Does anyone buy First News for their children?

[Ruthchan]

I am considering subscribing to First News weekly children's newspaper for my daughter.
It is recommended to be for children aged 7-14. She's only turning 6, but she has a good enough reading level and is very interested in the news, so I thought I might give it a try.
I've looked at the website and it looks suitable, but does anyone have any personal experience of buying it?

TIA

[RupertTheBear]

We get it at the primary school I work at. The children fight every week over the new editions. I think it is fantastic and subscribed to it for my 8 yo niece.

[missmapp]

My school buys this for use in classes. It has a good mix of articles, we are a junior school so i suppose some articles may have a more KS2 tone, but I think it would be fine for 6YR old

[roisin]

We get it and have done ever since it started 6 years ago! Safe to say we are fans!

The boys are 13 and 14 now, so were (only just) 7 and 8 when they started.

[Ruthchan]

Thank you very much!
Very helpful.
I'll subscribe and see how she gets on with it.
I'm assuming that I don't need to worry about any of the content being unsuitable, do I? I assume they filter the news to a certain extent to be child-friendly!

[ChasingSquirrels]

ds1 (9yo) has had it for the last three months - you can get a subscription on tesco clubcard vouchers.

He reads it cover to cover and says it is good. My ds2 is 6yo and would have no where near the reading level required, I'm not sure he would have the interest either.

Maybe worth picking up a couple of issues from the shops first, personally I would think she was a little young.

[Ruthchan]

Yes, I understand your doubt that she would have the interest or reading level at her age. However she has a reading level more suited to an 8 or 9 year old and spends a lot of her time asking me about the articles in The Week, which is the paper to which I subscribe. She looks at the pictures and reads the headlines, but doesn't understand my answers to her questions.
I'm interested in offering her news of her own level that she can read and understand herself, with some help of course.

Is it widely available in the shops?
I'm coming back to the UK for a trip next week. I wonder if I'll be able to find it quite easily?

[ChasingSquirrels]

I'm not doubting her reading level, my 6yo ds2 couldn't read it, but I am pretty sure that 9yo ds1 could have read it at 6ys.
I just thought better to pick up an issue and see first - but I didn't realise you weren't in the UK. Waitrose definitely sells it.

ds1 also has had NG Kids for quite a few years, which while not news based, is a really good kids comic.

[roisin]

My boys really enjoyed telling us about news articles they'd come across first, after reading them in FN. It sounds good for your dd; it's very much children-interest-led and isn't as "worthy" as some people expect.

My boys are really too old for it now and I should cancel, but they still flick through it and it has led to the reading real newspapers too.

I don't like NG kids personally at all: there's very little real content.

[bigbadbarry]

My sister (erm, hello Rupert) subscribed to it for my daughter's birthday. She absolutely loves it (she is 8) but I never look at it...a friend came round and flicked through it recently and really raised eyebrows at the problem page! Boyfriends and GCSEs. So I don't know, really.

[WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes]

I'd never heard of it till this week when I got an email advertising it. You can try it out with the first edition free Free copy.

[Hulababy]

y DD has been getting this newspaper for a year or so, but has been reading it at school since she was in infants.
We also get it at my infant school and the Y1 and Y2 children read it; some need a bit of help, others read it by themselves.