Hello I’m Cerrie Burnell, one of the Cbeebies’ presenters.

Last year, I visited lots of activity centres and  was amazed and delighted to find so many young children involved in fundraising for Children in Need.

From making iced cakes to having sponsored toy swaps and Pudsey parties, it made me realise that although pre–schoolers are often too young to understand the significance of raising money for Children in Need, they all fall in love with Pudsey and his super cute accomplice Blush and enjoy the challenge of doing something fun, new and exciting.
 
I really wanted to find a way for CBeebies to reflect and support all the efforts you and your little ones make, so I approached Children in Need and the CBeebies team with an idea. I knew it had to be a song, but rather than selling a single to raise money, I wanted it to be something that the CBeebies’ audience could really become involved with - it needed to be a song that everyone could dance to; a song that was upbeat, memorable and above all else fun.

With the help of the CBeebies team we found a talented composer and asked him to create a catchy tune which would make us all want to jump up and dance. 

Once we had the tune and the title -JUMP UP AND DANCE - it was the lyrics and choreography next.    We spent several nights having practise runs with our own children to make sure we didn’t over complicate or over simplify the dance.

The next stage was to get the lyrics recorded. Sid and I did this and we were thrilled when we heard them back. Onwards and upwards, we needed to shoot a fabulous music video for JUMP UP AND DANCE .

On the day of the shoot there was a complete downpour but everyone’s spirits were so high it didn’t matter. Katy, Alex, Sid, Pudsey and I were filmed dancing outside our new home in Salford Quays and it was a fantastically happy occasion despite the weather!

After all the fun of filming there were several days of editing, where our wonderful director and editor put everything together so it looks as if  Katy, Sid, Alex, Pudsey and I are dancing side by side with the Teletubbies, Rastamouse, Driver Dan plus Rosie and Raggles!

I’m so, so happy with the result; it’s vibrant, joyful and most of all it makes you literally want to JUMP UP AND DANCE!

You can see the video on Cbeebies this week and you can download it from the Cbeebies website. There are dance instructions from Sid, Pudsey and me which are fun and quick to learn. So all you need to do is tell your child’s nursery or school about it or why not have your very own Jump up and Dance party?

Your children can get sponsored for joining in with the dance (all the sponsorship details are on the website) and they’re bound to have a fantastic time with their friends!

We would love you to share your experiences and pictures of fundraising with Jump up and Dance on our Facebook page and Twitter Feed and hear all about the fun you had.  

I would like to thank you for inspiring me and also send a massive thank you to Cbeebies and Children In Need for coming together to create Jump Up and Dance. I really hope you enjoy learning the steps and contributing to the event as much I have.

Watch Jump Up and Dance here:

https://nontonwae.pages.dev/cbeebies/childreninneed/watch/childreninneed-learntojumpupanddance/

Download the song and plan your fundraising here:

https://nontonwae.pages.dev/cbeebies/grownups/activity/childreninneed-songs

Hello I’m Cerrie Burnell - CBeebies presenter, writer, Mama and, as of last week, cloud spotter.

Just over a week ago my daughter and I made the journey north, leaving behind us the sprawling metropolis of London, and heading to Manchester: The City of Clouds. We named it that because she is fascinated and enchanted by the sky. The moon, stars, sun and clouds are all things which delight her, and as we’ve discovered, the autumn sky in Manchester is forever changing. Perhaps it’s the absence of tower blocks, or perhaps it’s just the wonder of being somewhere new, but the skyline definitely feels closer, as if it’s somewhere we could visit as easily as going to the park to collect conkers, “Today were going to the sky to collect puffs of cloud”.

At first it was strange not to have the hustle and bustle of London on my doorstep, and as we’re no longer in the city centre (we’re in a leafy suburb, which compared to Zone 2 is fairly sleepy) our soundscape has completely changed. The rumbling trains have been replaced by the patter of rainfall, and the noise of night bus has vanished forever, replaced by the echo of footsteps and distant laughter of people wondering  home from the pub.

We live in a trendy version of a village, a mixture of charity shops, budget supermarkets, cafes and gorgeously unaffordable boutiques. Our first few days were chaos and I didn’t have the chance to cook (and sadly Katy wasn’t available to rescue me), so we got to sample the eclectic local cuisine. It wasn’t too expensive and everywhere we went the people were wonderfully child friendly - which makes things so much easier when you’re a single parent (the last thing you need if your kid’s kicking off in a restaurant is people glaring at you).

On my daughter’s first day at nursery I discovered that navigating the trams with a buggy is, to my relief, so much easier than the tube. I’m not pushed or accidentally knocked, and because it’s not underground, there’s no fight for oxygen. To my bright-eyed three-year-old, the fact that a tram travels on tracks and the road, is in the same league as the discovery of space travel.

I’ve been a working mum since she was really young, so I’m not worried about her settling in at the new nursery. I’m very lucky that she’s fairly confident/ spirited/ bossy and so as long as I walk in like a beacon of happiness declaring how much I love the place, she is likely to follow.  I’m slightly nervous though, in case I don’t like it. I wasn’t able to view it before we moved because it was still being built, but I did research the company online and spoke to the manager in detail. So when we arrive and enter the huge, bright airy space (complete with an outdoor wooden castle), I really am as happy as I look. It’s beautiful, modern, and all the furniture is the kind of stuff I’d buy for my own home. I can see my daughter’s imagination is going to be really stimulated. Within twenty minutes she’s forgotten me and is instructing the lovely staff that she will be painting all day and that she wants pasta for lunch!

Now that she’s happily settled, I can finish the unpacking and start rehearsing the steps for our fabulous CBeebies ‘Children In Need’ song:  JUMP UP AND DANCE. Sid and I have already recorded the lyrics to a very catchy tune composed especially for the event.  This week myself, Katy, Alex, Sid and of course Pudsey, will shoot the music video in the piazza outside our new northern home.  Andy , who is filming his own new show at the moment is going to be keyed on along  with a selection of animations, so it will look as if were dancing with everyone’s favourite CBeebies friends. We’ve got our colourful dance outfits sorted and we’ll certainly have our dancing shoes on. Soon you’ll be able to download it and get your little ones jumping up and dancing all in the name of a great cause. I absolutely cannot wait for you to see it.

With the dancing, the unpacking and the exploring of a new city, I’m quite busy. But one new thing I have learnt is that an umbrella can be also used as an accessory. For a London mum, it’s all about how chic you can look with a baby bag and stroller. In Manchester it’s all about the rain wear, such as the colour and print of your umbrella. Of course, I‘m continuously outdone by my three year old. No amount of rain can deter her joy, so whilst I stand getting windswept and rain-battered, she only gets lovelier and lovelier. And when she gazes up at the sky, she’s always on the lookout for storm clouds, because with storm clouds come puddles, and puddles are hours and hours of fun.

 

Hello I’m Cerrie CBeebies presenter, writer, Mama and now it would seem adventurer! The CBeebies house has already relocated (with a new wonderfully colourful and beautifully modern set) to the city of the future: Media City and in exactly three weeks our journey north begins!

It’s the closing of a chapter and the opening of a fresh page.  A fresh start, a new energy. And there is something wonderfully uplifting about the prospects of a new adventure. But I could not write about moving to Manchester, without first saying my goodbyes to London. In three weeks we will kiss farewell to our favourite parks, theatres and museums, our favourite cafes, bars and bookshops and all of our favourite memories. For me, wandering through London is like strolling through a street map of memories. It’s such a huge city, such a hub of cultural diversity and it holds so much  history. And so much of my history. My earliest London Memory is riding a camel at London Zoo, being gripped with terror that I might fall of and die, thankfully I survived! Then I had my first ever audition at the Unicorn theatre.  And soon Tuesday became my favourite day of the week, because that was the day my mum and I would travel up to London past the smokey chimney pots and then down onto the bustling underground, before we hurried into the theatre, with its curtains that smelt of dust, to begin rehearsals.

Later I was a member of the national youth theatre and had some of the best summers of my young life, hanging out around Camden and rehearsing late into the night on Holloway road. I got my first acting job in London when I was 23, and have lived here on and off ever since. Eventually I fell in love with Hackney; I bought a house and had a child. And then I got my fabulous job and we moved west to the bright lights of shepherds bush. 

And now we are nomads lingering at my parent’s home, waiting to re-locate to Manchester. Anticipating all the new adventures that await  us. The CBeebies house is up there, looking fantastic, and glowing with positivity.

So now all I have to do is the make the transition to our real new home. A new nursery, for little un, a new neighbourhood for her to explore.  New cafes to try out and most importantly new memories to lay down. And I’m genuinely happy to be going. London for all its brilliance and  romantic nostalgia can be a hard city, especially as a mother. And Manchester is not a completely unfamiliar landscape. (I studied here – ten years ago!) I remember wandering through Chorlton just after I graduated. Like most young actors I was broke on a daily basis and could only imagine what it might be like to live in Chorlton or even afford a donut. And somehow  my dreams seem to have come true, because in three weeks time we are moving to a lovely little flat, just near where I used to dream of living all those years ago.

Between now and then I’m trying to squeeze in as many London-centric things in as I can, one of which was trip to London Zoo, with my almost three year old. The lions were asleep. The elephants had gone. The camels, snakes and tigers, were all strangely still. The highlight for my daughter was getting a pencil in the shop. As we headed home that night both of us agreed, it’s definitely time to head North.