Newsround Goes Large With Docs For Kids

Children's TV programme Newsround, still the only dedicated daily news service for children in the UK, is to go large with a spin off documentary series called Newsround Investigates. The programmes take an in-depth look at issues affecting children’s lives, starting in May.

Newsround Investigates is in documentary format for children, screening on BBC One. For the first time in its 34-year history, the award-winning programme has been extended to 30 minutes.

In the first Newsround Investigates, Lizo Mzimba and leading criminologist David Wilson take a look at the alarming scale of arson attacks committed by schoolchildren. The documentary talks to some of the youngsters who commit arson, looks at some of the reasons why they do it and examines the consequences of their actions.

Each year, around 90,000 children in England and Wales are affected by arson. Every week, there are around 20 fires in schools. Most of them are started by children with some connection to the school.

School fires traditionally happen when schools are empty, particularly in the summer holidays. But increasing numbers of these fires are now occurring within school hours. Newsround Investigates speaks to children whose schools have been burnt down, children who have been injured in fires and children who have deliberately started fires.

It also visits various anti-arson schemes across the country, such as the first-ever fire fighter embedded in a school. The show also questions why less than 200 schools in England and Wales have sprinkler systems when the problem of fires in schools is so great.

Nostalgia Corner: John Craven's Newsround

• Newsround stopped being John Craven's Newsround after JC left on 22 June 1989
• The Newsround sign-off ditty was sampled by Orbital for Spare Parts Express in 1999