To wish my DCs' primary school would stop putting on Newsround every day?

[minkfondant]

Every class at my DCs' school seems to watch Newsround on a daily basis. Today my 8yo came home excitedly saying "A taxi blew up! It was so cool."

On previous occasions, they've come home telling me about things like George Floyd's murder including graphic details of how he was killed and North Korea possibly having nuclear weapons. 10yo asked if I think we'll have WW3 caused by North Korea.

We deliberately avoid watching news with them around, because so much of it is alarming for people who haven't yet got adult perspective on things. News TV is deliberately curated to make it as arresting and attention-grabbing as possible, and obviously concentrates more on the bad stuff than anything else.

Can't they just have a childhood before they're confronted with the dark sides of human nature?

AIBU to wish the school would leave Newsround out of the lesson plans?

This is a great idea I think. DS14 isn't really up with current affairs - there was a question on his mock Citizenship exam last week asking what lobbying was. If he kept roughly abreast of the news he'd have known. Possibly something I should be doing as well as a parent too tbf.

Did you explain to him it wasn't cool?

Newsround is very strict on how and what it reports. Some major news stories might not even get mentioned if they are considered inappropriate or there isn't a way of wording it 'safe' for that age group. For example they would never use the word 'pedophille' in one of their reports.
Newsround is a fantastic news source for children (as is The Week Junior magazine). They report on both the good and bad stories which is important for children to hear about but in an age appropriate way.
I'm sorry but Newsround certainly wouldn't have gone into 'graphic details' about a person dying. Maybe you should start watching it with your child and taking the chance to discuss the stories with him.

I think it's a fantastic idea for them to watch an age appropriate news show.

If you child thinks the taxi blowing up was cool, that's for you to discuss with them as a parent.

@RobinPenguins

Newsround is literally designed to present the news to children. It doesn’t do any of what you’re suggesting TV news does.

Exactly! Speaking as a Primary School Teacher, our year 6 children love Newsround & it prompts many an interesting, informative, sensitive, insightful class discussion; kids are often more mature, understanding & resilient than we give them credit for!

But it’s Newsround? On CBBC? Which is targeted at children?

I don’t get your point as it’s specifically designed to give a child’s lens to current affairs. It is healthy part of childhood and helpful for them to have a reliable child friendly reference source as they pick up snippets from conversations at home or in the playground; and start to make sense and form views on the world. Really disagree on this one.

My school shows newsround to the juniors so yr 3 and up. Totally acceptable and they discuss it after if needed with the teacher.

You can't wrap them in cotton wool and as pp said, newsround is aimed at children. No way would it show stuff guts and all.

Another fan of them showing newsround at school. It has really opened my DS7 eyes to what it going on in the world. He would never sit and watch it at home but by seeing it at school we have had some great conversations about Syria, climate change.
Thanks to the latter conversation and him seeing a WWF advert in the day due to isolating we have now sponsored a penguin which he is doing with his pocket money.

Yabu. The school will be able to go through the news in a safer and more appropriate way.

OP, do you ever actually watch it yourself? Newsround specifically, rather than adult news?

Maybe you should, then you’ll be well placed to chat about these things with your children if they do come up. It’s quite a short programme.

If your 10yo is off to secondary next year with a phone, he's going to see far worse than Newsround. (If you're doing to tell me that his phone will be monitored, don't bother. His friends may show him worse as many kids don't have parental controls on devices.

And I'd hope that by the ages of 10 and 8, they'd have learned for their own safety, that not all humans are nice

It's for children. It covers news stories with sensitivity and objectivity and in an age-appropriate manner. In a school setting, it encourages discussion and debate. I totally disagree with you on this.

As a teacher newsround is great for stimulating discussion/clearing up the misconceptions kids pick up. It’s always age appropriate in how it addresses things and the glimpses into other children’s lives it gives as well is invaluable.

Also you are very naive if you think they won’t hear about these big stories anyway, except otherwise they’d be hearing about it from some little shit in Year 5 exaggerating like hell trying to scare them in the playground!

I love the fact that my child watches newsround at school. He often discusses what he has watched with me, and we end up having interesting chats. If I try and ask him what he did at school I often get a ‘I dunno/good/maths’ type answer, so I love the fact that he likes to chat about the news with me.

Newsround seems totally appropriate.

I think it's better if it's explained properly than if a child comes in with something they've heard and tells some hugely exaggerated version of events.

Real life unfortunately. I’d rather my kids knew what was happening in the world so they are not as naive or shocked when they grow up.

Mine watched news round at school at that age, so all totally normal.

Newsround is for kids.

Explain to your 8yo why a taxi blowing up isn't cool and teach him some empathy? 🤷‍♀️

My 7 year old DS watches Newsround every day and loves it. It has never disturbed or given him nightmares, but it has helped him to become more aware of the world around him.

Yabu. I remember when Newsround was that boring bit you sat through before Blue Peter. John Craven was this cuddly uncle introducing you to world news. I'm mid 40s and it had been going for years then. I'm glad kids watch it in school. It would be an easy thing to miss with iPlayer/YouTube etc.

(I got to meet JC later in life and I was star struck)

I think it's fabulous that schools do this. It's great to get young people interested in current affairs.

John Craven wanted to broadcast the news to children. He thought if it was shown in a sensitive factual way it would benefit them.

Newsround does a fantastic job. (Even if John Craven isn’t reporting anymore.)

YABVU.

I guess the reason that the school shows Newsround is to combat the fact that there are parents of 10 year olds who think that their children should be completely shielded from the world around them?!

We watch it daily and talk about the events as a class. Today my class wanted to discuss whether or not truffles should be worth €100,000, which would buy a flat near the school. Then we revisited the science experiment inspired by the information about COP26 last week.
It’s a big part of our SMSC work.