Speech Bubbles from the School Staff view podcast
At the end of the academic year (2024-2025) Adam chatted with Donna, one of the TAs working with Speech Bubbles about the impact of Speech Bubbles on the children
Introduction to Speech Bubbles and Its Impact
Adam Power-Annand
Hello and welcome to the Speech Bubbles podcast. I’m Adam. I’m the CEO and founder of Speech Bubbles. Speech Bubbles is a drama intervention that takes place in primary schools for young children referred with a communication need. In each school, it’s delivered as a partnership between an experienced and specifically trained drama practitioner and a member of the school support staff. And we’re really lucky today to have Donna with us. Hi, Donna, could you just tell us a little bit about yourself and your connection with Speech Bubbles?
Donna Sutherland-Bassett
Hi, yeah, so I’m Donna and I work in a primary school called Discovery in Thamesmead. I’ve been there for a very long time now, 16 years, and I’m a lead teaching assistant, which is the equivalent of a HILTA and I deliver the interventions for mainly year one, but this year I’ve also been doing interventions for year four, year, mainly year one though. That’s my experience, year one.
Adam Power-Annand
Great, so Speech Bubbles is for children in years one and two, but I think in Discovery we do just work with year ones, don’t we?
Donna Sutherland-Bassett
Yeah, we do just year ones but there are three year one classes.
Adam Power-Annand
It’s a big school. It’s a big, busy, busy school. Donna, could you tell me a little bit about your experience of doing Speech Bubbles? What you thought about it when you first came in? How you feel about it now?
Initial Hesitations and Growing Confidence
Donna Sutherland-Bassett
Well, when I first went to that training session, I immediately thought, oh my goodness, what have they got me into? So I was a bit nervous, obviously. But I did say to Julie in the last session, I feel like now I’m not so worried about making a food of myself, basically. I’m just getting on with it. I’m probably not as worried now. But yea, when I first came on that first session, I just thought I don’t want to do this. But now I love it, you can just do what you like in it really, can act the fool and it’s fine.
Adam Power-Annand
So for people listening, Julie’s the drama practitioner who works in Discovery and has been there for a couple of years. So yeah, it’s delivered the drama practitioner and the member of school staff. So tell us a little bit about what it is you get up to in Speech Bubbles, what you think the children get out of it.
Children’s Growth in Confidence Through Drama
Donna Sutherland-Bassett
So the children that we’ve worked with in the last two years definitely have got more confidence form using it. So for example today, I did some Speech Bubbles activities. So I did the banana song and I did the moving games and the children that did Speech Bubbles with me, the really quiet ones, were the ones that wanted to lead, which you know, in September, they wouldn’t have led at all. They would have been so quiet. They would have just sat there and not joined in. But their hands were straight up, I want to do it. So the confidence is definitely the main thing that I find has come out of Speech Bubbles with both the year groups that we’ve done so far.
Adam Power-Annand
And for you.
Donna Sutherland-Bassett
For me, like I say, acting the fool. I did do drama myself at schools as a GCSE but I think over th years you just lose that confidence and you hide behind you own, well I’m a lead TA, I’m not meant to act like that sort of things. But yeah, I’ve moved away from that a bit. Yea, I love the stories that the children tell. That the teachers don’t get in class and just they flow from the children.
Adam Power-Annand
Yeah, so for people listening, the center of Speech Bubbles practice is the colleting of individual child stories. So one child stays behind at the end of each session and tells a story. And then the drama practitioner and the member of school staff work together to plan a session and deliver a session based around that story. So yeah, so what do you end up having to do in those stories?
Engaging Activities and Storytelling in Sessions
Donna Sutherland-Basett
So it’s getting down on the floor, you might be crawling, you might be laying on the floor. I must admit I don’t tend ot lay, partly because it’s not comfortable for me because of my age. But yet you could be laying on the floor, jumping, running, crouching on your knees.
All sorts, stuff that I probably haven’t done for a few years actually. Not since I moved out of nursery, like working in nursery, but working in nursery and being with year one. It’s things that I’ve probably not done for a few years. So I do find the next day, sometimes I’m a little bit achy, for the running around or the crawling around or the funny shapes you sometimes have to get into.
Adam Power-Annand
And then one of the reasons I wanted to talk to you is that you’ve been saying to Julie in the sessions, but you’ve also been saying to me in training sessions is that as well as taking part in the Speech Bubbles sessions and joining in with the children and doing all of that amazing work that you’ve been doing and thank you very much for that. I knind of realise it’s a strech of you job role. And what you’ve been saying to me is, you know, I’ve been using some of the games, some of the activities in other things I do. And I’d love to hear a bit more about that.
You know, what it is you choose to do and why you choose to use those things that you learn in Speech Bubbles in the other things that you do.
Using Speech Bubbles Techniques Beyond Sessions
Donna Sutherland-Bassett
Yeah, so I choose to use them. Sometimes it’s a gap filler. I won’t lie, it is a gap filler. So for example, at this point in the year, the phonics sessions aren’t so long because there’s lots of revision and they’re short sessions. So on a Friday when I’m covering in class, I tend to use Speech Bubbles as my gap filler before assembly. And the children cheer when I say, lets do some Speech Bubbles. It’s yes! So, which is quite interesting.
But they just love to join in, they all have a turn at the banana song. Banana song is their favourite. But the class that I cover on Friday, they absolutely love Venga Venga. And they all have a turn.
Adam Power-Annand
So for those of you listening, Venga Venga is a call and response game that’s got actions and silly sounds and all of those kinds of things, and everybody can get involved in it.
Donna Sutherland-Bassett
Yeah, and every child does get involved. So I do use it sometimes as a gap filler. Today, I used it in a different class. I hadn’t done it before with this particular class. There wasn’t so much cheering, but everybody wanted a turn. But today I used the moving games and the banana song. So, I mean, they just love that clicking of walking round the room. Oh yeah, And then they get to choose which way they’re going. Yeah, so.
Adam Power-Annand
Tell us a little bit about that. I mean, that’s Julie’s specialist adaption of the moving games there, that thing where she does go walking around the room, which is really lovely. Explain to the listeners just a little bit about what’s going on there.
Donna Sutherland-Bassett
So we’re walking around the room and they have to choose which way they’re going and we usually just use forwards, backwards and sideways and then the have to freeze and it’s just encouraging children to use a louder voice because especially in a class, so it’s okay doing 10 children, they can have a little voice and they can be heard but there were 20 children in the class today and they had to use their loud voice to say freeze to get everybody to freeze. So that in itself was quite tricky for some of the children and I had to listen really carefully so that I could then repeat it for them so that everybody could hear. But they just loved it walking around the room and the banana song and it was quite interesting because even the Speech-Bubblers did more actions for the banana song than they would as a smaller group.
The Joy of Participation and Copmmunity in Class
Adam Power-Annand
Okay
Donna Sutherland-Bassett
So was like the confidence in the class to perform it to their friends. It just made them blossom today. They were really good at it.
Adam Power-Annand
Fantastic. That’s really lovely to hear. And just, I’m just thinking what’s interesting, what you’re saying is, the Speech Bubbles children are being referred and they’re coming out to an intervention, But it sounds to me like this is the intervention that everybody wants to go to.
Donna Sutherland-Bassett
Yeah, I thin kit’s the fact that I go and get them at lunctime and I encourage the other children to go and find the children that I need. So I go out with my list and I say, oh, do you know where so and so is? And off they go to find that person. Anda I think they just want to be part of the gang. And then when I take it back into class, they become part of the gang.
Adam Power-Annand
That’s really lovely Donna. Thank you so much. It’s been a really great year in Speech Bubbles this year. I know that the children have had, we’ve seen the results, we’ve looking at the impact report of your school and the results are really strong and the children have done really well in their learning, speaking and listening and their communication has really developed and their confidence has developed. And it’s really lovely to hear that your using it back in class in their kind of wider way. So thank you very much for that. We couldn’t be doing this work without you. So is there anything else you’d like to say just before we wrap up to our listeners?
Final Thoughts and Encouragement for Others
Donna Sutherland-Bassett
If you get the chance to do Speech Bubbles in your school or even any of the activities then go ahead and do it because the children love it. It just brings them out of their shells and I didn’t realise until today with one particular child how far out of her shell she came when her hand was the first one up. I want to do Speech Bubbles and this was a child that would whisper in September.
Adam Power-Annand
That’s really great. Thank you very much and we’ll use you as our marketing tool to get some more schools on board. Listen, have a really great summer and we’ll see you in September when we’ll be getting a new group of 20 children at Discovery or from year one, all who are going to tell stories and all are going to have a really great time working with you and Julie. So thank you very much.
Donna Sutherland-Bassett
You’re welcome.