Schedule:Summer 1931
Nature Study, Astronomy, Geology & Great Experiments in Science
(Scottish Regional Programme)
Children of Other Days
(National Programme, Mondays 2:30pm)
Early Stages in French
(National Programme, Tuesdays 3:35pm)
Music
(National Programme, Tuesdays from 2:30pm)
Syllabus for England
Syllabus for Scotland
BBC Radio
National Programme
Schools radio broadcasts on BBC transmitters throughout the UK, including Belfast and Cardiff, but excluding the London and Midland Regional Programmes, and Scottish stations (see below for Scotland).
| MONDAY | TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY | THURSDAY | FRIDAY | |||||||||||||
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| 14:00 | ||||||||||||||||
| 14:05 Nature StudyOut of Doors Week by Week | 14:05 Tracing History Backwards | |||||||||||||||
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| 14:15 | ||||||||||||||||
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| 14:30 | 14:30 Children of Other Days1731-1931 | 14:30 MusicBeginners' Lesson | 14:30 Biology and HygieneYour Body Every Day | 14:30 English Speech | 14:30 Rural ScienceThe School Garden / The Plant and the Soil | |||||||||||
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| 14:45 | ||||||||||||||||
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| 15:00 | 15:00 Music Miniature Concert | 15:00 English LiteratureThinking and Writing | 15:00 Travel TalksPeoples and Lands of the British Empire: Malaya, Ceylon, Burma, India | |||||||||||||
| 15:05 Stories from the Mythology and Folklore of the World | ||||||||||||||||
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| 15:15 | 15:15 MusicAdvanced Lesson | |||||||||||||||
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| 15:30 | 15:30 Dramatic Reading | 15:30 Concert to Schools(The Sybil Eaton Quartet) | ||||||||||||||
| 15:35 Early Stages in French(M. Stéphan) | ||||||||||||||||
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| 15:45 | ||||||||||||||||
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| 16:00 | 16:00 Specially Selected Gramophone Records | |||||||||||||||
| 16:05 Talks for Older PupilsGreat Moments in Modern History | ||||||||||||||||
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| 16:15 | ||||||||||||||||
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| 16:30 | ||||||||||||||||
Scottish Regional Programmes
Schools radio broadcasts from Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dundee.
| MONDAY | TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY | THURSDAY | FRIDAY | |||||||||||||
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| 14:15 | 14:15 Reading | |||||||||||||||
| 14:20 GeographyThe Empire and Its Peoples | ||||||||||||||||
| 14:25 Reading | ||||||||||||||||
| 14:30 | 14:30 Music Making | |||||||||||||||
| 14:35 Reading | 14:35 Reading | 14:35 Reading | ||||||||||||||
| 14:40 AstronomyBehold the Heavens! | 14:40 GeologyThe Face of Scotland | 14:40 Elementary French(Jean-Jacques Oberlin) | 14:40 Scottish HistoryThings Seen in Old Scotland | |||||||||||||
| 14:45 | 14:45 Concerts for Primary and Secondary Schools(Herbert Wiseman) | |||||||||||||||
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| 15:00 | ||||||||||||||||
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| 15:10 Reading | 15:10 English LiteratureWhy We Like Poetry | 15:10 Science Talks for Advanced DivisionsGreat Experiments in Science | ||||||||||||||
| 15:15 | 15:15 Nature StudyNature and Her Ways | |||||||||||||||
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| 15:30 | ||||||||||||||||
Notes & New Programmes
In England the main term of broadcasts ran from Monday 27th April to Friday 26th June 1931. There were no broadcasts in the week beginning 25th May 1931 due to the Whit week school holidays, so there were a total of 8 weeks of broadcasts.
There were also no schools broadcast on Wednesday 3rd June 1931, as the BBC was transmitting coverage of the Derby horse racing event. The Wednesday programmes were postponed by a week and finished on Wednesday 1st July 1931. In the final week of term the BBC provided commentary on Wimbledon tennis matches throughout the afternoon, but there were no interruptions to the schools broadcasts.
As noted above these broadcasts were carried on the BBC network of regional programmes (except in London and the Midlands) as well as the National Programme from Daventry. However the Thursday programmes were not transmitted from Manchester - as far as I can tell the Manchester transmitter simply did not broadcast anything at that time on Thursdays.
In Scotland the broadcasts ran from Monday 27th April to Friday 19th June 1931 with no days or weeks off (the Derby was not broadcast in Scotland, and Whit week not observed) for a total of 8 weeks. Each day's schools transmissions in Scotland were preceded by a three-minute long reading "to give teachers an opportunity to tune their sets, and to allow the children to settle down."
Astronomy & Geology were broadcast monthly - there were only two episodes of each this term. Nature Study was fortnightly in the intervening weeks, so there was only ever one schools programme broadcast on any particular Monday. The broadcast dates for the Astronomy talks were apparently timed so that Mars and Jupiter could be well observed by budding astronomers. The 2nd Astronomy broadcast on 1st June 1931 took an entirely hypothetical Trip to the Moon.
Seven pamphlets of programme notes were published to accompany this term's schools broadcasts from London (in addition to the termly syllabus documents, and the English Speech pamphlet which covered the whole academic year 1930-31 and was still available for sale). Four further programme pamphlets were published to accompany the Scottish broadcasts. Recordings of A. Lloyd James's English Speech talks were available to buy on record from Linguaphone - presumably these were special re-recordings rather than original broadcasts.
Tracing History Backwards was new this term, billed as "An Experimental Course", it took a different approach to history than Rhoda Power's more traditional storytelling in programmes such as Children of Other Days, and aimed for a much older audience. Tracing History Backwards was based on linking contemporary events with relevant historical episodes and sending pupils off to do their own research after the broadcast. The talks were given by Commander Stephen King-Hall and the series lasted until the BBC's schools history output was revised in 1935.
Sources & References
- BBC (1931a) Broadcasts to Schools Programme and Syllabus 27 April - 26 June 1931. London: BBC
- BBC (1931b) Broadcasts to Scottish Schools Programme and Syllabus 27 April - 19 June 1931. Edinburgh: BBC
- Radio Times listings, 1931
- The Times broadcasting listings, 1931, via The Times Digital Archive
Subjects key
Different colours indicate different school subjects.