Sky Kids boosts educational slate with MC Grammar’s Wonder Raps, Sharks Up Close with Steve Backshall & exclusive new PAW Patrol shorts

Thursday 9 September 2021

As the school year begins again, Sky Kids is adding to its line-up of interactive and educational shows with two new Sky Kids original commissions and an exclusive collection of PAW Patrol Shorts from Nick Jr.

This Autumn kids can learn amazing facts through the exciting raps of MC Grammar’s Wonder Raps, adventure under water and get up close with a misunderstood predator in Steve Backshall’s Sharks Up Close, or learn new craft, cooking, fitness or even alphabet and phonics with your favourite pups in a bumper edition of Learn with PAW Patrol shorts.

MC Grammar’s Wonder Raps is presented by MC Grammar, aka Jacob Mitchell, a teacher who uses rap to teach kids cool facts about the world. Produced by Monkey, the 10 x 5-minute episodes are tailored to Key Stage 2 learning and cover a wide range of educational topics from volcanoes and saving the planet, to human digestion and football. Set to earworm tunes, MC Grammar’s fun comedic raps help kids learn by stealth.

Sharks Up Close with Steve Backshall brings the secret world of these misunderstood apex predators to life in this 10 x 10-minute series. Steve’s expert knowledge and passion for the natural world takes us deep into our oceans, getting us up close as we explore the shark's secret underwater world and discover their remarkable behaviours. Across 10 episodes we are introduced to many iconic sharks, such as the Hammerhead, Oceanic Whitetips and the gigantic Whale Shark, as we discover more about their extreme lives, how best to protect them and uncover the secrets to their success.

Sky Kids will also be adding another PAW Patrol exclusive with a collection of over 100 unique short episodes of one of the UK’s top preschool properties voiced by the Pup-tastic characters. The Nick Jr. franchise provides snackable learning experiences to kids through craft, cooking, music & fitness, phonics and the alphabet. Even more learning fun will be added in October with fitness videos and nursery rhymes for PAW Patrol fans to sing, dance and join in with.

All three commissions will be available on Sky Kids and streaming service NOW.  MC Grammar’s Wonder Raps will air from October 2021. All episodes of Sharks Up Close with Steve Backshall and the PAW Patrol shorts will air later in the year.  

Lucy Murphy, Director of Kids Content, Sky UK and Ireland, said: “We know parents want screen time to play a positive role in family life and increasingly they are looking for TV shows that both entertain and support their kids’ wider learning goals. So we’re thrilled to be adding even more exclusive content to Sky Kids this Autumn that will entertain, engage and educate too.”

MC Grammar’s Wonder Raps is part of a recently signed deal with Monkey to co-develop and produce original content. MC Grammar’s Wonder Raps is executive produced by David Granger for Monkey, which is part of NBCUniversal International Studios, a division of Universal Studio Group. NBCUniversal Global Distribution is handling international sales.

Commenting on MC Grammar’s Wonder Raps, Jacob Mitchell said: “Working alongside Monkey and Sky Kids has brought to life my vision and mission: to educate, entertain and empower young minds through music. I can’t wait for the world to see what we have created!”

MC Grammar’s Wonder Raps Executive Producer for Monkey, David Granger, added: “Jacob’s innate charisma, enthusiasm and huge natural ability makes him incredibly exciting to work with and has enabled Wonder Raps to become an extraordinarily unique mix of high-end musical entertainment and education. We’re all in the MC Grammar Gang now and can’t wait to welcome everyone else in too.”

MC Grammar’s Wonder Raps, Sharks Up Close with Steve Backshall and PAW Patrol shorts join other interactive and educational Sky Kids Originals such as Move It with KIDZ BOP, Draw with Will, Ultimate Food Fun, Clam Brain, Ultimate Magic Skills and Best Makes Ever!

About Sky

Sky is Europe’s leading media and entertainment company and is proud to be part of Comcast Corporation. Across six countries, we connect our 23.4 million customers to the best entertainment, sports, news and arts including our own award-winning original content.

Our technology, including the market leading Sky Q, connects people to everything they love – with entertainment from Sky TV, Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video and BBC iPlayer, and apps like Spotify, YouTube, BBC Sounds, Highbrow, Fiit, and more, in one place, easy. Our streaming service NOW, brings viewers all the enjoyment of Sky with the flexibility of a contract-free service.

Building on the success of Sky Originals like Chernobyl, Gangs of London and Brassic, we are doubling our investment in original content by 2024 through Sky Studios. Sky News provides impartial and trustworthy journalism for free, Sky Arts is the UK’s only dedicated free-to-air arts channel making the arts accessible for everyone and Sky Sports, our leading sports broadcasting service brings customers some of the biggest and best global sporting events from the Premier League to Formula 1 and everything in-between. Our new TV and movie studio, Sky Studios Elstree, which will open in 2022, is expected to create over 2,000 new jobs and generate an additional £3 billion of production investment in the UK over the first five years.

We believe that we can be a force for good in the communities in which we operate. We’re committed to being Europe’s first net zero carbon entertainment company by 2030 and we’re proud to be a Principal Partner and Media Partner of COP26. We take pride in our approach to diversity and inclusion: we’ve been recognised by The Times and Stonewall for our commitment to diversity and we’ve set ambitious 2025 targets to continue to increase diversity and representation. We’re also committed to investing £30million across our markets over three years to improve our approach to diversity and inclusion, and to tackle racial injustice.