Top Class facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Top Class
Genre	Children's Game show
Directed by	Tony Grech-Smith (2016-18) John L Spencer (2019-)
Presented by	Susan Calman
Composer(s)	Craig Brown
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language(s)	English
No. of series	5
No. of episodes	75 (inc. 5 specials)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Simon Marsh Melissa Hardinge Barry Hart
Running time	30 minutes
Production company(s)	ITV Studios
Release
Original network	CBBC
Picture format	(1080i)
Original release	12 September 2016 (2016-09-12) – present

Top Class is a British children's television quiz show produced by ITV Studios for CBBC. It began on 12 September 2016 and is hosted by Susan Calman. Each series involves sixteen teams of four Year 6/Primary 7 school children, each with a nominated teacher, answering questions mostly on the National Curriculum in a knockout format to determine "the UK's smartest school."

Format

Although the competition is open to all state schools, only 16 teams per series make it through the audition stage and proceed to take part. All competitors are in Year 6 in England or Wales, and Primary 7 in Scotland or Northern Ireland.

Each round includes questions taken from the National Curriculum Key Stage 2, starting with a buzzer question. The team which answers correctly takes control of the game and is given a further four questions to answer. The subjects includes Maths, English, Science, History, Geography and News. There is also Test the Teacher, where the class' teacher answers pop-culture questions, and Pet Subjects, where the class chooses a subject to be questioned on. Pet Subjects chosen include CBBC series The Dumping Ground and the 2015 general election.

In series 3, the "Lightning" Round was introduced to start each contest; this features a puzzle, such as a word search or crossword, on two specific subjects, one for each team for a chance to score some points on the board before the subject rounds.

Each contest ends with "The Battle of the Buzzers"; teams have 90 seconds to answer as many quick-fire questions as they can on the buzzer.

Transmissions

Series

Specials