Promoting education and learning
BBC jam is a learner-centred interactive service built around formal, curricular education.

Our content – developed after consultation with subject specialists and the Government’s British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (BECTA) – will evolve to cover a broad range of school subjects targeted at particular age groups. It puts the learner at the centre and is designed to help bridge the gap between school and home. We aim to introduce new subjects every few months over the course of the year.

Working within the conditions set for the service by the Government, we will not take a didactic approach to our subjects, but will develop them in a way that encourages self-motivation, exploration and creativity, with users controlling their own learning. Our service is designed to aid their understanding, build competencies and encourage collaboration with other learners.

This year:

• We will specifically work to ensure a spread of coverage across different subjects in order to meet, over time, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport condition on quotas for different categories of subjects.
• We will experiment with technological innovation, and will also include resources that are pedagogically innovative.

Reflecting the UK’s nations, regions and communities
We aim to stimulate, support and reflect the diversity of the UK, offering a range of high-quality material for 5 to 16 year olds from all backgrounds and in all parts of the country.

We will provide original content and draw on BBC archive material to support the distinct curricula in all four nations.

Our service – which is a safe environment for young users – will be accessible at any time and from any location across the UK, as long as there is an internet connection.

Content that is accessible by school students of all levels will be provided, including a range of resources specifically developed for individuals with special needs.

This year:

• We will offer content to meet the curricular needs of all four nations of the UK.
• We will offer a comprehensive service for Welsh speakers, and some content will be made available in Gaelic and Irish.
• We will start to introduce some support in community languages.

Building digital Britain
BBC jam is an interactive service available online. It is designed for use – ideally by broadband – in the home or at school by a generation of net-savvy students.

Sustaining citizenship and civil society
Our users come from a diverse range of backgrounds. We will encourage and enable collaboration on our service by our users, helping them to build social skills and a shared sense of community and achievement.

Stimulating creativity and cultural excellence
We will continue to work to ensure that a range of providers are given opportunities to deliver material for BBC jam.

We will work with the industry to ensure that we complement other provision.

Specifically we will:

• Regularly publish advance information on future plans.

Bringing the world to the UK and the UK to the world

Certain subjects will have a global dimension in line with the requirements of the school curriculum. We aim to present this in a way that allows students to make up their own minds about people, places and issues.

BBC jam was launched in January 2006, after extensive consultation with all the main UK curriculum bodies, subject specialists and BECTA. The service currently has approval until the end of September 2008.

In the areas we cover, we aim to offer a coherent, complementary and innovative set of resources for school students (5–16 years), adding depth and breadth – and a different perspective – to what is available from other sources and providers. BBC jam is free at point of delivery.

Our focus is on delivering interactive content which is integral to the school curriculum, helping users to learn more effectively, supporting teachers and encouraging involvement by parents and carers.

In the coming year our editorial priorities are:

• To provide high-quality and distinctive content with educational impact in a range of formats (video, audio, text, animation and games). For example, 5–7 year olds will be encouraged to develop their language skills by using the multimedia elements of the service to create their own stories, poems and songs; and in business studies, 14–16 year olds will be able to explore all the elements of a photo-realistic virtual office – collecting data and interviewing characters – in order to tackle a real business assignment and complete a presentation.
• To extend the scope of our content beyond the early offering – which includes English, mathematics, science, geography, French and business studies – with up to 20 subjects by the end of the 2006 calendar year.

BBC jam will be reviewed by the BBC Trust within two years of its launch.