To think they should be teaching this?

[Flavarings]

Bit of background DD is 4. (baby of the yeargroup too) fantastic school otherwise could not fault them.
DD came home Thursday, saying she was scared of the dark and needed to stay in our room. Didn't think too much of it at this point.
Yesterday came round and she was saying soon you and daddy will be in the ground like nanna. I told her not to be silly and we will be here for many more years to come.
Today she drew a picture, which was rather dark. An "evil angel" she said (normally she draws in colour and they have faces) not this one. The whole one is completely BLACK.
DD then says its an evil angel mummy. They showed me at big school on the big screen. The evil angel has a black face and paints blood on peoples doors and kills the good people.

AIBU to think they shouldn't be teaching a reception class about this sort of thing?

Im all for learning about religion and understanding them. But for 4/5 year olds it seems a bit too much. Shes petrified the evil angel will come now!

I'm going to be speaking to her teachers tomorrow to find out exactly what they've taught her, and how it's affected her.

Oh i would want to discuss this with school. Id like to see what they actually showed.

Sounds like they've been teaching them about the plagues of egypt - if your kid is young for her year it might be that she's a bit behind maturity wise and is getting the wrong end of the stick. 4 is young for school, did you consider redshirting her?

Sounds like the Passover story

They've taught her about moses? Would probably speak to her teacher. They could have focused more on the baby in a basket / people free part of the story maybe.

She is perfectly mature for her age and understands a lot of things and comprehends them. I just don't think teaching them about evil angels killing people is acceptable for that age group.

I think its highly unlikely that they taught her that, and much more likely that she's got an overactive imagination and is fixating on a small part of the story of Moses, tbh.

Im thinking its the passover, but surely focusing on freeing the slavery would have been better for their age?

Is it a faith school?

What i will say is that some children get a bit gruesome and interested in death around 4. So this could have been egged up by children in her peer group.

School need to know so they can support her.

Sounds like Passover.

But Passover is an inherent part of freeing the people - and important in faith traditions. And you can talk to her about it and explain it in your own terms.

This is when you find out which children have older siblings, because they're going on about zombies and death and scary stuff in a casual way...

Is it a faith school?

While I'm not usually one for fluffy sprinkling anything with children this, i think, is definitely worth a chat to the teacher about. Just if nothing else so you can fully explain it to your child in a way that might help her feel less frightened.
A friend of mine's daughter became morbidly obsessed with death at the same age and it terrified her. She wouldn't sleep for months and developed quite severe anxiety about it. I suggested asking her how many people she knew who had died, and his many she knew that hadn't. My friend didn't say that people didn't die or that only old people die, etc, but it helped her to rationalise things a little bit. Maybe a similar thing could work with your daughter? A kind of, how many people do you know who have ever seen this angel? When did you see if on the news/in real life? Sort of thing?
I hope you can reassure her anyway, good luck

Not a faith school no.
My SM is religious and I've got her to explain about it to her to try and calm her down a bit. (shes never once mentioned religion to her so I know its not from her)
DD understands death her DN passed away a few years ago, shes not become overly obsessed with death, but understands nobody will live forever.
Its just that shes worried this evil angel is going to come paint blood on the doors and kill us.
I'll be speaking to the school tomorrow and asking to see the video they played her, and also trying to get some support perhaps too.

4 is young for school,

Entirely normal age to be in Reception in England. Almost all of the reception class are 4y when they start in September, unless there birthday is one of the first days of the month. Some may have only turned 4 the month or even week before starting.

The angel of death in the Passover story... my children haven’t learned about Passover in school, but we have watched The Prince of Egypt together many times. It used to be on Netflix, maybe have a look to see if it’s still on there and watch it together to get the story straight (you may want to watch it first to make sure it is appropriate but my kids watched it at 4 years old)

It sounds like they might have been shown the animation film Prince of Egypt, which is a cartoon version of the story of Moses. In that, there's a brief bit where a grey/black shadow hovers and moves over doorways, and you also see the Israelites daubing theirs with red. That bit is a little sinister seeming with the music, I think I remember, but the rest of the film isn't at all. I think it's far more likely that she's seen that, rather than actively been taught that detail with a visual illustration, as that would be odd at her age (I'm a reception teacher)

Xpost with Hopel!