Top Class

British children's quiz show

Top Class

Genre|

* Children's
* Game show

Directed by|

* Tony Grech-Smith (2016-18)
* John L Spencer (2019)

Presented by| Susan Calman (2016–20)
Sam & Mark (2023–)
Composer| Craig Brown
Country of origin| United Kingdom
Original language| English
No. of series| 5
No. of episodes| 75 (inc. 5 specials)
Production
Executive producers|

* Simon Marsh[1]
* Melissa Hardinge
* Barry Hart

Running time| 30 minutes
Production company| ITV Studios
Original release
Network| CBBC
Release| 12 September 2016 (2016-09-12) –
1 January 2020 (2020-01-01)

Top Class is a British children's television quiz show produced by ITV Studios for CBBC.[2]

## Format

[edit]

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

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### Series

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Series | Start date | End date | Episodes

|
|
|

1 | 12 September 2016 | 30 September 2016 | 15
2 | 25 January 2017 | 3 May 2017 | 15
3 | 3 September 2017 | 10 December 2017 | 15
4 | 29 July 2018 | 4 November 2018 | 15
5 | 29 September 2019 | 22 December 2019 | 15

### Specials

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Date | Entitle

|

13 December 2016 | Christmas Special
7 April 2017 | Celebrity Special
17 December 2017 | Christmas Special
31 December 2017 | Young Celebrities Special
11 November 2018 | Celebrity Special
19 December 2019 | Christmas Special
19 December 2019 | Christmas Special
1 January 2020 | Young Ones Celebrities Special

## References

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1. ^ Prior, David (16 August 2016). "Comedian to lead CBBC's search for Britain's smartest school". Prolific North.
2. ^ Year 4 and 6 is the best classes. "Top Class - Could your school be TOP CLASS?". CBBC.`{{cite web}}`: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)

## External links

[edit]

* Top Class at BBC Online
* Top Class at IMDb
* Top Class at UKGameshows.com

*[No.]: Number