I could write about SureStart and get all political, discuss the problems I have with Every Child Matters and the DCSF, and Ofsted (the body that inspects SureStart). I could write at length of how it really doesn’t resonate with the values I have for my own child, and how I even find some things they say more than a little sinister.
But instead, I’ll say just two things. Firstly, this is how SureStart describes what it is all about:
It is the cornerstone of the Government’s drive to tackle child poverty and social exclusion working with parents-to-be, parents, carers and children to promote the physical, intellectual and social development of babies and young children so that they can flourish at home and when they get to school.
I could go through that with a fine tooth-comb and pick out the things that makes me wary of it. But instead, I’ll say just one thing: where’s the “happy”? Because it takes a good dose of happy to “flourish”, whether at home or “when” (and shouldn’t that be “if”?) a child goes to school.
However, despite this, I did take my child to my local SureStart children’s centre on a few occasions. In fact, I even volunteered for them for a short while (and that is another story). But this is why I finally stopped going:
SureStart runs lots of “themed” play sessions. Unlike traditional “Parent and Toddler” groups, which tend to function more on a “benign neglect” basis, SureStart play sessions tend to be a lot more hands-on, and every available moment is spent with the parent interacting with their child, one on one.
(In fact, it’s the reason our local SureStart doesn’t have adult chairs; it forces parents to sit on the floor. Chairs are available for parents with disabilities, but they have to be requested. A breastfeeding “comfy” chair, costing £500, was purchased by our local SureStart, but it’s only of use for those with young, small babies, as the arms are so high that it’s uncomfortable for feeding an older baby or a toddler. But still, it ticks a box.)
One of the sessions they run is called Musical Mayhem. Now, I like mayhem. I like music, too. So I took my toddler, then about eighteen months of age. We started off sat cross-legged on the floor, and the Play Leader got a box full of percussion instruments out. Each child was to walk to the centre of the circle and pick an instrument. B picked a small drum. Then the Play Leader put on a CD of children’s nursery rhymes and themes from well-known kids’ TV shows, and all the children that were able, played along; those that weren’t, their parent did.
So far, so good; not very “mayhem” to my mind, but everyone was enjoying themselves.
And then, the session ended, after about fifteen minutes. The children were to return their instruments to the centre of the room for the next session to start, which was to be dancing to the same CD, singing along. However, my child, and another little boy who looked slightly older, did not want to return their instruments.
They were enjoying playing them and making noise. It was a lot of fun, and they were happy. I realise SureStart doesn’t do “happy” in its mission statement, but it was enough for me.
They went off together into the corner of the room. At eighteen months of age, I’d not have expected interaction like this; it’s the age of “parallel play” after all. But here he was, actually interacting with another child. They swapped instruments. Yes, at just eighteen months of age, my child was learning, by himself, to share, to an extent. SureStart might not care about “happy”, but they do talk about “social development”, or so I thought.
They played with each with the other’s instrument, and then their own again, raising a rumpus and dancing around. “Physical development”, much?
And of course, they learned about the different instruments; the shape of them; they learned that a drum makes a “bang” sound, that it is made from a kind of stretched skin; but that a triangle makes a “chime” sound and is made from metal. “Intellectual development”, at all?
But the Play Leader didn’t see that. She saw two naughty little boys who weren’t obeying the rules. At first, she was like the long-suffering school teacher; “come on boys,” with a smile, hand held out; “it’s time to sing and dance now!”
But when they didn’t listen, she looked at me, and the other little boy’s mother, and made it clear with a glare we had to take the instruments off them.
I thought of how much more they could have learned if they’d been allowed to play along while the others sang and danced. They might even have played for the others, to assist them with their singing and dancing. Think how the “intellectual, physical and social development” boxes could have been ticked and those particular Key Performance Indicators met, for SureStart! But for me, even more than that, think how happy my child, and his new friend, might have been!
But instead, I had to soothe my crying toddler while taking the musical instrument from him. He was upset for the rest of the session, and didn’t join n the singing and dancing. His “physical, social and intellectual” development was nowhere to be seen for the rest of the session. Eventually I walked out with him because he clearly wasn’t enjoying it. I’ve not been back since, either.
See, here’s the deal. SureStart’s aims? Problematic, to say the least. But more than that; without happiness, none of it will ever happen. Certainly not for every child. And I thought Every Child Matters?
had a similar experience. did not like the fact they were practically forcing 2 and 3 year olds to stand in a line (no logical reason WHY they did this) to go in another room to get their snack of fruit. there was a lot of ‘it’s time to do colouring now’ or telling children how to play, when what they really need to do is let the children BE children and their parents have the confidence to let that happen!
Nicely written, Ruth. This post rings lots of bells for me. We used to go to something called Jo Jingles and had very similar experiences. I wrote about that here http://tryingtorelax.wordpress.com/2009/09/15/parks-nurseries-and-playtime/ Jacqui’s comment on that post is interesting too.
We already intended to home educate, but R’s response to this very tight, structured approach just made me even more sure we were on the right track with HE for him.
I don’t go to Sure Start groups much cos they don’t have chairs for the parents to sit on. My main reason for going to groups is so my children can socialise with other children and get independence whilst I have a break and talk with other mums. There never seems much of that at Sure Start groups and in my experience the mums are cliquey
I think these groups have an agenda and have some kind of obligation to stick to them for the benefit of “most” instead of “all” the children. Fine. Good. I get it. But I do think there should be some allowance made for times like you mention where the group facilitator could say “I see they are still really enjoying those toys. Perhaps you could go into this next room or the hall for a bit so we can carry on the session over here.” Problem solved. Everyone wins. I think it takes a certain type of individual who possibly isn’t stressed with the responsibility to entertain a room of small children to remember to think of the needs of ALL of the children present.
That made me cry. Poor darling B. A similar thing happened to me at “Bounce and Rhyme” and actually it was mayhem there but not in a good way. None of the children and toddlers were encouraged to interact with each other, it seemed positively discouraged, and the play leader got tetchy when she wasn’t ” holding fort. All in all I didn’t enjoy it and neither did Leon.
Luckily he uses his free place for 3 short sessions at a small and very friendly nursery down our road. 3 sessions a week is enough. I want to enjoy my sin until such time as institution
takes over and then if he’s not happy I’ll home ed. Enough said!
It always astonishes me when programs catering to young children don’t let their participants behave like young children. Our church nursery is actually a famous example of this, with very regulated times for every activity, and toys must be put away for most of the time, even though they’re Right.There, just begging to be played with. There’s a lot of emphasis of sitting in seats, too. Once I was in there (being bad and not leaving my fussy toddler there alone, as is the policy — but they let me stay), and they kept trying to get a ~11-month-old to sit in a seat by herself. Really kept emphasizing it. And eventually she fell down and hurt herself, because the reason she was being so “wiggly” was because she was too young to be able to sit in a seat by herself!
They all mean well, of course. I’m not trying to bash them, particularly when the people involved are volunteers as at church. I just think programs that cater to toddlers and the like should be more free-form and tolerant and allow for individual developmental differences and preferences, and leave the sit-still-and-learn for later (or never!). Thanks for pointing this out & showing what valuable things your toddler & his friend were learning outside of the class structure.
I’ve given up going to our local surestart. The things we are interested in are all scheduled during E’s normal nap time, so it just doesn’t work for us.
We did go to a “baby massage” class when she was about 4-6mths old. She wouldn’t allow me to massage her in front of the class – too nosy – wanted to see what everyone else was doing! The instructor was really, what’s the word, pushy? about me letting her hold E while I practiced on a hard plastic doll. What’s that about? I was quite happy to watch and massage her later when we got home (if she wanted, which she generally did)
We DO go to a playgroup at the local methodist church. Not to play with the other kids. She doesn’t particularly like that. We go for the different toys and the activities they do. I expect at some point she’ll enjoy playing with the other children (rather than me). And then she’ll be “too old” to go I expect 🙂