CBBC’s Our School: Fixed rigs and children

The BBC Academy Podcast

First came BAFTA winning Educating Yorkshire, then Educating Essex. So why not adapt their documentary skills to filming children, thought production company Twofour That’s how the returning CBBC series Our School was born.

The first series was set in Conyers School in Teeside. The current series shows life in Greenwood Academy in Castle Vale, Birmingham. Kez Margrie, CBBC’s executive producer, says she hopes the series will help make the transition from primary school to “big” school easier. That’s not to say that it’s all smiles and laughter during the series. Some storylines show some of the children finding the jump to secondary school hard, with one boy, Isaac, having sessions with the school’s youth worker, Sean. Executive producer Richard Marson says they thought carefully before deciding what to show from their conversations.

And what about having cameras and the production team all over the school? And then having the results shown on television? Performing arts teacher and series narrator Trevor Evans advises the school thought long and hard about all aspects of what doing the series could bring - positive and negative.

Our School doesn’t just see the children growing up, but also the production team. One of the best things, Richard says, was being able to take some of the team from the first series onto the second, with researchers moving to assistant producer roles and even producing episodes.

*This podcast was recorded in a public space and therefore some audio is not to our usual standards.*