Quite pissed off about this, am I being daft?

[FlightAttendant]

Today ds1 went abck to school and was really looking forward to it.

I went to get him at 3.15 and he was absolutely busting to tell me about the 'thing' that had landed in the woodland bit of the playground.

I followed him and a large crowd of grown ups and children was standing around this thing, which looked to me very much like a huge air conditioning unit half buried in the ground, with a slightly blackened tree next to it.

I have to admit I immediately thought it was a kind of set up, for fun - there was stripey tape all round it and nobody allowed to touch.

Ds told me that it had apparently 'crashed' last night, and was from a satellite or spaceship or similar and it even had the voltage written on it!

He loves this kind of thing so was utterly serious and really quite blown away by the idea. They had spent all day finding out about it and someone from the BBC had apparently come and interviewed a witness, with a microphone but no camera.

There is nothing on the BBC website. The newsletter just arrived and there is a large paragraph about it - 'We hope the children enjoyed the 'space mystery' today, our project this term is all about space' etc etc...

I didn't know what to do, so stupidly, probably, I told ds it wasn't actually from a spaceship, and he started to cry

I mean is this just like the Father Christmas thing we do with them, or is it actually rather cruel of them to lie about something so potentially thrilling - I have probably done the wrong thing but he would have found out later anyway no doubt and been MORE upset.

He is insisting the newsletter is wrong and is very cross and fed up.

Can anyone talk me down, I really don't need another confrontation with the HT...I am just so sad for him.

How is faking space junk falling out of the sky putting learning into a "real" context? There's nothing real about it.

What does it mean to put learning about space into a "real" context anyway? Surely the fact that space is real and enormously interesting to most children is enough context?

I'm bemused that anyone would think that the only options here are either going into space or else setting up a fake event involving something that presumably was never even in space.

For all the talk of imagination on this thread this stunt strikes me as displaying a worrying lack of imagination.

It's treating education as a kind of advertising campaign. This is the school equivalent of a bus with a sign saying working mothers are shit.

I really don't see the value in it, sorry.

Children don't actually need everything to be all-singing-all-dancing interbloodyactive. It is IMO a bit of an insult to their intelligence and capabilities to assume that they will not be interested in the wonders of space without a crashed 'spaceship' landing in the playground. It's hardly a 'real context', is it?

FA I would have done the same as you in this situation and told DS it was a set-up. I can see why you are upset but it's probably not worth going in and being cross with the head, just have a quiet word with his teacher letting her know he cried when he found out it wasn't real.

I can't imagine any of the kids actually turning round and laughing along when the teachers tell them it was fake.

It seems such a mean thing to do really.

As a mother I reserve the right to lie to my children about Father C and all the rest of it, but somehow I don't like other people doing it.

By 'real' I mean the sense of bringing something to life for them; taking it 'off the page' as it were and making it interactive. Presumably they will have roles as investigators etc, which will lead them into research, writing opportunities and so on. It seems a shame to me that people think that is not a valid part of learning. It gives pupils the chance to try things out, take on different 'mantles' a la Dorothy Heathcote and makes what they are doing more interesting and more purposeful.

Perhaps we should return to slates instead?

But hey...I am just a wimpy teacher...what do I know?

But this is going off thread.

FA - Iit seems that your son had a fantastic lesson today and will enjoy further work on space. I agree with the poster who said continue to treat it as a mystery, as the news letter said.

Btw - I do not condone the whole scaring pupils thing at all but the situation described in the op wasn't like that. Instead, it was a lesson that the children seemed to have got a lot out of.

Thanks Omdb.
I'll definitely tell them he cried, might make them think about how they handle it next time they think of a stunt like this.

Could you maybe look up some stuff on the internet tonight so he can understand why bits of satellite/spaceship don't land in people's back gardens because they burn up in the atmosphere?

He probably feels silly to have been taken in and he might feel better if he's "in the know" with this?

Try searching for "space debris" "space junk" and having a look at this story from Sky about a recent failed satellite launch.

You could extend it to aeroplanes and google "blue ice" which is when planes flush out the contents of their toilets. And it sometimes lands on land

Hope you and DS feel better.

Thankyou so much, I tried doing it earlier but couldn't find any hits.

I will try your link and he will like the toilets thing

I find the idea of pretending something fell from space and landed outside the school and the charred tree etc all rather strange

Yes me too. Someone put a lot of effort into it obv.

Now if they had got the kids involved in making it LOOK realistic, and discussed how it would really look etc then fair enough. That would have been fun and educational.

You're welcome

This is a good story about ice falling from a plane and hitting a man. Not blue ice I'm afraid. Can't find any credible sources for that although Wiki has Wiki this.

Lots of random nerdy space pages out there

FA is your DS AS? (Lots of initals). DD believes everything, because she doesn't lie she presumes others don't, she would have been upset too. She would have seen it as a lie rather than anything else, she would be upset then because she'd feel stupid at 'being had'.

LOL @ "writing opportunities" in SCHOOL!

It's amazing that any children learn anything at all, ever at school, given the incompetence of trained teachers and the stunning expertise of untrained parents, (who don't even know how the teaching around this will pan out over the next half term.)

Yes have to admit I think that sometimes too Haveitallmummy.

Not a teacher and my dc are younger but fwiw I would have explained it was pretend too. Rather that than dc going to school the next day and other children telling them and taking the mickey.

It does sound like a very enthusiastic school and it's not like they've done this to be mean. But I think it would have been better if they'd have debriefed the children today and gone on to explain all the other exciting space things they'll be doing this term, building on the excitement and enthusiasm created today. So I would mention it to the school in a 'fab idea, here's a suggestion to improve it for next time' sort of way.

No Blue, he's not - afaik. But that's why I thought maybe I was being oversensitive.

Hey Flight, I know I agree with you on just about everything - and this time I'm going to do it again. I hate this stunt! The children are being deceived. I cannot see any value whatsoever in it. They are going to feel silly when they find out it isn't true! How is that a good thing?

The reason why i disagree soo much with this sort of activity as in the relms of reality if doesnt happen. And it leads to a lot of misconcepts when the students progress to a higher level. A good example of this was the moon study that my ds did where the class discussed the earth going round the moon. I kid you not. There is value for role play but more valuble if the role play is guided so that the children get the benefit of researching the situation and structuring. The benefit of this kind of activity is supposed to be the application of the knowledge in the wider environment. This activity when it is set up like this

1. Causes individuals who take things literally distress
2. Children take it on face value and dont learn to question the validity or drawn their own conclusions.

This kind of activity could have been protrayed and carried far more effectively if the school had put the object in place and put forward two view eg a caretaker who thinks it has come from a space station and a science specialist who thinks this isnt possible and then got the children to gather evidence (if neccessary from a resource pack rather then the internet) to draw their conclusions as to who was right.

Its the twist on the activity that is important. Making kids believe things that arent corrent in the name of fun learning is not beneficial to their and doesnt develop their knowledge or skills. Getting them to decide and analyse does. Even my 5 year old would have made his mind up to what the truth was given enough guidance. it is not impossible to do. Nobody gives children enough credit for their knowledge and ability to draw conclusions.

Flight - I'm with you. If this was to happen I would want the school to send out a letter home first, and then to make it reasonably obvious to the children it was a role play. I don't think for children that would have cut down the excitement. In fact (from reading some of the other threads) I think it is awful when children doubt that something is real and then are lied to to 'keep up the pretence'. I think the school should aim to have everybody understand at the end of the first day that it was fake - then the school can see and handle the fall out and not spring it on you unprepared.

Bibs my dear you gave me a fright there on threads I'm on!!!

Not that I expect you to agree with me every time but it helps

Chaos - too right. It's so patronising towards the children. I don't doubt their conscious intentions were good but honestly they have missed the mark.

There's no point in a hoax situation such as this, where the truth will be out very shortly I imagine. Lots of them will probably feel upset or let down; some will be gutted, like ds; others will think it is a great idea to play jokes on people in the name of 'fun' and start ringing 999 to report similar fake landings...it's a dangerous precedent when you think about it.

As a child I would have been angry that they had thought I was stupid enough to believe it, once I found out. It wouldn't have felt nice.

maybe the children can set up the old bucket of water over the door trick ready for when the head walks in. They could claim the aliens did it, I'm sure the head would understand that it's all just a continuation of the fun

I would be extremely pissed off too. I will not lie like that to my DC my way of deliberate deception. I don't think a school should be doing that either its the wrong message.

I told DD that tooth fairy was really me/DH & it can be fun to pretend that there is a tooth fairy, tell DD that magic is just a trick and not real & we are not christian & don't do christmas so santa not an issue.

My ds came home one day to tell me, wide eyed, that God had phoned up the headmaster during assembly. I was not impressed and told him straight out that it wasn't true, followed by an explanation of why the teachers might have lied....

Children need to trust adults, and this is just not respectful to their developing minds.

Clarabel22, amazing
I can imagine the head high-fiving the rest of the staff afterwards. Makes you wonder whether the lunatics have taken over the asylum