BBC Schools
Daytime on 2
### Daytime on 2

In September 1983, Schools programmes were moved from BBC1 to [BBC2](/wiki/BBC2 "BBC2"). This gave BBC1 the space to broadcast a daytime schedule although it was another three years until BBC1 launched a full daytime service. A special strand was set up on BBC2: **Daytime on 2** as programmes were broadcast all day (from just after 9am until 3pm during the autumn and spring terms – fewer programmes were shown during the summer term) as opposed to just during the morning and early afternoon as had been the case on BBC1\. The lunchtime period was occupied by adult education programmes which had previously been broadcast on BBC2 on Mondays and Tuesdays. The adult education programmes were only broadcast during the autumn and spring terms so *[Pages from Ceefax](/wiki/Pages_from_Ceefax "Pages from Ceefax")* and sometimes [Open University](/wiki/Open_University "Open University") programmes were shown at lunchtimes during the summer term. A special version of the [striped 2 ident](/wiki/History_of_BBC_television_idents%23The_Computer_Generated_2_%281979%E2%80%931986%29 "History of BBC television idents#The Computer Generated 2 (1979–1986)") was created, featuring an orange background instead of the usual black. Clocks were not used alongside the look but the 'Follows Shortly' captions were retained. 

For the first two years of Daytime on Two, special Ceefax pages were broadcast during the longer intervals. The pages, branded as *The Daytime on 2 Information Service*, featured schedules and information about Daytime on 2 output.[Broadcast of the Daytime On 2 Information Service](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAG6Cha-jEw) The pages were discontinued at the end of the 1984/85 school year.

In March 1986, BBC2 rebranded to the [white embossed TWO](/wiki/History_of_BBC_television_idents%23The_TWO_%281986%E2%80%931991%29 "History of BBC television idents#The TWO (1986–1991)") on a white background. From here on, no special ident was used to introduce Daytime on Two programmes, instead using the normal ident as by now the special Daytime on 2 Ceefax pages had been discontinued. All gaps of less than fifteen minutes were now filled using the newly designed 'Follows Shortly' captions over music, before cutting to the ident and announcement. A later addition was that of a 15\-second countdown timer, displaying the seconds in a box, usually located in the top right corner of the screen. However, there are examples of the location being changed depending on the programme caption that preceded the ident.[Videos of different places for the 15 second countdown clock](http://www2.tv-ark.org.uk/schoolstv/bbcschools_media.html)  at [TVARK](/wiki/TVARK "TVARK")

Following the rebrand of TWO to BBC2, including the [introduction of the '2' idents](/wiki/BBC_Two_%271991%E2%80%932001%27_idents "BBC Two '1991–2001' idents"), no special presentation was used to mark schools programmes. The 'Follows Shortly' captions were phased out in place of promotions of other appropriate programmes, through static programme captions and fillers that may be considered similar to the intervals on the [BBC Television Service](/wiki/BBC_Television_Service "BBC Television Service") in the 50s and 60s.

Daytime on Two continued to air until June 1997 and when daytime programmes for schools returned that autumn, they were merely branded under the title of **School Programmes** with broadcasts now mostly limited to the morning hours.


What type of programmes occupied the lunchtime period initially?