Mr Tumble at school?

[orangesky1]

My reception child came home today saying they had been watching Mr Tumble at school - a boring and silly man - in his words!

not heard of this one before - had a Quick Look on YouTube now, and it looks completely inane.

it is otherwise a good school, so I am surprised by this. Am I missing something? Is this actually educational?

we are not anti screen time although I have a general feeling the children don’t get enough exercise in school, but that’s a topic for another day. I do think if they are showing videos, they should have some merit - either educational, informative about the world or properly artistic, entertaining or thought provoking.

Not this lowest common denominator drivel, that seems better suited to a 2 year old.

I don’t want to make a complaint but would just be interested in hearing views from those who have watched more than two minutes as maybe I am being unfair.

When my DC was at primary school , there was a child in their class whose sibling had some quite severe learning difficulties. They used Makaton to communicate as the child was non-verbal.
The primary school spent some time learning sign language as well to facilitate deaf pupils.
I understand they also used Makaton for another pupil who was non-verbal.

I used to be delighted when they wheeled the big TV in
We watched ,"The way we used to live "quite often.

Usually they watch something during snack time or wet break/lunch time. Having 30 reception kids in one classroom with one dinner lady is usually utter chaos without putting something on the screen for them to watch.

I'm dyspraxic and I'm bloody lucky to not be deaf, because I can't sign for shit. But I can do makaton with my (hearing) son.

How can you do Makaton but not BSL (Makaton signs come from BSL). It would be impossible to be able to do a Makaton sign and not the BSL sign
Makaton use the same hand shapes, the same locations, the same movements.

This is one of the the myths started by makaton.

The signs they have changed (usually by error, sometimes for no logical reason) they have actually made more complicated

Thank you, this is my philosophy too. I have worked in a residential setting with children from 7-16 previously, and we had no screens other than movie night.

hard work, maybe in the short term but the children adapted.

i feel we have far too low expectations of our children, and they are capable of so much more if their brains are given time and space, and if they are challenged to stretch their concentration spans and discipline. Yes there are benefits but there are so many other ways to learn.

I do wonder if there is a connection with behaviour in schools and the reliance on screens

Teaching a small child some Makaton is not giving up on teaching them language. It's not a complete language like BSL is but a tool to support early development, giving an opportunity to express wants and needs. It's easy for a whole family to learn before their child is in any educational setting and children with limited or no spoken language very often end up in mainstream schools, anyhow.

Would you describe using TEACCH or PECS as giving up, too? They are also supportive tools.

Me too

The programmes I recall mine (now 23 and 21) watching were

Something Special
Justin and Sarah ? Justin's House ? Forget its actual name
The wonderful Come Outside (One of my favs)
Ballamoray
Numberjacks

There were others but these stand out in memory.

There was, Yes.

Let's try and explain this using English

English do you stop your child hearing English until an age you think they can use full English correctly? No that would be weird right because to learn English they need access to English.

Some words in English are hard to pronounce why haven't these words been changed because some children will struggle. Child A can't say cob therefore some people decided that the only acceptable word for bread roll will now be balm. Problem is while balm is easier for children with lips it is harder for children with stutters but that's tough right as someone has decided that the one word is easier. Certain aspects of society aren't happy that there accent and dialect is being banned.
While they are at it a decision is made that difficult place names will now be changed to how toddlers say it as it is too difficult and some people may always struggle to say the proper word. Therefore it is better to use the incorrect word across the board. They also decided that some spellings should be changed.
These decisions were made by non English speakers and using their own root language as a basis they decided English grammar was wrong and so changed that too.

If we give access to incorrect information this is not a positive. If we accept that poorly trained individuals are enough, that the most vulnerable in our community don't deserve skilled, trained and knowledgeable people working with them then we are failing and letting down those who need the expertise, care and support the most.

Are you this rude with everyone?

Most British families are in no better a position to teach their children BSL than they are Greek or Finnish. Many families get little to no outside support with their language delayed or disordered child until they start nursery, school or even later and, even then, that support is limited unless they have access to private support. They do what works for them to help them and their child communicate with each other with the resources they can muster.

I'm not critical of families doing the best they can. I respect families, unfortunately families are often left with no or little support for too long. That's my point the system is wrong. Families should have access to skilled professionals promptly and freely. The right professionals for the situation. This means for families with communication needs this should be language expertise from BSl alongside PECs, communication boards, speech therapist. This should be physio for those who need support, it should be technology, devises what ever is needed.

The issue is Makaton organisation, it is the way it was started. It is that the promotion and use of it actually is preventing access to BSL/SSE from skilled sources from the families that need it most.

Absolutely loved the way we used to live. There was one set in ww1. Love history to this day.
Sat on library Carpet and tv rolled in. Once a week. My dc watched Auntie Mabel in reception. I really wouldn’t be concerned about a small amount of tv.

I absolutely agree with you that in general adult's expectations of the majority of children are woefully low. Also expecting kids to read/do some colouring or get on with unfinished work quietly for 10 min instead of watching TV might require more practice/discipline and initially be hard work/frustrating for the teacher.

It's a shame that your thread has been totally derailed into a debate on BSL, makaton, and Justin because I'd love to hear other parents' and teachers' perspectives on your point. When did this amount of TV in school become normal? Do current teachers feel it's impossible to get through a school day without occasional zombification of the kids? What are the practical differences between now and say 30 or 40 years ago, that means this seems to be necessary now?

@Leftrightmiddle
I have no skin in the game but I hear what you are saying.

You think that Cbeebies should be using full on BSL rather than Makaton for kids programs.

Your right we don't dumb down English for children Ta instead if thankyou, the only other words I can think of that are dumbed down are body parts and functions, tummy, winkie, flower and pee!

Of course we don't feel it is impossible to get through a day! Honestly, how has a child watching Mr Tumble become evidence schools put on TV every day? As I said before, I've set up Cbeebies for a very occasional wet play when we don't really have enough staff. I don't even put on films at the end of term. We're talking maybe 2-4 times in an academic year, probably under an hour in total. It is certainly less TV than I used to watch at school when whole English units were based on things like Geordie Racer or Through the Dragon's Eye.

You're spot on Needmorelego. I created and produced Something Special about 23 years ago when I worked for BBC Schools Programmes. The controller of BBC Children's saw it and asked me to create a new series for CBeebies. The rest, as they say, is history.

Ah, I was following on from my previous post (in the quote history) where I described my experience of my DDs primary school. They were watching 20 to 30 min of cartoons a day in several of her school years (certainly reception, year 1 and year 3 because I remember questioning it)
Glad that you don't think that's usual

Were you actually at primary school 40 years ago?!? We spent absolutely tons of time in school watching Look & Read and other BBC schools programmes. (Dark Towers, anyone?) Plus lots of primary drama and music was taught through the BBC radio broadcasting schools programme, with packs of accompanying teacher materials and lesson plans to tie in with TV or radio.

My DD has recently finished primary, and they did get shown the odd episode of Alphablocks or Waffle the Wonder Dog when the teachers had run out of steam at the end of the day, but there is nothing like the use of the BBC schools programming that there was then. Actually, more’s the pity. It was a pretty good way of making use of the new media of the time.

I would have started school about 35 years ago. I don't know what dark towers is or look and read.
I remember watching Home Alone the day before the Christmas holidays in year 3. That's it

Ah, then you were probably after the heyday of BBC Schools (I can just see that ticking down clock time ident right now in my mind’s eye). In the 70s and 80s schools programming was a really big part of primary education (and also in secondary schools - particularly language and history schools programmes).

Every floor of my school had one of those gigantic, massive tellies on wheels, and we knew we were in for a treat when a few of us were sent out to fetch one from the store cupboard — they took about four kids to push along the corridor!

For BBC schools ident lovers….I’d forgotten about Music Time!

Educational TV was a really big thing in the 70s and 80s with the Open University also running programmes at night on BBC2 after the main TV programmes had finished. (In the days when the OU was a national jewel of free or nearly free higher education, and not just another £9k university.) You knew you were up well beyond your bedtime when there was a guy in a 70s suit and moustache on TV doing complicated maths on a blackboard…

@marshmallowpuff we loved being in The AV Room in school for BBC School programs, we loved Words and Pictures and my favourite was How We Used To Live, especially Victorian times. It was a great use of resources.

@PictureCandleStick I am surprised your school did not use BBC Schools resources because it supported the curriculum. Your 35 years puts you at about 40 and it was used in the 70s/80s/90s. I am older so Words and Pictures was a staple of learning to write and letter formation with the "magic pencil". If you are curious there is enough of it on youtube.

I will admit that every day when my children sat and ate their fruit and drank their milk they would put on an educational CBeebies program and I didn't have any issue with that at all. The use of smartboards means laptops are plugged in and children learn times tables songs from YouTube and also some simple songs in French. You can show them science experiments you would never be able to do in a classroom. They also do Times Table Rockstars, the use of computers has become commonplace because they are everywhere.

Why are we not embracing it? Why is it all heads down, do "work" why is school not also fun? Sometimes lessons finish quicker than planned and there is 5 minutes to fill. Correction work takes place in a set time in the morning. Colouring in is also included in the school day as a mindfulness session. They also do handwriting and PE and hymns. It is about balance and school being a fun place to be. There are children who do use Makaton or have laminated cards and it is good for children to learn signs to be able to communicate to non-verbal children.

There are some pretty nasty comments here about the OP and even her young son. She did not know that the programme was about inclusivity. She watched a snippet and developed a snap opinion. We have all done that. She is open to learn about the show and seems genuinely interested. Posters need to give her a break.

I think it's strange that people think expectations on children is less now - I think educationally it's the opposite with reading and phonics in Reception and earlier in some cases. My daughter was learning about acrostic poems in Reception earlier in the year, something, as a child of the 90s, I don't think I was expected to understand, let alone do until the juniors. With the pressure on the teachers and the kids I'm not surprised that TV is used to give everyone some downtime.