’re sharing them to see if others want to join us as we move forward into the next phase of development, exploring these priorities in more detail and building the propositions. We firmly believe that by joining up our efforts and by working in partnership, we will be able to do so much more to impact on the lives.

Sinead Rocks is Director of Education, �鶹Լ��

Read the press release on the media centre

An update on the �鶹Լ�� micro:bit

2016-05-30T06:00:00+00:00

As we head towards the latter part of the school year, it feels like a good point to reflect on how far we’ve come with the �鶹Լ�� micro:bit project.

So far we’ve delivered to around 80% of secondary schools across the UK – that’s approaching three quarters of a million micro:bits in the hands of students.

And from the web statistics we’re getting, we know those devices are being put to good use. The microbit.co.uk website has received more than 4.5 million visits so far.

We also know that 440,000 programs have been downloaded onto micro:bits, that means that students and teachers have made their micro:bits ‘do’ stuff almost half a million times.

Some of the stuff they’ve been doing has been pretty impressive too. One school has sent a �鶹Լ�� micro:bit into (near) space, to gauge the temperature. It’s both a relief and a testament to the robustness of the device that the micro:bit in question managed to survive the landing.... Another school has created a “microgotchi”- a �鶹Լ�� micro:bit pet that needs to be fed and cared for on a regular basis.

And teachers are proud of what they and their students are producing, proud enough to share it – we have had almost 80,000 scripts published on the website by teachers already.

It’s not just in the classroom where the devices are making an impact though. One teacher got in touch to tell us this:

I gave them to my first class to take home on Monday (all of them will be taking them home this week and will hopefully play on them more from home now that they know where to find tutorials and projects and what the device is capable of.) Already some children have been coming to show me the games they have programmed on their devices in their own time. They have been trying to come into the Computing Lab to program them during their breaks and the look of joy on their faces when they realised they could take them home, and they were theirs to keep was such a pleasure to see.

Our job isn’t done yet though. We are still delivering to schools and if your school hasn’t yet registered there is still time to do so –just. We will be closing registrations on June 12th with the aim of delivering our final micro:bits before the end of the summer term. To register please fill in the online form on the micro:bit website https://www.microbit.co.uk

We’ve also got lots more activities lined up to inspire students to use their micro:bits in the classroom and at home and we’ll be keeping focused on that until at least the end of the year.

On 7th June our latest Live Lesson on the �鶹Լ�� micro:bit will investigate how computer science can be used to aid our exploration of space. micro:bit Mission to Mars will also extend the use of the devices across STEM subjects, looking at how they can be used in biology and physics. You can watch live here.

We have also teamed up with the Wellcome Trust on their latest project The Crunch and have launched the Big Food Survey. In the autumn term we’ll be asking the new Year 8s to use their �鶹Լ�� micro:bits to collect data on what they eat it, where they it and with whom. This will represent the biggest collection of data on the eating habits of a generation and will provide valuable insight for the students, schools and academics.

The �鶹Լ�� micro:bit is proving a valuable teaching resource and crucially, a hit with students. And we’re excited by the prospect of children continuing to learn and create amazing things with the micro:bit across their high school career.

Sinead Rocks is Head of �鶹Լ�� Learning

Discover more about Make it Digital and the �鶹Լ�� micro:bit
Read more blogs by Sinead Rocks

Gearing up for the �鶹Լ�� micro:bit arrival

2016-02-26T11:57:54+00:00

It’s been just over a month since we took the �鶹Լ�� micro:bit to Bett 2016 – one of the world’s leading educational trade and technology shows. It was an anxious moment for us – we’ve been working on the device for more than a year now with our partners and have involved teachers throughout the design and testing, but it was the first time we’d put it in front of such a large number of them.

It’s fair to say we were overwhelmed by the reaction we received. The Huffington Post kindly claimed the micro:bit stole the show and it was great to see the excitement generated on Twitter from the attendees who managed to win some in a competition run by our colleagues at Microsoft.

Since then, it’s been all systems go. We promised that teachers would receive their boards around half-term and it’s been a joy to see these micro:bits make their way to educators across the country over the last couple of weeks. Here at �鶹Լ�� Learning’s HQ, in the midst of what is undoubtedly the most ambitious education campaign we’ve ever delivered, we’ve been hugely motivated and encouraged by the online reaction – from excited selfies and tweets as micro:bits arrive, to teachers and students taking part in the IET’s Faraday Challenge and even creating wearables already.

Many teachers have contacted us directly to express their delight at the simplicity of the device and at its seemingly limitless potential – especially when paired up with other hardware. Our online resources have also proven popular and teachers have very quickly been adding to them by sharing their own teaching plans and discoveries across social media and on various online forums.

It feels like this adventure into the world of coding is really gaining pace. And so it’s with great excitement that I’m now able to say that we will be starting our delivery to pupils on Tuesday, March 22nd.

We could not be more excited for the day to arrive. This has been a digital literacy project on an unprecedented scale and this will be a truly landmark moment for the �鶹Լ��, our partners, and most importantly children across the UK.

Schools will receive an email when their devices are en route and they can expect to receive enough �鶹Լ�� micro:bits for each Year 7 pupil as well as additional spares and some to be kept as a classroom resource. They will also receive all the necessary add-ons including mini usb cables, battery packs and batteries.

There have also been exciting developments on other fronts too.

The official �鶹Լ�� micro:bit app for Android went live this week and will connect the micro:bit to smartphones and tablets, allowing young people to code their micro:bits on the go whether they are in the playground, on the school bus or at home with the whole family. For example, they will be able to build their own selfie remote controller, launching their phone camera by pressing a button on their micro:bit, or even build their very own security alarm using the micro:bit's sensors.

We want children to be able to programme the �鶹Լ�� micro:bit from any device they want, wherever they want, whenever a moment of inspiration hits them. The Android app will go a long way to making this happen and there is also an iOS one in development.

The app works wirelessly because the �鶹Լ�� micro:bit has Bluetooth low energy built in. It’s worth calling out this particular piece of technology because it’s at the heart of an exciting revolution, the Internet of Things, where everyday objects like fridges, furniture and even clothes are increasingly being connected to the internet.

For example, one of our partners created a fun frying pan game with a micro:bit attached, where you have to flip a fake fried egg at exactly the right moment to score a point. It’s not a huge leap to then imagine a frying pan connected to the internet, giving you step-by-step instructions on how to fry the perfect egg or flip the perfect pancake.

It’s precisely these skills we hope children will learn through their �鶹Լ�� micro:bit – using technology to modify and improve the world around them. It might be a simple frying pan hack to make their lives a little easier, or it might be an idea that has business potential, or it might be both.

If your school hasn’t registered yet, there is still time – visit our website for details. The one thing we would ask is for all schools to ensure they’re giving us accurate numbers for pupils in Year 7 or equivalent. We’re making a million �鶹Լ�� micro:bits and we want to ensure every qualifying child gets their hands on one – that is what we feel will give us the greatest chance of inspiring an entire generation.

Sinead Rocks is Head of �鶹Լ�� Learning

Read more about the �鶹Լ�� micro:bit including Next steps for the �鶹Լ�� micro:bit, Teachers and the micro:bit, and Inspiring a Generation – the �鶹Լ�� Micro Bit
Schools can still register for the �鶹Լ�� micro:bit here
Watch the �鶹Լ�� micro:bit Live Lessons via the Make it Digital website
Discover more on the �鶹Լ�� micro:bit website

�鶹Լ�� micro:bit at Bett 2016

2016-01-20T09:30:00+00:00

Today education and technology companies and thinkers from across the globe are gathering in London for what many consider to be one of the world's leading education events - the Bett Show.

For those of us involved in the �鶹Լ�� micro:bit initiative, it's an important milestone - a chance for us and our partners to fully show the attending teachers what our now finalised device can do.

We’ve got a great line-up of activities and for those visiting the show, we’re based in the STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Maths) Village alongside partners Samsung, the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) and Kitronik.

At Bett, Samsung will be unveiling the official �鶹Լ�� micro:bit Android app. We know from our work so far that this is the type of thing that really enables children to let their creativity run wild. With it, you can code and control your �鶹Լ�� micro:bit from a phone or tablet. Or you can use your micro:bit to control your phone - the choice is yours...

We've worked with hundreds of children through the process of developing the micro:bit and so far, we've seen them use these tiny devices to control the music on their mobiles, to create remote controls for selfies and even to make their own video games. Their creativity has been inspiring and a constant source of motivation throughout an initiative that has been as challenging as it is ambitious.

The IET is providing teachers with free �鶹Լ�� micro:bit teaching resources and is working with the National Science Learning Network and the Design and Technology Association to offer teachers free training on how to use the micro:bit in their lessons.

And Kitronik will be demonstrating how other products can be connected to the �鶹Լ�� micro:bit, enabling it to interact with external sensors and devices. This will allow students using the device to learn coding skills in an engaging, practical and fun way maximising the opportunities for them to become inspired by the potential of coding.

We will also be joined by other partners involved in the project including Barclays, Bluetooth SIG, Code Kingdoms, MyMiniFactory and others who’ll be putting the �鶹Լ�� micro:bit through its paces.

And the �鶹Լ�� micro:bit will also appear on a number of partner stands across Bett, including Microsoft, ScienceScope and Tech Will Save Us, so you’ll have an opportunity to see the different partners involved and find out more about the variety of ways you can use the micro:bit in lessons and beyond.

There’s a lot going on and there’s a real sense of excitement building as we get closer to launch. We’re on track to begin delivery of up to 1m free �鶹Լ�� micro:bits for all year 7 pupils across the UK as part of the current term, and we will be in contact with schools to confirm exact dates.

Teachers have already been getting hands-on via the website and a range of events, and they’ll receive their devices just after half-term, ahead of the pupils. There are lots of resources already available at www.microbit.co.uk and many teachers have told us they’re ready to start teaching as soon as the devices arrive.

We’re also sending some additional devices to teachers in the rollout to allow even more children to get creative with the micro:bit. That’s something we’re really excited about, as it means teachers can extend their micro:bit lessons to pupils in years 8 and beyond and that in turn gives the many organisations involved with the �鶹Լ�� micro:bit an even better chance of inspiring an entire generation.

Sinead Rocks is Head of �鶹Լ�� Learning

Read also Next steps for the �鶹Լ�� micro:bit
Also Teachers and the micro:bit
And Inspiring a Generation – the �鶹Լ�� Micro Bit

Introducing the �鶹Լ�� micro:bit website in beta

2015-09-18T12:26:33+00:00

In July, we unveiled the �鶹Լ�� micro:bit to the world. Today marks the next milestone in the project, and I’m delighted to launch the new beta website for the �鶹Լ�� micro:bit today, developed in collaboration with Microsoft - www.microbit.co.uk – let the coding begin! My colleague Sinead Rocks has blogged about the project here, and I wanted to tell you a bit more about the site, what it includes and how to start using it.

The �鶹Լ�� micro:bit website has been created as a one-stop shop to introduce teachers, parents and students to all aspects of the micro:bit. Anyone can have a go, write code, and see how it would play back on the �鶹Լ�� micro:bit online simulator. This initial beta release focuses first on giving teachers and educators the information and inspiration that they need to start to plan how they’ll use the �鶹Լ�� micro:bit with their students. We’ll be updating the site over the next few months as new resources are added, and as we build up to the micro:bit arriving in schools, classrooms and homes.

Let me outline some of the resources that have gone live today.

Getting Started

The new �鶹Լ�� micro:bit beta site is the place for teachers, students and parents/guardians who are new to coding and the �鶹Լ�� micro:bit to get started. In the first instance, watch some short videos that offer inspiring ideas for using the �鶹Լ�� micro:bit, and get introduced to the different code editors.

Learning Resources

Our amazing partners are producing an abundance of resources to kick-start students and support teachers and parents on their �鶹Լ�� micro:bit adventure. There are exciting projects to remix and download, step-by-step interactive tutorials and lessons plans, and detailed information on each coding editor. Explore some examples on the �鶹Լ�� micro:bit homepage from partners such as Microsoft, Kitronic, Technology Will Save Us and Institution of Engineering and Technology.

Create code for the micro:bit

Select “Create Code” to choose an editor and start writing code for the �鶹Լ�� micro:bit.
This week we’re releasing the Microsoft Block and Microsoft Touch Develop editors. Coming very soon is the Code Kingdoms JavaScript editor, followed by a Python editor from the Python Software Foundation.

Run your script on the Simulator
Once you’ve written a code script, select “Run” from within the editor to run it on our online simulator. Light up the LEDs, make some virtual button presses and spin the compass dial! It’s a great way to test how your code’s working before transferring it to a �鶹Լ�� micro:bit – and a helpful tool for teachers ahead of the delivery of the devices themselves.

Teacher registration

From today, teachers and other educators will be able to register on the website, enabling them to

Save and retrieve their content (via their login)
Compile code scripts (into a format ready to transfer to a micro:bit device)
Publish code scripts (to share with other micro:bit website users)

If you’re a teacher and haven’t yet registered your school to receive �鶹Լ�� micro:bits and website registration codes, please do so using our online registration form. You can read more about the device delivery plans in Sinead Rocks’ blog post.

What’s next?

We’re in Beta, whilst we complete our testing and add some more features and enhancements. We’d welcome your feedback, either via the comments below or to microbitsupport@bbc.co.uk, to inform our next stage of development.

Over the next couple of months, we’ll be focussing more on the experience for the Year 7 children or equivalent who will be receiving �鶹Լ�� micro:bits. These students will then be able to register to use the website, via their teachers, closer to the time that micro:bits will start arriving in schools.

I’d like to take this opportunity to acknowledge and thank our key collaborators for this website launch:

- the Microsoft Touch Develop team, who have led with us on the development of the website and web services. They have designed and developed the web application and editor environment, based on their Touch Develop platform, as well as the Microsoft Block Editor and Microsoft Touch Develop Editor.

Tangent Design, who have designed and built the top-level website, in collaboration with the �鶹Լ�� and Microsoft
Code Kingdoms and The Python Software Foundation, whose editors will follow shortly
ARM, who provide the code compilation service
Lancaster University, who have written the Runtime: the firmware that specifies the micro:bit functions that the editors can write to
Our Learning Resource providers and champions – listed on our Partners page

Leigh Aspin is Executive Product Manager, Knowledge and Learning

Next steps for the �鶹Լ�� micro:bit

2015-09-17T16:00:46+00:00

It’s been just over two months since we unveiled the �鶹Լ�� micro:bit alongside our 28 partners and I wanted to give you an update on what we have been up to since then as well as information on what’s coming next.

This is a massively ambitious undertaking and that’s been reflected in the levels of activity over the summer months. We have been busy getting ready to support teachers on every aspect of the �鶹Լ�� micro:bit, and have been in touch with schools and teachers up and down the country. Thousands have already registered and there’s still time to get involved - you can sign up using our online registration form which can be found on the �鶹Լ�� micro:bit website.

Engaging with schools has always been central to this educational initiative - our teams have been hard at work creating and producing all the resources teachers will need to bring it to life, allow lesson planning to start, and to make it a success in the classroom.

We want to help teachers start to plan how they will use the �鶹Լ�� micro:bit in their classrooms and the beta release of the new �鶹Լ�� micro:bit website will be arriving very soon. It has been designed to equip teachers, parents and students with a one-stop intro into everything they need to know about the �鶹Լ�� micro:bit, and to help teachers get going in advance of the devices arriving in schools. My colleague Leigh Aspin will blog about the website in detail when it launches but here’s a short introduction.

The brand new �鶹Լ�� micro:bit website contains a wealth of resources to get users started. These include a series of videos, step by step tutorials, and fun projects and resources to inspire users from the �鶹Լ�� and our partners, including Code Club, Code Kingdoms, Cisco, The Institution of Engineering and Technology, Kitronik, Microsoft, Technology Will Save Us and TeenTech.

Crucially, the new site includes code editors to help users start to write code for the �鶹Լ�� micro:bit itself. We’re releasing Microsoft Block and Touch Develop editors, with editors from Code Kingdom and Python Software Foundation coming soon. The site also includes a simulator, which will let users to get hands on, practise, and see how their coding will illuminate the LEDs and press the buttons on the device. All a key part of how teachers can start to use the site to plan lessons and activities. And we will be improving and updating the site regularly over the coming months.

This is just the start - we will be in touch with more detail in the coming weeks to help teachers get to know the �鶹Լ�� micro:bit and to plan creative ways to bring it to life.

As you would expect, rigorous and extensive testing of the �鶹Լ�� micro:bit has been another key focus over the summer. It’s a new piece of hardware developed in conjunction with a coalition of expert partners and getting the device right before we manufacture a million of them for distribution is our priority. As a result of this testing, we’ve decided to make some minor revisions to the way power is supplied around the board, as this was affecting a few devices in rare and isolated instances. This will have an impact on our timings for distribution but we are working hard to make sure you get your micro:bits as quickly as possible.

As we have always said, teachers will still get their �鶹Լ�� micro:bits before pupils, and we aim to start delivering devices to them before Christmas, and to children in the new year, as part of the new school term. We want to make sure that when the �鶹Լ�� micro:bit arrives, it has the greatest possible impact in the classroom, playground and at home, and are planning exciting programmes across �鶹Լ�� TV, radio and online in the new year to bring them to life.

All the organisations involved in the �鶹Լ�� micro:bit initiative want to inspire a new generation to get creative with digital technology – to do that we need your continued guidance and support. Together, we will make the �鶹Լ�� micro:bit a transformative initative, working together to achieve what none of us could on our own.

Sinead Rocks is Head of �鶹Լ�� Learning

Coding and digital creativity - planning for 2015

2014-09-08T05:57:48+00:00

Last October, Director-General Tony Hall said he wanted the �鶹Լ�� to embrace one big education project a year. In 2014 it's World War One. I’m delighted to announce that in 2015, the �鶹Լ��’s new Make it Digital initiative will shine a light on the world of digital creativity and coding. And that is exactly what we are going to do. But because there's so much to highlight we thought we'd start early, so at the start of the new school year for most, we are giving a taste of what we have planned.

The very first Make it Digital examples include our brand new Bitesize guides to support the new Computing curriculum that is being introduced in England. We're also launching relevant Computing content for pupils studying the subject in curricula across the rest of the UK. Our content supports both primary and secondary school pupils as well as their teachers and parents - all under the Bitesize brand for the first time. Alongside these �鶹Լ�� Learning projects we have some exciting children’s programmes coming out this Autumn that will help inspire our youngest audiences to discover the digital world and to take their journeys of digital discovery further. Dick & Dom's Absolute Genius will become Appsolute Genius, Technobabble will look at the technology which will shape children's lives, and Nina and the Neurons will go digital. You can find the full details here.

Why are we doing this? This generation of coders and computing creatives are standing on the shoulders of giants. The UK is the birth place of computer science, and pioneers such as Charles Babbage, Ada Lovelace and Alan Turing. We have just celebrated 25 years of the World Wide Web, created by Sir Tim Berners-Lee, and we are home to game-changing games makers and entrepreneurs like Michael Acton Smith from Mind Candy and Ian Livingstone.

And the �鶹Լ�� has history too: back in the Eighties we made a commitment to inspire a generation to get passionate about computing. We broadcast hundreds of hours of TV, created a new coding language, and gave millions their first taste of computing with the �鶹Լ�� Micro. It’s firmly rooted in our public service commitments and is exactly what the �鶹Լ�� should be doing. And in 2015 we want to capture the spirit of what we did with the �鶹Լ�� Micro, but this time for the digital age.

The potential for this country’s future is as rich as our past, but there are dangers. Martha Lane Fox estimates we are going to need a million more people working in the technology sector over the next 10 years – but right now many of our youngsters are lacking the digital skills they need.

A wealth of fantastic organisations are already inspiring the next generation. Organisations like Code Club, Free:formers, Apps for Good, Coderdojo, Technology Will Save Us and Code Academy; enablers like Nesta, Nominet Trust, the Mozilla Foundation, the iDEA initiative, and the Make Things Do Stuff movement; big companies like BT, Microsoft, Google, Intel and Samsung are all running wonderful initiatives. However, it’s a very different landscape to the one we had in back in the Eighties when we launched the �鶹Լ�� Micro. So we’ve been talking to people across the digital and educational communities to help us define what the �鶹Լ�� can usefully do here, and help us answer these questions:

What can the �鶹Լ�� do in 2015 which no other organisation can deliver?
What are the ways in which we can partner most effectively?

Partnerships are the key to our approach. By working in partnership with others we want to celebrate the rich heritage of this country, but we want to play our part in inspiring a new generation to get active with computing. And that has never been more important – it helps all of us be active shapers of our world, rather than passive consumers.

Our conversations have highlighted that the �鶹Լ�� should work with the industry, raising awareness and inspiring people to get interested in coding and digital technology.

In early 2015 we will be able to share in-depth details of what is planned and there will be something for everyone. We want to show audiences how Britain has helped shape the digital world and why digital skills matter.

We will harness the power of our biggest shows – we have so many much-loved programmes and characters that can play a role introducing people to coding and digital technology. There will be new commissions, too, including dramas and documentaries. We want to do what we do best – tell stories that inspire and move people.

We will celebrate the UK's digital heritage, raise awareness, and help some people to take their first steps into the world of digital.

All our activity will link to online resources that will help our audiences play, learn and share, with a digital hub bringing all of this activity together. There will be off-air activity too, particularly focused on children and young people. We want to help people to find the fantastic resources which already exist, including learning opportunities across the UK and online. And in some cases, the very best of what they create will find its way back on to the �鶹Լ��.

There’s much, much more to come in the months ahead – including what we hope will be some life changing opportunities for school leavers so what we’re announcing today is just the start. With our partners we want to have a lasting impact and ensure we work with them to make a difference.

I hope this gives a flavour of how important this project is to us at the �鶹Լ�� and explains how we, and the industry, believe we can inspire people. I was asked to lead this project and pull it together so we, the �鶹Լ��, can bring all of what we have to help highlight what is the future, to and inspire all our audiences to create the future.

Please do let us know what you think. We will update you as we build up to 2015 when we will have much more to share.

Jessica Cecil is Controller, �鶹Լ�� Make it Digital.

Read more about the new �鶹Լ�� computing resources.
Visit the �鶹Լ�� Bitesize website.
Read John Millner's blog 'Why Bitesize has changed'.

Why has Bitesize changed?

2014-09-03T10:51:00+00:00

The new Bitesize site brings together in one place all the �鶹Լ��’s formal education content - not just the familiar Bitesize learner guides covering all the main secondary subjects, but also new primary guides and thousands of curriculum-mapped video clips for both secondary and primary classrooms.

Built on the latest technology, the new site is better designed, easier to use and easier to update. It will also work as well, if not better, on mobiles and tablets than it does on desktop and laptop computers, so you’ll be able to take Bitesize with you wherever you go and learn on the move.

The new Bitesize is now up and running with around 7,000 classroom clips in place – re-encoded at considerably higher quality. Also in place are most of the Secondary guides covering Key Stages 3 and 4 of the National Curriculum, and National 4, 5 and Highers in the Scottish Curriculum for Excellence.

You’ll also find the first of our new primary guides, supporting the new Computing curriculum at KS1 and KS2, as well as Computer Science content across all secondary levels.

All the content has been updated to bring it into line with recent curriculum changes, and you can now navigate much more easily - by Nation, by level (Key stage 3, National 4 etc) or by subject - to the topic you need. You’ll also find a much greater range of links to other online study support resources.

Migrating and transforming all our existing education content has been a huge undertaking, but we’re now racing to finish the job. Expect to see many more primary and secondary guides, plus new rich media, interactives and ‘personalisation’ features added to the site over the next 12 months.

In the meantime, if you’re looking for KS3 or GCSE content that we’ve not yet migrated to the new site, don't worry. It will still be available in its old location until we move it, and putting the level and subject you're looking for into a search engine should take you straight to it. If you have subjects from the old Bitesize site bookmarked in your browser, these bookmarks will still work, redirecting you to the new content if it’s already been moved.

We know that while we’re still in transition from old to new Bitesize there’ll be some rough edges and imperfections in the new product, but we will continually improve it. I hope you will tell us what you think using the feedback button on the new site’s banner, so that we can fix any problems. Once all �鶹Լ�� education content has settled into its new home, we’re certain our offer to school-based learners will be massively improved.

John Millner is Executive Producer, �鶹Լ�� Knowledge and Learning.

Read more about the new �鶹Լ�� Computing resources
Visit the �鶹Լ�� Bitesize website
Read more blogs about �鶹Լ�� Learning from John Millner

New Computing Curriculum Resources from �鶹Լ�� Bitesize

2014-09-01T07:12:05+00:00

For many students and teachers across the UK, the long, lazy days of summer are already a distant memory. Teachers are busy planning their lessons for the term ahead, and students are starting to get to grips with the new subjects they have to learn.

I lead the department that is responsible for the �鶹Լ��’s commitment to support students and teachers, whether they’re in school or at home. The start of the new academic year is therefore important to us too, and this one has been even busier than usual…

New Computing Curriculum

That’s because in England, this month sees the launch of a new curriculum. There have been a number of curriculum changes, but amongst the most high profile has been the introduction of new computing learning objectives. This has meant teachers and students across primary and secondary schools now need to get to grips with topics such as computational thinking, coding and algorithms.

In �鶹Լ�� Learning, we have always provided content that is relevant to the UK curricula through sites such as �鶹Լ�� Bitesize. We spend a lot of time talking to teachers and other education professionals and we know that the new computing curriculum will be a challenge for some. But we also know that many children are genuinely interested in technology.

So today, we have launched a brand new range of content to meet the needs of both. Using interactivity, animation and video, we’ve brought the subject to life with the key aim of enabling children to build their digital skills whilst also inspiring them to find out more.

You can find it all here

At Primary level, we have more than 40 new guides covering all aspects of computing. For instance, at key stage 1, we have created content to help teachers and parents explain the concept of coding to young children and show how it can be used to create games and animations.

Higher up the age ranges, we have focused on providing guides for independent study. For example, at key stage 3, we’ve created material to help students understand that computational thinking isn’t just relevant to coding, it can also provide a basis of logical thinking that can be applied to any field of study.

Combined with great television output from C�鶹Լ�� and CBeebies in the Autumn, this means that the �鶹Լ�� can inspire children to get creative digitally both within the formal setting of the classroom and at home through television, games and competitions. These early examples form part of the �鶹Լ��’s coding and digital creativity initiative for 2015. More detail on this initiative will be announced soon.

Changes to Bitesize

The new academic year isn’t just about new content for us. It’s also about making some changes to how we bring that content to our audiences. In the past, Bitesize has mainly been a destination for key stage 3 and GCSE students, featuring study guides, quizzes, videos and games. And we’ve had a number of other websites aimed at supporting students and schools across the UK.

Today, however, we are beginning to bring all our formal education resources together under the Bitesize brand. Here, all content will be mapped to the relevant part of the curriculum by key stage, topic and nation, with improved navigation throughout. Given the rise of smart phones and tablets, we recognize the importance of supporting learning, wherever and whenever so the new Bitesize is designed to be fully responsive. This means it will work seamlessly on tablets and smart phones as well as on desktop PCs and whiteboards.

We also want to help our audience continue their learning beyond the �鶹Լ��. We have worked with other educational providers to ensure there are links from our pages to theirs – enabling audiences to access a wide range of material from almost 60 other providers.

Although we intend to implement these changes with minimal disruption, it has been a big undertaking. We now have over 1000 study guides and quizzes, some 5000 infographics and over 7000 thousand class clips in the new Bitesize. However, that’s just two thirds of what we had in the old site so there is still work to be done, particularly to bring our content for primary level into the new site.

�鶹Լ�� iWonder

Of course, the �鶹Լ��’s commitment to education online isn’t just about the curriculum. At the beginning of this year we introduced iWonder, a new factual and educational format aimed at stimulating curiosity and providing learning opportunities for mainstream audiences.

Initially launched to support the �鶹Լ��’s World War 1 season, we now have iWonder guides and timelines that span all our factual genres from Science to Food and from Religion to Natural History. The iWonder tag line is ‘be curious’ so do take a look.

I hope that you find our new content useful and enjoyable, it would be great to hear what you think.

Sinead Rocks is Acting Head of �鶹Լ�� Learning.

See what changes have bee made to the �鶹Լ�� Bitesize website
Read the press release about �鶹Լ�� Bitesize on the Media Centre website
Read more about the 'Kid's coding push' on the �鶹Լ�� News site

Dragons' Den goes back to school

2011-07-11T14:56:52+00:00

Today sees the culmination of a project we've been running with schools across the North of England called 'Dragons' Den Goes Back to School'. Inspired by some work the team at Waterloo Road and �鶹Լ�� Outreach did last year where schools wrote and filmed their own episodes of the drama, we have spent the last few months working in our own way with students from Sunderland, Bolton, Lincoln and Bradford. By using the power of the Dragons' Den brand we've been trying to encourage the next generation of British entrepreneurs by giving Year 10 pupils a unique opportunity to pitch a business idea to the fearsome Dragons.

Each of the schools were personally set a business challenge by the Dragons - a particular market or sector that they wanted the students to tap into and work out a way of exploiting financially. The aspiring young entrepreneurs then spent a couple of months developing their idea, under the mentorship of some of my wonderful (and hard-working!) Dragons' Den team.

On the day of filming, I have to say I was worried. Having seen around 400 entrepreneurs walk up those few but intimidating Den stairs, and seen dozens of those go to pieces (a totally understandable reaction by the way, I dread to think what I'd be like!), the parent in me was desperately trying to think of ways to protect them. In the end, the best way was to ensure my team gave them as much information and training as possible about what it might be like, trust that their fantastic teachers would do the same, and then find a sofa to put in the gallery and hide behind!

To their absolute credit, the students who pitched to the Dragons did a spectacular job. Each of the four pitches were either educative, informative or entertaining (recognise those values from anywhere?), and in most cases, were all three. And although one school did falter slightly during their pitch (I did have to calm our director down who instinctively was going in for the big close-up at that point!), those students had such a good business proposition and were so clued up on what it was about, that the Dragons instantly forgave them their stuttering start.

In a change to the usual format, the young entrepreneurs didn't find out which of the Dragons may have been 'in' or 'out' on the day, because that is what tonight is about. All the pupils and the teachers who have committed so much time to the project, will come to the �鶹Լ��'s new home in the north - MediaCityUK in Salford - to see an edited version of their pitches, and find out what our five influential business leaders thought of their ideas.

There's also the small matter of having two awards up for grabs. The Dragons will be presenting one for best pitch and one for best idea. But really what is important is that as well as producing what will hopefully be a hugely successful 9th series of Dragons' Den, we are able to take advantage of those assets that we have here in �鶹Լ�� North, in order to give potential entrepreneurs of tomorrow an opportunity that will hopefully shape their perspective on what it takes to succeed. How many students can boast on their CV that they have pitched to five of Britain's most successful business leaders, and lived to tell the tale?

Aside from this project, it's been a big year for us on Dragons' Den. Not only were we successful in getting a three series deal, (thanks both to Janice Hadlow - Controller, �鶹Լ�� TWO and Mark Linsey - Controller, Entertainment Commissioning), but we also have a new Dragon for this series - Bolton-born Hilary Devey. She has certainly put her individual stamp on the Den, as this year's entrepreneurs will no doubt attest, and I'm certain our viewers will welcome her addition.

Finally then, back to tonight. Working on one of �鶹Լ�� Entertainment North's longest running shows is a privilege in itself, but having the opportunity to experience at first hand, the impact that the show has, in this instance on some of our younger audience, is a real treat. I just hope they think that we've given them a bit of a treat in return.

Sam Lewens is Executive Producer of Dragons' Den

Dragons' Den Goes Back to School is a collaboration between Dragons' Den and �鶹Լ�� North. The project aims to help develop entrepreneurial skills from initial idea, through planning, budgeting and marketing all the way to pitching for investment. The schools' pitches were for educational purposes, not for actual investment and will not be shown on network television.
The picture shows Lincoln Castle Academy in the Dragons' Den with Dragons (L-R) Duncan Bannatyne, Hilary Devey, Theo Paphitis, Deborah Meaden and Peter Jones.
There's always more news and information on the �鶹Լ�� North web site and on the �鶹Լ�� Outreach web site.