Is it standard practice for reception children to watch TV in class

[Aladdinsmagiccarpet]

Just that really. Every now and again dc comes home and says they've been watching TV in class. It's a two form entry , so sometimes both classes will watch something together and sometimes they'll just watch stuff in their respective classes. The other day dc was saying they watched Smeds and Smoos, and then something else together with the other class and then came back to their own class and watched three episodes of Peter Rabbit 🤔 I was quite astonished to hear that tbh. Surely they should be doing their early learning curriculum ? Is this normal practice now for Reception students?

Everyone saying they watched TV at school in the 70s/80s but it's not like it was an everyday occurrence then, it had to be wheeled in specially! It was an event! Now it's multiple times a day.

I'm in my 50s and I remember watching tv at school.

I'm in my 50s and I remember watching tv at school.

Not as commonly as people seem to think and the overwhelming majority of those children will have complex issues going on, they almost always go on to be diagnosed with developmental conditions and the delayed toilet training was an early indicator.

Fairly common for numberblocks etc to be used as part of learning, both mine watched tv sometimes for golden time (usually on a Friday afternoon when too tired for anything else anyway) in reception. This week my year6 and year 2 children are watching films as part of their end of term treat. So long as it's not all the time and age appropriate I wouldn't worry.

I totally get them watching something to do with what they are learning/reading or if it's as an end of term treat. But it sounds like they are watching it every week or every other week- they even watch Bluey 😲.. I haven't watched Bluey , neither has my dc, so I don't really know what Bluey is about, but I have seen the toys etc and I somehow don't get the feeling that Bluey is educational , I always thought its more like a Peppa Pig or Paw Patrol type thing. I could be wrong though.

Everyone saying they watched TV at school in the 70s/80s but it's not like it was an everyday occurrence then, it had to be wheeled in specially! It was an event! Now it's multiple times a day.

Exactly. Definitely seems to be the case in my dc's class. I am all for watching a bit of TV as a treat, or watching something that helps learning, but this does seem quite regular 🤔, which i am not too happy about tbh.

I was an Early Year teacher for over 30 years some in Nursery and some in Reception. I have seen the increase of parents leaving toilet training until very late. In the 80s, in Nursery, they would be told to bring the child back when toilet trained - which they did quite quickly. As I said above, there are now many more children who do have developmental conditions in mainstream schools and that is completely different. It is quite difficult in Reception when you get 5 children in nappies and one General TA and some will get a diagnosis and some won't. Anyway, this is long way from discussing TV in school. My initial post was in response to someone asking why there were so many TAs in classrooms now.

(I don't know why this has come out in italic)

You are v wrong. Bluey is genius, and was specifically created to promote some really positive messaging around the importance of creative, imaginative play, and to challenge traditional gender roles in the family.

Okay, I didn't realise that, sorry. I stand corrected. I just think that the valuable time they spend in school could be better utilised by actually engaging in imaginative play and being creative instead of watching cartoon characters doing so.

Wow you have really annoyed some of the current day teachers with your high standards 😂

Sounds like you were a lovely teacher.

I was at a private girls' primary in the 90s. We hardly ever watched telly. Very occasionally at the end of term when it was wheeled in.

If it rained we played in the rain. If it was dreadful occasionally we'd sit in lines in the gym and plait the hair of the girl in front.

I think the practice of supplementing book reading with films at primary school age is terrible. It alters your experience of the book and surely the whole point at that age is to foster a love of reading. Instead, imagination is replaced with screenshots and the message is sent that a book alone isn't worthy.

In my case it was stick and carrot: if we read the book first, we would watch the video as a treat. Worked a treat for The Sheep Pig/Babe, and Emma/Clueless. Romeo & Juliet too, particularly when Romeo got up all-but-naked in the morning and exposed himself at the window, wahey! They actually barricaded the door for To Sir With Love, which finished five minutes after the bell went for break... happy days.

Crafts and colouring also require consumable resources. Which ,once consumed, might no longer be replaced!

I think the practice of supplementing book reading with films at primary school age is terrible. It alters your experience of the book and surely the whole point at that age is to foster a love of reading. Instead, imagination is replaced with screenshots and the message is sent that a book alone isn't worthy.

Using films/television helps contextualise what they've read, for example if a piece of writing describes 17th century London and the children have no idea what 17th century anywhere looks like or sounds like then showing them clips is of enormous help. It also helps children who don't enjoy reading or who struggle with reading to access the story as it's in a format they can follow. When looking at descriptive language in a text we can show films of how that looks, again important for context and accessible for children who have difficulty with theatre of mind for whatever reason. For example, we studied a descriptive poem as part of our English work and then watched an animation of the same poem so they could see the scenes being described. When looking at plays we can show how those scenes are performed by others before giving them a go at performing them too.

It doesn't replace imagination and is not at all terrible.

Yes, I think it's normal enough. My dc1 missed a lot of reception as it was during COVID, but dc2 seems to watch some cbeebies, like Andy's Adventures and some other stuff. It doesn't bother me as it isn't every day or anything.

Yup. You should see some of the trading going on in school over paint and glue sticks - I'll give you the dregs of this red paint and the last lined exercise book if you can give me three rubbers and a pritt stick....

If you want your kids doing crafts or colouring and having higher staffing levels to accommodate this then campaign for more funding.

That's not true. Late 70s in infants we watched play school daily.