Teachers TV was a UK government–funded website and former

free-to-air Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring a subscripti ...

distance education Distance education, also known as distance learning, is the education of students who may not always be physically present at a school, or where the learner and the teacher are separated in both time and distance. Traditionally, this usually in ...

television channel which operated from 2005–2011. The website provided video and support materials for those who work in education, including teachers, school leaders, governors, teacher trainers, student teachers and support staff. Its original aims included raising educational standards, saving the workforce time, and boosting professional development. All content was available to watch or download for free. The service was launched on 8 February 2005. During its operations, it was managed by Education Digital Management Ltd, and funded by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (

DCSF Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) was a department of the UK government, between 2007 and 2010, responsible for issues affecting people in England up to the age of 19, including child protection and education. DCSF was repla ...

). The website was co-owned by

Ten Alps Ten Alps Plc () is a UK-based multimedia production company formed of three divisions. Television production falls under four brands: Blakeway, Brook Lapping, Films of Record and Reef TV. The first three produce documentaries and current affairs p ...

(75%) and ITN (25%). In October 2010, Ten Alps announced that the Department for Education was cancelling the £10m annual Teachers TV contract for 2011. As of April 2018
all content produced by Teachers TV
remains freely available at the TES website.

Programming

General programming included a weekly half-hour news programme, documentaries on the educational issues and controversies of the day, and guidance on topics such as behaviour management. It covered all

National Curriculum A national curriculum is a common programme of study in schools that is designed to ensure nationwide uniformity of content and standards in education. It is usually legislated by the national government, possibly in consultation with state or other ...

subjects, as well as specialist programmes for headteachers, managers, newly qualified teachers (NQT),

teaching assistant A teaching assistant or teacher's aide (TA) or education assistant (EA) or team teacher (TT) is an individual who assists a teacher with instructional responsibilities. TAs include ''graduate teaching assistants'' (GTAs), who are graduate stud ...

s (TA), and governors. It also had an educational news service supplied by ITN.

Charter

While it was funded by the DCSF, Teachers TV was editorially independent of government. This was a requirement of the

Communications Act 2003 The Communications Act 2003 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The act, which came into force on 25 July 2003, superseded the Telecommunications Act 1984. The new act was the responsibility of Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell. It ...

and

Ofcom The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-ranging powers acros ...

, the regulator for the UK communications industries. To ensure accountability for its funding, a governance process was established, managed by the Teachers TV Board of Governors.

Operations

Teachers TV (TTV) was a government-funded, advertisement-aided programme for teachers. It was initially an online TV channel, then just a web vehicle for specific professional training — Continuous Professional Development, or CPD, mainly via video experiences across all curricula, age groups and other school based issues, specifically aimed at teachers. It was run by a highly professional group of individuals, at extremely high costs, managed by

. 2011 saw the launch of Teaching Channel, a US initiative to deliver professional development videos for teachers over the Internet, public television, cable and other digital outlets.

Decline and closure

In March 2010,

Ed Balls Edward Michael Balls (born 25 February 1967) is a British broadcaster, writer, economist, professor and former politician who served as Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families from 2007 to 2010, and as Shadow Chancellor of the Ex ...

, then

Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families The Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families was a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, responsible for the work of the Department for Children, Schools and Families. The post was created on 28 June 2007 aft ...

(

) axed the broadcast deals in place with

Freeview Freeview may refer to: *Freeview (Australia), the marketing name for the digital terrestrial television platform in Australia *Freeview (New Zealand), a digital satellite and digital terrestrial television platform in New Zealand *Freeview (UK), a ...

Freesat Freesat is a British free-to-air satellite television service, first formed as a joint venture between the BBC and ITV plc and now owned by Digital UK. The service was formed as a memorandum in 2007 and has been marketed since 6 May 2008. Free ...

, Sky and

Virgin Media Virgin Media is a British telecommunications company which provides telephone, television and internet services in the United Kingdom. Its headquarters are at Green Park in Reading, England. It is owned by Virgin Media O2, a 50:50 joint ventu ...

in a bid to save the channel around £1m in carriage costs annually. It closed on Freeview first on 21 July, and Freesat, Sky and Virgin followed on 31 August 2010. Online availability was unaffected by the change. On 15 October 2010, Ten Alps announced that the Department for Education was cancelling the £10m annual Teachers TV contract from April 2011. The contract was due to run until 2013, but the government invoked a six-month break clause. The service had 400,000 registered users. It provided 783,000 training day sessions online in 2009 and claimed to have saved schools an estimated £235m. In 2011 a number of providersTeachfind.com Launches to Save Decommissioned Govt Education Sites
/ref> gained a licence from the Department for Education to distribute the Teachers TV videos. Only those videos which were commissioned by the Teachers TV service are available under the terms of the licence.

Reception

Deemed 'successful', Teachers TV gained a wide audience of teachers, heads, assistants and governors, with over 3,500 best practice videos and further raw material for up to 6,000 with investment into new content regularly. Government funding was withdrawn April 2011, and Teachers TV ceased to exist, but all the content was made available for those organisations that would be able to provide free access to all the material for teachers nationally in the UK. Popular videos included those by behaviour experts John Bayley, Sue Cowley and

The Scary Guy The Scary Guy (sometimes stylized THE SCARY GUY) (born ) is a United Kingdom-based American motivational speaker who campaigns worldwide to eliminate hate, violence, prejudice, and bullying in schools and corporations. In addition to being a tatt ...

, as well as teachers and other school workers who showed hands-on examples of good practice. As of April 2018, 107 entries from the Teachers TV back catalogue are flagged as "recommended by TES" in the active TES archive.

References

External links

Teachers TV videos available on Teachers Media created by the team behind Teachers TVTeachers TV videos and resources available at SchoolsWorld
* ttps://www.tes.com/member/Teachers%20TV Teachers TV videos available on TESbr>DCSF pageTeachers' channel takes to air - BBC News
{{DEFAULTSORT:Teachers Tv Television channels in the United Kingdom Television channels and stations established in 2005 Educational and instructional television channels Teaching Educational broadcasting in the United Kingdom Television channels and stations disestablished in 2010 Defunct British television channels