Our School (TV series)

Last updated

Our School
Genre Entertainment
Documentary
Reality television
Created by BBC
Directed byCher Adamson
Chris Chapman
Matt Grosch
Jamie McLeish
Voices ofJonathan Thoburn (Series 1 & 2017 Special, 2018 Special, 2019 Special)
Trevor Evans (Series 2 & 2017 Special, 2018 Special, 2019 Special)
Martin Jones (Series 3 & 2018 Special) Ben Shore (2019 Special)
Ewan Nicoll (Series 4 & 2019 Special)
Shirley Ballas (Our School Summer Camp)
Helena Worth (Series 5 & Series 6)
Brandon Swain (Series 6)
Lily Kerbey (Series 7)
Diane Morgan (Series 8)
Theme music composerSam Gale
Opening theme"Our School"
Ending theme"Our School"
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of series7
Production
Executive producersKez Margrie
Richard Marson
ProducersVanessa Singh
Natasha Cox
Matt Grosch
Cher Adamson
Chris Chapman
Jamie McLeish
Production locations Conyers School, Stockton-on-Tees (Series 1)
Greenwood Academy, Birmingham (Series 2)
Firth Park Academy, Sheffield (Series 3)
Shawlands Academy, Glasgow (Series 4)
Hawthorn High School, Pontypridd (Series 5)
Ryburn Valley High School, Calderdale (Series 6)
Firth Park Academy, Sheffield (Series 7)
Badminton School, Bristol (Series 8)
EditorVarious
Camera setupMulti camera
Dual cameras
Running time22 - 30 minutes
Production company Twofour
Original release
Network CBBC (2014–2022)
Release3 September 2014 (2014-09-03) 
21 October 2022 (2022-10-21)

Our School is a British documentary reality television programme on CBBC which first aired on 3 September 2014 and has run for eight series. It uses a fly-on-the-wall format to show the everyday lives of the staff and pupils in secondary schools and follows children as they move from Year 6 into Year 7. From series 5 onwards, the series featured pupils in both Year 7 and Year 8.

Contents

In 2019, a spin-off called Our School Summer Camp was made, featuring students from series 1, 2 and 3, and some new students, joined by headteacher Shirley Ballas.

Series overview

SeriesEpisodesOriginally aired
First airedLast aired
1163 September 20147 September 2015
2155 January 201619 April 2016
3155 September 201712 December 2017
4207 August 201818 December 2018
5203 September 201910 December 2019
62226 August 202023 December 2020
7206 September 202128 January 2022
82026 September 202221 October 2022

Development and production

Our School was commissioned in September 2013 by the production company TwoFour and CBBC (the children's television brand owned by the BBC and primarily aimed at children aged between the ages of 7 and 16). [1] Each series of programmes follows the day-to-day school life of 11-year-olds as they transition from different primary schools to embark on their first year at a secondary school and the commencement of their Key Stage 3 education. The programme uses a fly-on-the-wall camera approach to record the trials and tribulations, the joys and the sorrows, and the successes and surprises, of eleven Year 7 pupils throughout the whole academic year. Each series is filmed in a different school.

Our School was publicly announced in early 2014. The series follows the same overall format as Educating... , another documentary reality television programme on Channel 4 from the same production company which was first broadcast in September 2011 and which also uses fly-on-the-wall cameras.

Our School has run for eight series on CBBC and BBC iPlayer to date, with each series having between 15 and 20 episodes, and with each episode focusing on a particular event, group of students or storyline. In addition, there have been multiple specials in which students and schools from previous series are revisited.

Episodes

Series 1 (2014–15)

The first series was filmed at Conyers School in the town of Yarm near Middlesbrough. It showed the Year 7 classes experiencing secondary school for the first time and featured some of the challenges they may face in later life.

The first series was made up of 15x30 minute episodes and began to be broadcast on 3 September 2014. The final episode of the series was aired on 10 December 2014.

In 2015, it was announced that a special episode would be added to the first series. This aired on 7 September 2015 and was a catch-up episode that saw the cameras return to see what had happened to the Year 7 pupils, who were now in Year 8.

No.
overall
TitleOriginal air date
1We are Year 73 September 2014
2New Horizons10 September 2014
3Meet the Teachers17 September
4In Trouble24 September 2014
5Finding Friends1 October 2014
6Double Take8 October 2014
7Goals15 October 2014
8I Hate Quiet22 October 2014
9Making Progress29 October 2014
10Three Is a Magic Number5 November 2014
11Behave Yourself12 November 2014
12The Beautiful Game19 November 2014
13Nothing to Be Scared Of26 November 2014
14Love Is in the Air3 December 2014
15Christmas Is Coming10 December 2014
16Special: What Happened Next?7 September 2015

Series 2 (2016)

The second series of Our School was filmed at Greenwood Academy in Castle Vale near Birmingham.

This series began to be aired on 5 January 2016 and ran for 15 weeks, with the final episode being broadcast on 12 April 2016. It was retitled Our School 2 and followed the same format as Series 1. [2]

No.
overall
TitleOriginal air date
17New Starts5 January 2016
18On The Ball12 January 2016
19Getting Ahead19 January 2016
20Find Your Focus26 January 2016
21Change Your Ways2 February 2016
22Going Forward, Stepping Back9 February 2016
23You've Got A Friend16 February 2016
24Who Am I?23 February 2016
25My Camera Never Lies1 March 2016
26Helping Out8 March 2016
27The Hunger Game15 March 2016
28We Can Be Heroes22 March 2016
29Where The Heart Is29 March 2016
30In It To Win It5 April 2016
31Show Stopper12 April 2016

Series 3 (2017)

Before the launch of the third series there was one-off special, which saw two students, one from Series 1 and one from Series 2, swap schools for a day and get to know and interact with the other students. The special aired in August 2017.

The first episode of Series 3 of Our School was broadcast on 5 September 2017. [3] It was filmed at Firth Park Academy in the Shiregreen area of Sheffield. [4]

No.
overall
TitleOriginal air date
33New Faces5 September 2017
34True Colours12 September 2017
35A Goal For Wayne19 September 2017
36Meaty Matters26 September 2017
37Just the Job3 October 2017
38I Can't Do It...Yet10 October 2017
39Show Me the Funny17 October 2017
40There's No i In Team24 October 2017
41The Ghost of Firth Park31 October 2017
42Repping and Rapping7 November 2017
43Swap the Teacher14 November 2017
45Tricky Business21 November 2017
46African Adventure28 November 2017
47Moves Like Michael5 December 2017
48Strictly Year Seven12 December 2017

Special: When Conyers Met Greenwood

Series 4 (2018)

The fourth series was filmed in Scotland, at Shawlands Academy in the Shawlands area of Glasgow.

SPECIALS:

Series 5 (2019)

The fifth series was filmed in south Wales, at Hawthorn High School (Ysgol Uwchradd Y Hawthorn) in the village of Hawthorn, Rhondda Cynon Taf near Pontypridd. In a new feature, for the first time year 8 pupils were also featured alongside the year 7 pupils in the show.

Episodes
Episode NumberEpisode NameOriginal Air Date
1A Brand New Term3 September 2019
2A Class Full of Chickens10 September 2019
3When School Sucked17 September 2019
4Here Comes Trouble24 September 2019
5Plastic Not Fantastic1 October 2019
6Lessons in Gunge8 October 2019
7A Slice of Pizza15 October 2019
8Face Your Fears22 October 2019
9Partners in Crime29 October 2019
10Our Scary Movie29 October 2019 (iPlayer Exclusive)
11Teaching Me Tidy5 November 2019
12Leap of Faith5 November 2019 (iPlayer Exclusive)
13Vote for Me12 November 2019
14Can't Play Will Play!12 November 2019 (iPlayer Exclusive)
15And Then They Were Eight19 November 2019
16Would You Eat Frogs Legs19 November 2019 (iPlayer Exclusive)
17Keep Calm and Carry On26 November 2019
18The Magic of Christmas3 December 2019
19Get Your Act Together10 December 2019
20Our School Rocks10 December 2019 (iPlayer Exclusive)
21SPECIAL: How We've ChangedSeptember 2019
22SPECIAL: Taking The Boys Out Of SheffieldSeptember 2019

Series 6 (2020)

Series 6 was filmed at Ryburn Valley High School in the town of Sowerby Bridge in the Upper Calder Valley of West Yorkshire. The first episode was broadcast on 26 August 2020.

Episodes
Episode NumberEpisode NameOriginal Air Date
Lockdown Special 1Lockdown: 1iPlayer Exclusive
Lockdown Special 2Lockdown: 2iPlayer Exclusive
1Every Dream Counts26 August 2020
2The Power Of Yet2 September 2020
3Twinfinity And Beyond9 September 2020
4Don't Touch My Crocodile16 September 2020
5The Appliance of ScienceiPlayer Exclusive
6Teacher's Pet23 September 2020
7Where There's a Wheel30 September 2020
8Operation PrankiPlayer Exclusive
9Trick Or TeachiPlayer Exclusive
10Anything I Can Do We Can Do Better7 October 2020
11Change the World with Kindness14 October 2020
12Age Is Just A NumberiPlayer Exclusive
13I'm With the Band21 October 2020
14The Forgotten Room28 October 2020
15Think Before You SinkiPlayer Exclusive
16Set Your Fear on Fire4 November 2020
17If At First You Don't SucceediPlayer Exclusive
18The Seeds of Change11 November 2020
19Less Chat More ActioniPlayer Exclusive
20The Christmas Express18 November 2020
21The Show Must Go On25 November 2020
22One Last Dance2 December 2020

Series 7 (2021-2022)

Series 7, filmed at Firth Park Academy, started broadcasting on CBBC on 6 September 2021. The series consists of 20 episodes aired over selected weeks of the Autumn and Spring terms of the current academic year as part of the Bitesize programming block. The first ten episodes aired during the first two weeks of the school year before taking a break. The series resumed with the remaining ten episodes from 17 January 2022. The episodes were made available on iPlayer as well.

Episodes
Episode NumberEpisode NameOriginal Air Date
1Bin Those Fears6 September 2021
2That’ll Teach Them7 September 2021
3The Pet Test8 September 2021
4The Rabbit Whisperer9 September 2021
5Mind Games10 September 2021
6Viva Espana!13 September 2021
7There's No Planet B14 September 2021
8Takeover Day15 September 2021
9Grow Your Own Library16 September 2021
10From Ramadan to Eid17 September 2021
11You Snooze You Lose17 January 2022
12Puppy Love18 January 2022
13Growing Pains19 January 2022
14This Little Piggy20 January 2022
15How to Be a Winner21 January 2022
16King Tim and the Big Art Scam24 January 2022
17Cool to Be Kind25 January 2022
18You're Hired26 January 2022
19Just Be Fierce27 January 2022
20Brave The Stage28 January 2022

Series 8 (2022) Our Boarding School

Series 8 was filmed at Badminton School, an independent boarding and day school for girls in Westbury-on-Trym, Bristol. The series was scheduled to start on 12 September 2022 but was delayed to a later date due to the death of Elizabeth II. As such, the BBC iPlayer synopsis for the episode "Pen Pals" has a notice saying that it was filmed in 2021 before her death, as she is mentioned in the present tense once. The series is narrated by Diane Morgan.

Episodes
Episode NumberEpisode NameOriginal Air Date
1Away from Home26 September 2022
2Around the House27 September 2022
3Year of the Tiger28 September 2022
4Watch This Space29 September 2022
5Braving the Storm30 September 2022
6All About Emily3 October 2022
7Join the Club4 October 2022
8All the Feels5 October 2022
9School of Rock6 October 2022
10Pen Pals7 October 2022
11New to the Nest10 October 2022
12Can You Cook It?11 October 2022
13House Wars12 October 2022
14What's On Your Mind?13 October 2022
15How it Started/How it's Going14 October 2022
16Take the Plunge17 October 2022
17The Staff of Destiny18 October 2022
18How to Get a Head19 October 2022
19Prom Planners20 October 2022
20School, Good Vibes Only21 October 2022

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References

  1. Catherine Booth Bible College (1989), CBBC, Office of Media Ministries, OCLC   1057737839
  2. Cameron Decker (14 April 2016). "Our School - Series 2: New Starts - BBC Documentary 2016" via YouTube.
  3. Elvis Javier Mattos Villegas (5 September 2017). "Our School - Series 3: BBC Documentary 2017" via YouTube.
  4. "We Are Year 7, Series 1, Our School - Credits - BBC - CBBC". BBC.