Page 7 | Mr Tumble at school?

orangesky1 · 2025-05-28T20:23:35+00:00

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.

WombatStewForTea · 29/05/2025 19:34

PictureCandleStick · 29/05/2025 16:52

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?

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I'm a primary school teacher and it definitely isn't normal. Never has been. Our kids will watch something during a wet play and maybe an occasional alphablocks if it links. Older kids might watch newsround at the end of the day on the rare occasion we have time (once in a blue moon).

Video clips are used plenty across other subjects but 5-10 min clips.

What was happening in your dds school is very rare. What did they say when you raised it?

Needmorelego · 29/05/2025 19:55

@WombatStewForTea BBC Schools started in 1957 so children watching educational TV in school is hardly a new concept.
As said in posts upthread - programmes like Look and Read were curriculum based with linked workbooks and activities.
So "never has been" really isn't true.

Needmorelego · 29/05/2025 20:03

@WombatStewForTea apologies I believe you were referring to non-educational programmes like Mr Bean as someone said their child watched.
Although you know what children are like - they could have watched it twice but to a child that's "always watching it" 😂

PictureCandleStick · 29/05/2025 20:32

CarlettaMonGoria · 29/05/2025 19:24

@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.

No you're right, I agree with you about decent screen content being used educationaly. I can completely see the value in showing kids a science experiment, for example, when it fits within the content of a lesson. And you've prompted me to remember that My DD learnt timetables from YouTube videos, and used TT rockstars at school and at home, also some other maths game that felt a bit like pokemon... I have no issue with making use of technology in that way.

But for fruit and milk time, why can't the kids chat with their friends? Why do they need kids TV on? I think I know why - it keeps them quiet. And in my DD's case what was the benefit to the kids of watching Mr Bean cartoons 2 or 3 times a day? (I fully understand the benefit to the teacher, but I still think it's lazy of them)

CarlettaMonGoria · 29/05/2025 20:39

@PictureCandleStick because there is a need for them to sit quietly, eat rather than talk. My own children would walk to secondary school together, for half the journey both there and back they would chat, for the other half, complete silence. One is extrovert one is introvert.

Classrooms are very stimulating places, lots of filled wall space, bright colours, full of work or information so spellings strung across on a washing line and it can be overwhelming for some children. They need calm, playtime is often noisy, chaotic, physical and personally I won't work lower than year 2 because it is just frenetic, constant movement, talk, fidgeting and I find that overwhelming as an adult volunteer. There always seems to be a belief that something is for the benefit of the teacher when often it is for the benefit of the children. They love watching tv shows, they can talk about them later, at break or lunch, re-enact it even, quote lines from it.

Needmorelego · 29/05/2025 20:44

@PictureCandleStick perhaps not wanting the children to talk to each other is training for those uber strict secondary schools where they have a walk in silent lines in the corridor 😂

PictureCandleStick · 29/05/2025 20:46

WombatStewForTea · 29/05/2025 19:34

I'm a primary school teacher and it definitely isn't normal. Never has been. Our kids will watch something during a wet play and maybe an occasional alphablocks if it links. Older kids might watch newsround at the end of the day on the rare occasion we have time (once in a blue moon).

Video clips are used plenty across other subjects but 5-10 min clips.

What was happening in your dds school is very rare. What did they say when you raised it?

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I'm really glad to hear it's not usual. My DD was fine acedemically/socially and was, in the main, very happy at primary. I didn't have concerns about her and didn't want to make a massive fuss about cartoons I would have been happy with her watching outside of school. It just seemed like a massive waste of time with the kids being entirely passive. No learning, no creativity, no movement. Add up the time spent sitting watching Mr Bean and she could have had a second playtime with those 20 to 30 minutes a day.

So I gently questioned and was met with a waffley explanation about transition times, resetting the classroom and managing children with SEN.

PictureCandleStick · 29/05/2025 20:53

CarlettaMonGoria · 29/05/2025 20:39

@PictureCandleStick because there is a need for them to sit quietly, eat rather than talk. My own children would walk to secondary school together, for half the journey both there and back they would chat, for the other half, complete silence. One is extrovert one is introvert.

Classrooms are very stimulating places, lots of filled wall space, bright colours, full of work or information so spellings strung across on a washing line and it can be overwhelming for some children. They need calm, playtime is often noisy, chaotic, physical and personally I won't work lower than year 2 because it is just frenetic, constant movement, talk, fidgeting and I find that overwhelming as an adult volunteer. There always seems to be a belief that something is for the benefit of the teacher when often it is for the benefit of the children. They love watching tv shows, they can talk about them later, at break or lunch, re-enact it even, quote lines from it.

No I can't agree with that. How do they manage to eat their lunch in the dinner hall then? How did we all manage to drink our milk when we were kids? That's an example of the lowering of expectations of kids' behaviour - they can only eat if they're zombies in front of a screen. They are only capable of being quiet if they've got TV to distract them from each other.

I fully know kids love watching TV and they can certainly talk about it and play games around their favourite programmes without needing to watch it at school too

TheSilentSister · 29/05/2025 21:06

BSL is now being brought into the British education system, as a choice, not compulsory. It will be a great day when it's compulsory.
BSL is hard to learn, probably more so than a spoken foreign language. You can't listen to BSL, you have to see it being done. BSL doesn't follow the same flow as English, i.e. one of the very basics - Where do you live? vs Live you, where? Or, What is your name? vs Name you, what?
You see where I'm going.....
That's where Makaton came in, to bypass all that 'foreign' language and just sign basic things. A lot of BSL is like miming anyway.
I don't get all the angst about Makaton v BSL. Each has there own place.
You are never going to get a non verbal child with additional needs to learn 'proper' BSL. I think to try to do so would deprive them of basic communicating. You are trying to teach them something they DO NOT hear on an everyday basis. I don't say 'Live you, where'. How very confusing.

CarlettaMonGoria · 29/05/2025 21:06

@PictureCandleStick well as someone in a class of 17 compared to my children's 90 intake year group I would say that my milk drinking was done in complete silence because I attended a very strict Catholic primary with God monitoring all my thoughts and actions plus we got trekked off to our local church for Holy Days of Obligation plus practising for confession, first Holy Communion and Confirmation so my children were definitely in the classroom more than I was.

Some children don't eat in the hall, they eat in a separate classroom or with headphones on because they have 1 to 1 TAs. I think you need to be in a school to see how children behave or don't today. Honestly, it would shock you. Not all children are picked up by parents/carers some go to childminders where there is no tv and they are fed their dinner too due to working parents. Same with after school club. Some have very little screen time in the week, add in swimming, brownies, gymnastics etc

PictureCandleStick · 29/05/2025 21:26

@CarlettaMonGoria the arguments you seem to be making in your 2 posts to me are

That children with additional needs find school overstimulating (which is understandable) so because of a small number of children's needs per classroom, the entire classroom needs to be zombified (which is not acceptable)

Some children, through no fault of their own, don't have access to TV on weeknights, so they're entitled to a daily ration within school hours. Can't have the kids missing out on the shows. TV is important

Adver · 29/05/2025 21:47

PictureCandleStick · 29/05/2025 18:54

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

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I think the chances of there being any other Y3 classes in the country watching 30 minutes of cartoons daily are genuinely nearly nil. The curriculum is SO overfilled. I have never heard a KS2 teacher say otherwise, and the interim curriculum review by the Labour government reports the same. When we were Ofsteded, they checked we had physically taught every lesson listed on medium term planning. It would simply be impossible to teach the curriculum im a shorter day, unless you had extremely short lunch breaks or an unusually long school day (9-4 sort of thing). Having worked in many schools, with friends who teach in many schools, I think your experience is completely unusual, if not unique.

CarlettaMonGoria · 29/05/2025 21:54

@PictureCandleStick why are children "zombified" watching CBeebies? I think using that word is very telling on how you feel personally about any screen time. As for a small number of children to cater for you would be wrong. Maybe you should volunteer some of your time to go into a classroom and see it from the inside.

Leftrightmiddle · 29/05/2025 22:03

TheSilentSister · 29/05/2025 21:06

BSL is now being brought into the British education system, as a choice, not compulsory. It will be a great day when it's compulsory.
BSL is hard to learn, probably more so than a spoken foreign language. You can't listen to BSL, you have to see it being done. BSL doesn't follow the same flow as English, i.e. one of the very basics - Where do you live? vs Live you, where? Or, What is your name? vs Name you, what?
You see where I'm going.....
That's where Makaton came in, to bypass all that 'foreign' language and just sign basic things. A lot of BSL is like miming anyway.
I don't get all the angst about Makaton v BSL. Each has there own place.
You are never going to get a non verbal child with additional needs to learn 'proper' BSL. I think to try to do so would deprive them of basic communicating. You are trying to teach them something they DO NOT hear on an everyday basis. I don't say 'Live you, where'. How very confusing.

All languages have different grammar structures. BSL is very direct and doesn't have the confusion if meaning different to what is said that is common in English

The non verbal children struggle with spoken languages and do well with signing. It doesn't matter if they use proper BSL what matters is that they have access to skilled professionals so that they have as much communication as they can get. This is different for everyone

TheSilentSister · 29/05/2025 22:16

In that regard, I can agree. Anyone can communicate in BSL at the basics.
Lets forget the language structure for the time being. Being able to communicate 'I want cheeseburger' is universal. But I doubt they would sign 'I want cheeseburger' they would sign 'cheeseburger'.
I understand you and your frustrations but I don't think there is an easy answer.
Getting children to understand that there are children not like them is vitally important. I grew up in the 60's and the progress is amazing. I am ND and I have a ND child. I'm not sure I understand you, but I appreciate your passion.