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?

I would be more disturbed that child thought a taxi blowing up was cool. Maybe, he needs more education about the news not less

YABU. Newsround is specifically designed for children - it’s very, very carefully done. It is great that the school shows it, because clearly some children, and their parents, neither know or care, what is going on in the world.

I am curious about the people who are voting YANBU. None of them seem to be posting on the thread.

OP, I hope you won’t feel got at; it would be nice if you could come to love Newsround. Come into the body of the kirk, as my nana-in-law used to say.

Plus there’s the theme tune. Classic. I used to mainly watch it for that in the early eighties.

I actually watch Newsround when there is an election because it explains better what each candidate stands for than regular news does. It was brilliant for explaining what Brexit was actually all about.

YABU

Newsround is age appropriate

You do your kids no favours by trying to shield them from everything

Newsround presents news in a way suitable for children but I get the frustration op. I have a 10 year old Ds on the spectrum. He gets really worried about he sees on newsround!

YABU
My 14 year old has autism and severe learning disabilities, at his special school he watches newsround everyday and it is discussed in an appropriate way.
Far better to teach children about the world than hide them from it.

I watched Newsround as a child , found out about Falklands war on Newsround when I was only in Primary school . It promotes awareness of the world about us and is reliable for information it also encourages Children to talk about Politics and ask questions . Children should not be kept ignorant of their world .

Our school show the children NR from y1-6 (although it is sometimes skipped in the first term or 2 y1 depending on the content). I think it's a good thing. It doesn't do any good to shelter children from the news, imho, we watch/ listen to news with the dc around, if they ask questions we do our best to explain the issue with them in an age appropriate way.

Isn't that the point of newsround? In my day it was full of the IRA blowing stuff up. But they explain it in a child friendly way.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=3HJeS7BQazk

Ours watched Newsround and we used to but First News every week which was excellent. There are schools where the staff will have to tell the pupils very bad news such as about the death of a pupil or teacher. It's not a good idea to shield them from everything and pretend the world is Tellytubby Land.

Do you really think its bad your children are asking their parents about the world around them .

Whenever people say things like this, I picture all the poor kids who are forced to literally live through the things you don't want your own kids to know about. So imo YABU.

We watched it almost every day in the class I was working in last year. Special needs school years 5-6. Some kids didn't take much from it but we often had the kids come up with interesting comments or questions. We also used the do the newsround weekly quiz every Friday- it encourages the children to actually pay attention in the week as the always want to win! Also helps with memory and recall.

Oh I take back my YouTube link, it doesn’t give the full versions of the old themes. 😔

Newsround is great. It's aimed at children and I watched it as a child. I was part of the press pack too.

My parents always had the 6 o'clock news on during dinner when I was a child. I remember watching the report about the fall of the Berlin Wall.

At those ages though, most of it went way over my head.

YABU.

Children (and adults) need to learn that life can be shit sometimes.

Exposure to adverse events via the carefully presented newsround is a good place to start.

Exposure to news encourages interest in the outside world, provides topics of conversation etc. It's so important. The 6pm news followed by reporting Scotland) was a nightly fixture in our family. I genuinely think it helped my siblings and I academically and it was virtually the only time we all sat down together to watch TV.

YABU, I think that watching Newsround will offer your child a more mature perspective and understanding . I really hope you talked to your child about his taxi comment and watched the clip again with him to see what gaps needed filling there.

They won't emotionally link a car exploding to grief, it's not that visceral for them. It just 'looked cool' to them.

Thankfully, my experience as a teacher is that really isn't the case for the majority of children who are 10, and for the ones who lack maturity, they need more exposure to peer discussion, not less.

I dislike the time given to newsround as this is something we could do easily at home. I would prefer that the teachers, well teach, the fundamentals. I would like their time spent on literacy and numeracy and projects

@ADreadedSunnyDay

I dislike the time given to newsround as this is something we could do easily at home. I would prefer that the teachers, well teach, the fundamentals. I would like their time spent on literacy and numeracy and projects

I’m not sure why you think watching a short news programme can’t be part of literacy, numeracy or projects. The kids’ comprehension will no doubt improve by watching this for a start.

@ADreadedSunnyDay

I dislike the time given to newsround as this is something we could do easily at home. I would prefer that the teachers, well teach, the fundamentals. I would like their time spent on literacy and numeracy and projects

But not everyone in your child's class have parents that would do it at home. Current affairs are educational. They spend a huge amount of time on literacy, numeracy etc as well.

Newsround is usually 8 minutes long. Just enough time for water or milk and it keeps children up to date with relevant current affairs in an age appropriate way.
Hardly a waste of teaching time.

Newsround is targeted at that age group and sheltering children isn’t helpful as they are more aware than people give them credit for.

If you have an issue with your child watching, speak to the school bit it’s really wouldn’t be a big deal to me and I’d actually appreciate the school furthering my child’s knowledge of important current events in an he appropriate way.