Do I need a TV license to access this content?
As with all BBC broadcast and iPlayer material, the new education content will only be available to those who hold a valid TV license.
Some families from low socio-economic backgrounds can’t afford a TV licence. Can they still use the shows on iPlayer and Red Button?We appreciate this is going to impact a small number of viewers, however the licence fee is what allows us to adapt and make this content available in the first place. All BBC online content – including everything on Bitesize Daily Lessons – is available without a licence fee.
I don’t have broadband access, how can I access the service?
All homes with a TV can access the Bitesize Daily programmes via the Red Button. Bitesize Daily Lessons will need internet access, but this can just as easily be via a smartphone as home internet – the BBC Bitesize website is optimised for use on phones.
How can I access via the Red Button?
On your TV if you navigate to any BBC channel there should be a tab with ‘Red Button’ in the top left corner of your screen. Press your remote’s Red Button when this is displayed and you can navigate from there. The channel can also be accessed via Freeview channel 601, Freesat channel 981, Sky channel 980 and Virgin Media channel 991but this doesn’t have the full accessibility or allow High Definition viewing.
How long with the Bitesize Daily programmes stay on the iPlayer?
You can watch on the iPlayer at any time. Each day’s learning will be hosted there from 9am that day. The TV shows will stay on iPlayer for 12 months in keeping with BBC Editorial Policy.
Where can I find the lessons for today/tomorrow/next week?
Take a look at our overview of home learning across the BBC. For more detail check out our online Daily Lessons schedule for all the topics we're covering of the next week. And our helpful guide to what's happen on iPlayer and red button.
Are the lessons designed for students to learn on their own or do parents need to be around to support?
This is age dependant. The online activities and lessons for older children will be suitable for solo study. For younger learners, a degree of guidance will be helpful, although they can probably complete some of the activities independently.The Bitesize Daily TV show can be watched by both parents and children.
Will you also be including content/lessons for other subjects such as Business Studies/Religious Studies/Art/German/Design & Technology/Music etc.
Outside English and Maths the curriculum will vary week-to-week for each age group. It’s important that we’re able to over a breadth of learning experiences for children that supports what they’re missing from school and keeps them engaged. We’ve just released the first week’s lessons so far, check back soon to see what’s coming up!
Will the new online content be available overseas?
BBC Bitesize online is accessible internationally, but all A/V, animated content and games are geolocked to the UK. This protects the value of the service for UK licence fee payers, and will help ensure that international visitors are not confused by content which is inappropriate to their local curriculum.
Is there a way to save my child’s progress as they work through the lessons?
We’re afraid not. BBC Bitesize allows for a degree of personalised learning behind sign-in - you can save guides for later, for example. However, we don’t, and won’t, offer recording of progress and teacher feedback.
This does not match what they are learning at school? Where did you get this from?
The BBC Bitesize team has worked closely with education consultants, teachers and education providers to devise a suitable curriculum for the summer term which supports stay at home learners and parents. The offer has been designed with sufficient breadth to meet requirements and approaches for the majority of schools across the UK, with extra programming to support variations in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
This isn’t a replacement for the amazing work teachers are doing to support home schooling and the kids of our key workers in the classroom. But we hope that our content can help lighten the load for teachers.
Can I print off the lessons?
Some lessons include printable activity sheets which can be used by children and parents. Some lessons will require onward journeys to other education provider partners, and others will include interactive elements and A/V content, so won’t have full functionality if printed off.
What content is there for under 5s?
BBC Bitesize Daily won’t cater for pre-school aged children. But there is some content on the BBC Bitesize website for younger children – some of the Primary games such as the counting game Bud’s Number Garden and My First Day at School are designed for children aged 5 and under. The BBC Bitesize website also has articles giving advice for parents whose children are due to start school in September.
In addition there is a range of enriching and educational content on the BBC Children’s iPlayer and fun games, clips and songs on the CBeebies website .
What content is there for older kids who are prepping for GCSEs?
BBC Bitesize is the UK’s most used GCSE study support and that content will remain available throughout this period. It offers customisable, personalised learning journeys for all users to help fill in the gaps they’ll be missing through school closures.
For students in year 10, Bitesize Daily Lessons will offering online lessons in English, maths and a third core subject every weekday. These will be avaible online and in the Bitesize App.
We will also be using the BBC Bitesize Instagram account for social quizzes, interactive and peer led content and weekly teacher Q&As. And BBC Four will devote a block of programming each weekday evening to shows that support GCSE and A-Level curriculums including broadcast versions of various Shakespeare plays; reruns of classic drama adaptations; and showing some of our award-winning science and nature documentaries.
What content is there for older kids who are prepping for A-Levels?
BBC Bitesize Daily won’t cater for A-Level students. However BBC Four will devote a block of programming each weekday evening to shows that support GCSE and A-Level curriculums including broadcast versions of various Shakespeare plays; reruns of classic drama adaptations such as Great Expectations, Tess of the d’Urbevilles and An Inspector Calls; and showing some of our award-winning science and nature documentaries. such as Jim Al Khalili’s physics documentaries. Check the BBC Four schedule.
Mental health and wellbeing will be an important aspect of home schooling experiences for children and parents, how are you helping?
BBC Education is working with the Department for Education, and experts in child wellbeing and mental health, to offer support for parents and help children overcome the sense of loss they may feel from not being in school at this time. We will be sharing articles on BBC Bitesize, and giving coping tips to support parents and children via our social channels.
Why is the BBC replacing school? Most teachers are still working remotely or looking after key workers’ kids.
This isn’t a replacement for the amazing work teachers are doing to support home schooling and with children of key workers in the classroom. We hope our content will lighten teachers’ load; help with lesson planning and homework setting; and that teachers will feel happy recommending us to parents.
I'm a teacher - can I help and be involved?
Thanks – we’ve been blown away by the offers of support and input from the teacher community. We’re already working with nearly 100 teachers and education consultants to make BBC Bitesize Daily the most enriching and engaging offer we can for children.
What's going to be available for SEN (special educational needs) kids?
We have published a parents’ toolkit on BBC Bitesize which brings together lots of helpful resources across the BBC for parents of children with SEND as well as articles giving tips and advice.
My child is dyslexic and finds reading difficult – will this new content involve a lot of reading?
Every day there will be age appropriate content on the Red Button and iPlayer for every child. Online lessons will include some reading but we are using existing video clips and animated content to illustrate points wherever this is possible.
Will your programmes/clips include subtitles for hearing impaired learners?
All the Bitesize Daily broadcasts on the iPlayer will be subtitled for hearing impaired viewers. Unfortunately programmes on the red button don’t have subtitles at the moment but we are working hard to rectify this asap. All of Bitesize's own videos include closed captioning and we are working with our partners to try and caption all of their videos as quickly as we can.
It’s hard to do singing/rapping etc during Ramadan, will you have Music content without voice work?We’re working with the production team to try and update this content.
I’m confused about the age groups as there’s some crossover.For Bitesize Daily on iPlayer and Red Button we have grouped the sessions into age groups that correspond with the key stages to allow for progression between year groups. For the online Daily Lessons, these are more granular so have been divided into individual year groups
Why don’t the topics on iPlayer match the website?
Bitesize Daily on iPlayer and Red Button is a 20 minute inspiration show designed to kick start your learning day. We’ve split it into four age brackets and cover a mix of subjects across the week. It isn’t designed to be a pre-requisite to online learning.
Daily Lessons on the Bitesize website is providing individual lessons for each year group. It’s covering English and Maths every day so is able to go into more detail. The two services are following slightly different programmes of study for the core subjects, in order to both broaden the range of learning with some aspects of reinforcement and revision, but allow parents and children to dip in and out of each offer independently of the other. We hope both services are useful for parents and students.
When will the lessons be available for? Can I find old lessons?
Bitesize Daily on iPlayer will be available for 12 months and can all be found on Bitesize section of iPlayer.The Daily Lessons on the Bitesize website will be available for the duration of school closures during the summer term. All previous lessons can currently be found on the Daily Lessons website. (hyperlinked)
Why are there still no subtitles on the TV for the shows?We’re working on a fix for this. We’ve committed to make close captioning available for all BBC Education content, and the same goes for Bitesize Daily as the videos we make available online.
Can teachers see a snapshot of the content before it goes live so they can work into their planning?We’re afraid not. The listings page on Bitesize provides a breakdown of what’s covered in each lesson. but we won’t be able to make edits of video available ahead of time. Our teams are already working round the clock to make sure that Bitesize Daily is available for kids and parents every morning and though we’d love to get content to teachers earlier, we aren’t able to do this.
There’s no diversity on Take on the Teacher this week
We’re doing our best to make sure that we represent the demographics of the UK across the run of programming. Last week on two of our teachers were female, and we had maths super-teacher Bobby Seagull with us too. Similarly, many of our readers on Bitesize Daily are either female, BAME or both – in week one we heard from Anita Rani, Oti Mabuse and Maro Itoje.
What’s the role of Teacher Talks, is this taking over from Bitesize Daily?
No – it’s adding to it! If you’re struggling with some of the concepts introduced by the teachers in studio, the Teacher Talks are for you. They’re five minute clips explaining key concepts in each subject – from Pythagoras to poetry, algebra to assonance. Most parents haven’t been in the classroom for some time, this new set of films is designed to help them with all those tricky questions they might be asked by their kids.
What are you doing for children in Wales?
BBC Wales launched Gwersi Dyddiol Bitesize on April 20th. They also have content available on the BBC iPlayer.
In addition, there is already guidance for parents to help them navigate their way through the wealth of resources available on BBC Bitesize and BBC Teach for Wales-specific content in English and Welsh. The BBC Bitesize Facebook page and BBC Wales Twitter page will also direct parents to relevant content.
What are you doing for children in Scotland?
BBC Scotland will deliver 1.5-2 hours’ of learning content daily on the BBC Scotland channel, including content from BBC Bitesize and other educational programming such as Authors Live.
There will also be a new Facebook group focusing on support and resources for parents which will launch soon. BBC ALBA is creating a learning collection which will be scheduled daily on the channel and will be available on BBC iPlayer, in addition to existing resources to support Gaelic medium education on BBC Bitesize.
What are you doing for children in Northern Ireland?
BBC Northern Ireland will have local curriculum Bitesize content on iPlayer and will be launching a number of skills-based projects to get learners creating at home. This will include a daily programme for primary school children at 2pm called The Afternoon Club; a special version of the creative writing campaign Two Minute Tales; The Wonder Gallery challenges everyone under-18 to create a piece of art based on a theme set by a different artist each week; and, as part of Young Reporter, we are seeking stories from young people about living in isolation.
