Ceebeebies at school?

[3cupsoftea]

I'm interested to know opinions on this.
I'm pretty relaxed about screen time. I wish my child had less of it around the house but well, it happens. I was speaking to a few mums about parents evening. A few mentioned to the teacher that they were disappointed that the children (year one) watched ceebeebies during class time. There was back peddling of "they don't that much" but chatting to my child "hey what did you watch at school today?" So far it was 3 days last week and 2 this week. One day it was bing?!? At 6 years old? Thoughts?

Me too feenie even though I agree with the sentiment of that post.

Genuine question: if it's "wet play", why don't the children play (appropriately) inside? And I really can't see the need for any tv at that level as a supposed educational tool. It's very lazy teaching imo.

It's not lazy 'teaching' because teachers aren't actually teaching during a wet play lunch. We give up our lunch breaks to stay inside and supervise students when they can't go outside. Students generally get a choice of playing board games, drawing, ipads/laptops, whatever else they can rustle up in the classroom, or watching the tv/movie. Aside from it supposed to be the teachers break, it is also the student's lunch break, and they need the down time to relax and play, not be engaged in lessons during that time.

Sadly, in a world where so many students are expected to be hand fed every activity and be fully engaged in activities all hours of the day, sometimes putting the tv on during wet play is the only chance you'll get to have a pee and try and shove a soggy sandwich down your throat without 'Miss, what can I do?', 'Miss, I'm bored.', 'Miss, she looked at me funny.'.

if it's "wet play", why don't the children play (appropriately) inside?

Have you ever had a party at your house? Have you ever had 30 children cooped up in a small room without being allowed to run about?

As lovely as it would be for the children to play appropriately it might happen for a short time but not for a whole lunch hour.

Wow- I made the fail

Seriously?
The Fail?

Oh fuck off to the far side of fuck and then fuck off some more Fail and it's 'readers'.

How did you find out you made the Fail OP?

You weren't reading it were you?

I remember watching badger girl in the 80s as a child. All filing into the tv room once a week.

No I wasn't. The gasp was a gasp of horror. The wow was sarcastic. A poster on page 3 linked to it.

I'm a teacher and will sometimes put cbeebies on for ten minutes at the end of the day, usually when I'm giving out jumpers or letters or cleaning up toilet accidents or dealing with individual problems. It might seem "lazy" but the children will have usually had phonics/writing/maths/outdoor learning/art/science/reading/spellings throughout the day. We generally don't get much of a lunch break and we're at school every night until nearly 6 planning/assessing and generally work most evenings too.

It would be depressing to think of a parent seeing those final 10 minutes and calling me lazy. I generally fall asleep on the sofa exhausted night after night. (Often setting my alarm so I can wake up to carry on working.)

Please believe me that after spending a day teaching 4/5/6 year olds, you can call me lots of things, but lazy really isn't one of them.

But what's changed? We had the tv on at primary/junior school about 3 times a year, iirc, to watch something about the war (we must have been doing it as a topic).
We played inside if it was pouring. Didn't the teachers need breaks then? What about the (then still called) dinner ladies? Wasn't the supervision their responsibility? I don't understand why it has to be tv. Most children today watch plenty of tv at home, it's not as if it needs to be regularly supplemented at school.
So yes, to the OP, I would be very pissed off and I'd definitely bring it up with the school. Not that I expect it would do any good.

But why do you have to stick on the tv??? Why? Why do they have to be entertained by a screen?

I can remember watching button moon at school. And bertha and bagpuss. Pigeon street lol

what's changed? so much! The pressure, the workload, the expectations.... Year 1 children can be very fussy and while giving out things for the end of the day, it helps to have the 30 children sitting down quietly - a few minutes of CBeebies at this time can make this easier.

Do you have any other suggestions?!

I think kitchen that when we were at school we had to take responsibility for our actions. We did what the teacher said or else. I have rerimanded a child for throwing a unifix cube and had the parent phone to complain.
My personal experience is that even the best behaved children can change over a wet play/lunch. There are always arguments. Unfortunately, it is also my experience that the dinner staff get the worst behaviour from children. You couldn't pay me enough to work lunches.
Even if behaviour was perect we don't have the budget to buy inside toys/games so rely on donations which are few and far between.

What's changed? The pressure. You must know this. I'd say much Maths and English content has been moved forward 2 years, so what is expected of very young children now is much harder than before.

As an example- my 6 year old is expected to know her 2, 3, 5 and 10 times tables, how to tell the time, column addition and subtraction, using graphs and charts, 3D shapes. She gets lots of homework, including maths, spellings, reading, research.. whereas in some countries, children have barely started school at 6. So I fully support 10 mins of 'downtime' in a day chock full of pressure and targets.

I'd say much Maths and English content has been moved forward 2 years, so what is expected of very young children now is much harder than before.

Then why would you show Dinopaws which is so simplistic that any child who is remotely meeting those expectations would find it utterly tedious.

And just because your child gets homework, doesn't mean it's normal or required!

For a 10 minute break to wind down? They are still children after all!
Do you not watch the odd reality show/bit of light entertainment on TV even though you're a fully responsible adult?

I must say, as someone who was educated in a different country (and climate) I am genuinely quite shocked by how little sensible provision for wet play there seems to be in the architecture of U.K primary schools. It seems hellish for some poor soul of a teacher to have to wrangle 30 frazzled kids in a smallish room during their lunch break! We have so much data these days showing how little kids (and adults for that matter) are so much more able to concentrate when they have had a run around, yet despite the rainy climate here, I have yet to see a school which has covered space which can be used for proper running around on wet days. I've just visited 8, including two outstanding and four with brand new buildings as part of putting in DS's reception application...

leccybill - dinopaws has extremely simplistic storylines, the target audience is mid/lower cbeebies age group - so very pre-school focus. Many of the 5 and 6 year old kids I know would not be at all engaged or relaxed by it and would be much more likely to disrupt rather than it winding them down.

I've very much got nothing against using TV - I'm just amazed by the choice.

GrubbyWindows or you know the kids could go out in the rain, it's pretty rare in the UK for the rain to be strong enough to make that completely impractical, certainly not worth investing in covered space for it I'd say.

If we sent the children out in the rain I'm 100% certain we would have at least 50 parents phoning to complain. We also have those who come to scool in the worst of weathers with no coat!
A covered outdoor area would be a dream but we can barely afford glue sticks so that's just not going to happen.

What if, god forbid, the children just aren't interested in sitting quietly while CBeebies is on? What do you do then?
I understand about pressure, but still think that the sort of winding down you're talking about belongs at home.
Another example: the after school snack I choose to give my child may well be cake, but I don't expect them to get that at school.

Children watch enough tv at home, they should be engaging in conversation and learning.

I work in a pre school and I am a qualified childcare provider. Using a program for educational purposes is not lazy especially when we teaching our children to count using NumberJacks and learn about animals and other topics using come outside. Some children need visual aids to learn others don't. One of our children is actually getting really good at counting because of NumberJacks and our other methods. Its not lazy at all its reinforcing learning. Please feel free to do our job if you think you can do it better.
Fair enough if it is just mindless television programmes but cbeebies is quite educational including Bing!

It depends op - often it's just for 5 muns whilst they are on the carpet going out in groups to wash hands before lunch. It will be a quick filler to keep them still whilst waiting for lunch or waiting for the stragglers to get changed from PE etc.
Nothing to
Worry about.