大象传媒

First came BAFTA winning Educating Yorkshire, then Educating Essex. So why not adapt their documentary skills to filming children, thought production company Twofour? That鈥檚 how the returning C大象传媒 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, C大象传媒鈥檚 executive producer, says she hopes the series will help make the transition from primary school to 鈥渂ig鈥� school easier. That鈥檚 not to say that it鈥檚 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鈥檚 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? Both the children and the teachers prepared as much as they could, with performing arts teacher and series narrator Trevor Evans holding weekly focus groups after every episode aired. This was for the children to be able to discuss anything that might have arisen, including anything on social media 鈥� itself a contentious issue for children and one of the series鈥� storylines.

Our School doesn鈥檛 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.*