An Overview Of BBC Bitesize

By Luke Redding

The BBC Bitesize service is an online support service for children in Great Britain. It was built to aid school children with their education and to help them pass exams. The site was started in 1998 with the tagline "Making revision easier to digest".

At first BBC Bitesize only looked in to the core UK subjects of Mathematics, Science and English. They were chosen from the KS One, KS Two and KS Three curriculum, and also the GCSE curriculum. Later, a Scottish curriculum was added to the program and, in recent years, the Welsh curriculum.

The site has revision guides and course notes, as well quizzes, games and actors. The notes on the site help students to learn the key facts that are necessary to progress and are augmented by picture and diagrams. To this the BBC has also released a series of books and other media and an interactive TV service, through the BBCi feature.

The first section of the BBC Bitesize site (The English Section) is divided into four sections; KS One, KS Two, KS Three and the GCSE part. The KS One site looks at literacy and numeracy. The KS Two site looks at Mathematics, English and Science. The KS Three site looks at the same subjects as KS Two just with further detail. This includes work on Shakespeare, Quadratic Equations and human biology.

The GCSE section is yet more complex than the other three. It covers more subjects, which include Art, Business Studies, French, Design and Technology, German, Geography, Spanish, Music, History, Physical Education and Religious Studies. The three main subjects are still looked at in extensive detail and are accompanied by extra learning devices.

The Scottish section of the BBC Bitesize site is divided into two secions; Standard Grades and Highers. The site covering Standard Grades looks at twelve different subjects. These are Mathematics, Chemistry, Biology, Physics, English, Geography, History, French, Modern Studies, Religious Studies, Computing Studies and Physical Education.

The Highers site covers the same subjects, only in much greater detail. Also included is the Scotland only subject of Scottish Gaelic. There is also a section for Gaelic students to study with, called Gaidhlig. However, not all subjects on the curriculum are included, for example Economics or Business Management.

The third section of the BBC Bitesize site (The Welsh Section) looks at four subjects. These are Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics and Welsh. There is also an extra resource that is available to allow a non-Welsh student to learn Welsh as another language. It should be noted that the Welsh section is the newest part of the site and is therefore still in the development stages.

There has been some criticism of the BBC Bitesize site despite it being such a simple system. The Computer Studies system, for example, is considered by many to be out of date. There is also criticism from Scotland and Wales that their curriculums are not covered in enough detail. A similar complaint is that the site's use of cartoons is patronizing and aesthetically unappealing.

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