CHANNEL 4 EDUCATION NEWSLETTER JULY 2009
TALKING TO TEENAGERS TALKING TO TEENAGERS
Battlefront Essa Awards

The Battlefronters
Four of this year's Battlefronters will be taking part in the 2morro Festival at the Southbank in London on 4 July. The event brings together 800 young people to share and explore digital developments around community, campaigning and communication. The Battlefronters will discuss what they've learnt over the last year and offer their top tips for successful campaigns. To catch-up with Battlefront, click here. The final judging in the Manifesto For Change video competition takes place on 2 July, and the awards will be presented at Channel 4 on 10 July. The English Secondary Students Association organised the competition to encourage young people to suggest ways of improving education, and their Manifesto For Change will be taken to the party conferences this Autumn. The winning videos will be shown in the Channel 4 Education schedule later this year.
 
TALKING TO TEENAGERS
Science of Scams

For the Autumn, Channel 4 Education is developing an eight-part series examining the science behind well-known scamming techniques. Science of Scams will encourage teens to think carefully about what they've witnessed, to apply scientific principle to questioning an event, and to dig deeper into their personal tendencies: believer or sceptic? Produced for the web by Objective Productions, Science of Scams will feature eight web shows, plus a widgetand quiz for embedding into social networks.

 
PEAK-TIME EDUCATION
Revelations
Revelations is a brand new strand on Channel 4 exploring the impact religion has on the lives of believers and non-believers in Britain.

How To Find God
(TX'd 28 June) Over 11 million people worldwide have attended an Alpha course. But what happens: do agnostics really become Christians in the course of just a few weeks? Director and author Jon Ronson sets out to discover in his own inimitable way, with complete access to an Alpha course at St Aldate's Church in Oxford. He explores why Alpha is so effective and so popular.

Revelations will also feature films on Muslim schools, chaplains serving with the Royal Marines in Afghanistan, the Muslim Marriage Bureau run by the Birmingham Central Mosque, and the spiritual journeys of leading figures in the Anglican, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim
and Hindu faiths.

 
 
PEAK-TIME EDUCATION
The Scandalous Adventures of Lord Byron

Rupert Everett as Lord Byron		 It's 200 years since Lord Byron embarked on his legendary travels around Europe and the Mediterranean and, in honour of the occasion, actor Rupert Everett follows in his footsteps to understand the man whose maverick sex life, precocious literary talent and stunning good looks made him Britain's first modern celebrity. By retracing Byron's journey, Rupert attempts to understand and interpret Byron's life, his motivations and his feelings.

   In 1809, Byron embarked on his first adventures through Spain, Greece, Albania and Turkey. He returned to London, but with a series of affairs, a love child by his half-sister, a broken marriage, and rumours of homosexuality, he was soon forced into exile. So began his second adventure through Switzerland, Italy and Greece. Eventually he disowned Britain, and though his remains were brought back after his death, his heart remained in Greece.

TX 27 July
 
PEAK-TIME EDUCATION  
Gerry's Big Decision  

Sir Gerry Robinson		 Sir Gerry Robinson, one of Britain's most respected businessmen, is riding to the rescue of several UK companies, armed with his personal cheque book. Each week Gerry joins two privately-owned companies with dubious futures. Gerry immerses himself in all aspects of the business to discover the strengths and weaknesses of each faltering firm.
 He interrogates staff, issuing ‘instant action points' and setting challenges designed to improve performance.Ultimately, the big decision is should he use his own cash to invest in either business or should he walk away?

TX 2 July
 
CREATING DEBATE CREATING DEBATE
Mental Health Workshop Education briefing
Channel 4 Education will be focussing on mental health in 2010. Or more specifically: happiness, and can you hack your life to become happier?
Channel 4 Education has commissioned indie Somethin' Else to produce a research report for all indies who might want to pitch a project tackling the subject, looking at mental health, psychology and other happiness-related areas. To download the report and full transcript from the workshop held on 11 June, click here.

Workshop: 11 June
 Channel 4 Education held a briefing for production companies on 2 June, outlining the lessons learnt from our recent cross-platform commissions and the subjects we want to address in 2010. Some of our cross-platform projects such as Battlefront will be re-commissioned, but we are also looking for new projects for 2010 including ideas for niche platforms like PC gaming and online comics.

To download full transcript, click here.

Briefing was on 2 June
 
CREATING DEBATE CREATING DEBATE
What Comes Next? 2morro09
Channel 4 organised a Summer Conference for 250 of the country's most inspiring and innovative educators. It focussed on the latest Government policies and the Opposition's plans; explored how innovators in education are responding to the challenges, and showcased some of Channel 4's new education projects on citizenship, science and games. We closed with a TeachMeet event so the participants could respond to the ideas generated through the day.

Conference was on 30 June
 2morro09 is a festival at the Movieum in London to celebrate how young people are using technologies to make their world a better place. It features talks, workshops, debates, games and amazing things to see, do and learn. People will promote the things they're doing, work on great ideas and learn from the likes of BOOM!, Apple, Facebook and YouTube. The day will give young people the chance to interact with 800 like-minded people, gain supporters for their projects, meet amazing mentors, and contribute to public policy-making, as well as to win prizes, awards and funding.
For further information, click here.

2morro09 Festival: 4 July
 
NEW TALENT NEW TALENT
First Cut 4 Talent

The Russians Are Coming		 Channel 4's series for first time directors returns this month with twelve half-hour prime time documentaries

Ashes to Diamonds explores the options for disposing of a relative's ashes. The ashes business is booming and families have chosen some surprising and adventurous ways to say goodbye to their departed's ashes.

The Russians Are Coming lifts the lid on the exclusive world of super rich Russians who want an English public school education for their children.
 Generation Next kicks off on 13 July. The initiative will provide in-depth work experience opportunity for six individuals, familiarising them with Channel 4 and enabling the group to kick-start their careers in the creative industries. The participants will do ten-week placements at the Channel in a variety of areas including Legal and Compliance, Research and Insight, Future Media and Technology and Strategy.

4Talent have been attending events and doing talks at schools, academies, colleges and universities over the past six months. If you are interested in one of the team coming to talk to you, please email us.
 
For more information about any of the projects, programmes or events detailed here please contact:
Rachel Postgate, email: rpostgate@channel4.co.uk, Telephone: 020 7306 8282