Our School (TV series)

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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.

Our School
GenreEntertainment
Documentary
Reality television
Created byBBC
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 locationsConyers 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 companyTwofour
Original release
NetworkCBBC (2014–2022)
Release3 September 2014 (2014-09-03) –
21 October 2022 (2022-10-21)

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

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Series Episodes Originally aired
First aired Last aired
1 16 3 September 2014 (2014-09-03) 7 September 2015 (2015-09-07)
2 15 5 January 2016 (2016-01-05) 19 April 2016 (2016-04-19)
3 15 5 September 2017 (2017-09-05) 12 December 2017 (2017-12-12)
4 20 7 August 2018 (2018-08-07) 18 December 2018 (2018-12-18)
5 20 3 September 2019 (2019-09-03) 10 December 2019 (2019-12-10)
6 22 26 August 2020 (2020-08-26) 23 December 2020 (2020-12-23)
7 20 6 September 2021 (2021-09-06) 28 January 2022 (2022-01-28)
8 20 26 September 2022 (2022-09-26) 21 October 2022 (2022-10-21)

Development and production

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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

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Series 1 (2014–15)

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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)

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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)

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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)

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

  • The New Boy
  • Laugh Out Loud
  • Give Us a Try
  • I'm Not Your Dude
  • It's Great Outdoors
  • A Piece of Cake
  • Something New
  • Frenemies
  • Try Being Me
  • Express Yourself
  • You Can't Win 'Em All
  • We're All Scottish
  • Deaducation
  • Back in the Day
  • Paws for Thought
  • Eyes on the Prize
  • In at the Deep End
  • Passion for Fashion
  • Edinburgh - Here We Come!
  • So This Is Christmas

SPECIALS:

  • One Last Term
  • Moving Day
  • Return to Firth Park

Series 5 (2019)

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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 Number Episode Name Original Air Date
1 A Brand New Term 3 September 2019
2 A Class Full of Chickens 10 September 2019
3 When School Sucked 17 September 2019
4 Here Comes Trouble 24 September 2019
5 Plastic Not Fantastic 1 October 2019
6 Lessons in Gunge 8 October 2019
7 A Slice of Pizza 15 October 2019
8 Face Your Fears 22 October 2019
9 Partners in Crime 29 October 2019
10 Our Scary Movie 29 October 2019 (iPlayer Exclusive)
11 Teaching Me Tidy 5 November 2019
12 Leap of Faith 5 November 2019 (iPlayer Exclusive)
13 Vote for Me 12 November 2019
14 Can't Play Will Play! 12 November 2019 (iPlayer Exclusive)
15 And Then They Were Eight 19 November 2019
16 Would You Eat Frogs Legs 19 November 2019 (iPlayer Exclusive)
17 Keep Calm and Carry On 26 November 2019
18 The Magic of Christmas 3 December 2019
19 Get Your Act Together 10 December 2019
20 Our School Rocks 10 December 2019 (iPlayer Exclusive)
21 SPECIAL: How We've Changed September 2019
22 SPECIAL: Taking The Boys Out Of Sheffield September 2019

Series 6 (2020)

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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 Number Episode Name Original Air Date
Lockdown Special 1 Lockdown: 1 iPlayer Exclusive
Lockdown Special 2 Lockdown: 2 iPlayer Exclusive
1 Every Dream Counts 26 August 2020
2 The Power Of Yet 2 September 2020
3 Twinfinity And Beyond 9 September 2020
4 Don't Touch My Crocodile 16 September 2020
5 The Appliance of Science iPlayer Exclusive
6 Teacher's Pet 23 September 2020
7 Where There's a Wheel 30 September 2020
8 Operation Prank iPlayer Exclusive
9 Trick Or Teach iPlayer Exclusive
10 Anything I Can Do We Can Do Better 7 October 2020
11 Change the World with Kindness 14 October 2020
12 Age Is Just A Number iPlayer Exclusive
13 I'm With the Band 21 October 2020
14 The Forgotten Room 28 October 2020
15 Think Before You Sink iPlayer Exclusive
16 Set Your Fear on Fire 4 November 2020
17 If At First You Don't Succeed iPlayer Exclusive
18 The Seeds of Change 11 November 2020
19 Less Chat More Action iPlayer Exclusive
20 The Christmas Express 18 November 2020
21 The Show Must Go On 25 November 2020
22 One Last Dance 2 December 2020

Series 7 (2021-2022)

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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 Number Episode Name Original Air Date
1 Bin Those Fears 6 September 2021
2 That’ll Teach Them 7 September 2021
3 The Pet Test 8 September 2021
4 The Rabbit Whisperer 9 September 2021
5 Mind Games 10 September 2021
6 Viva Espana! 13 September 2021
7 There's No Planet B 14 September 2021
8 Takeover Day 15 September 2021
9 Grow Your Own Library 16 September 2021
10 From Ramadan to Eid 17 September 2021
11 You Snooze You Lose 17 January 2022
12 Puppy Love 18 January 2022
13 Growing Pains 19 January 2022
14 This Little Piggy 20 January 2022
15 How to Be a Winner 21 January 2022
16 King Tim and the Big Art Scam 24 January 2022
17 Cool to Be Kind 25 January 2022
18 You're Hired 26 January 2022
19 Just Be Fierce 27 January 2022
20 Brave The Stage 28 January 2022

Series 8 (2022) Our Boarding School

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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 Number Episode Name Original Air Date
1 Away from Home 26 September 2022
2 Around the House 27 September 2022
3 Year of the Tiger 28 September 2022
4 Watch This Space 29 September 2022
5 Braving the Storm 30 September 2022
6 All About Emily 3 October 2022
7 Join the Club 4 October 2022
8 All the Feels 5 October 2022
9 School of Rock 6 October 2022
10 Pen Pals 7 October 2022
11 New to the Nest 10 October 2022
12 Can You Cook It? 11 October 2022
13 House Wars 12 October 2022
14 What's On Your Mind? 13 October 2022
15 How it Started/How it's Going 14 October 2022
16 Take the Plunge 17 October 2022
17 The Staff of Destiny 18 October 2022
18 How to Get a Head 19 October 2022
19 Prom Planners 20 October 2022
20 School, Good Vibes Only 21 October 2022

References

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  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.
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