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?

@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

You could do it but a) as several teachers have said on this thread, it can be a prompt for class discussion, which can't happen at home b) as this thread even more clearly demonstrates, some parents wouldn't teach their children about current affairs in any way, and their children would miss out if it weren't done in school

Anyway, by the same logic you could spend all the time you save by not watching Newsround at home practicing literacy with your kids?

I’d be concerned if my child thought a taxi being blown up was cool but aside from that I see no issue with Newsround, school is about preparing children for the real world.

I was 5 in 1986 when Chernobyl caught fire. I remember it happening in a really abstract and confusing way.

Kids far younger than 10 absorb a huge amount of information on currant affairs from around them. Surely they are better hearing a reasonably complete age appropriate summary of the event via newsround than confusing snippets overhead from adults speculating and gossiping or seeing newspaper/social media headlines.

I’m really pleased that my y4 child watches it in school every day.
We make sure we watch it during the hols.
Very important to get them engaged in current affairs in an age appropriate way.
Yabu!

@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

Learning about the world is fundamental, though. Certainly important enough to justify a ten-minute slot in the school day.

And these days, when many children have poorly monitored access to inappropriate media all around the clock — and then come to school and talk about the stuff they’ve seen, so even the sheltered kids get wind of it — it’s even more essential than it used to be to ensure there is something age-appropriate in the mix to counterbalance all the misinformation and frightening stuff they are likely to see.

Why would you not want him to know what’s going on in the world (in an age appropriate manner)?

What age will you let him watch the news?

Mine watched it when they were smaller and are passionate about the world.

YABU - it sounds as though you haven’t watched an episode yourself. Mine don’t watch normal news but they watch newsround as it’s age appropriate.

I agree with you by the way. There are many ways to discuss events happening in the world with children without showing them the BBC view of it. Essentially, all Newsround shows them is the agenda and issues which the BBC/British government want shown. I teach Reception/Year 1 and my OH teaches Year 5/Year 6 (different schools). We both encourage and believe in open and judgement-free discussion of current affairs in our classrooms and neither of us believe that Newsround fulfills that.

News round tells it in an age appropriate way. Quite useful for those children whose parents try to pretend the world outside doesn't exist.

You can't sanitise the world and protect them from everything. Bad things happen, it's better that they have an awareness, then they can talk things through.

@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 mean clearly many families do not do this at home as demonstrated by the OP!

My class have always watched during snack time or as part of in class assembly. But even if we did it during lesson it’s the peer discussion that is often the most enlightening and you can’t replicate that at home.

I think it's important they're introduced to reality in an age appropriate way, Newsround is literally made for kids.

@coconutmonkey it doesn't look like the OP discusses current affairs with her DC, it's not just Newsround she has a problem with

Thank goodness schools are still showing Newsround.

Better to see it on Newsround than see it on the front page of a newspaper.

I watch Newsround once a week with a Year 4 class. It handily fills a spare 10 minutes between getting back from the swimming pool and story time/home time. There''s nothing inappropriate for KS2 but it can be thought-provoking. We quite often pause it to talk about something that they have questions about.

Are you talking about the actual show Newsround? They talk about news stories in a very age appropriate way and usually wouldn’t include stuff too hard hitting. I just watched today’s episode on iPlayer and it doesn’t show any footage of the taxi blowing up. They just had video of a police officer walking up and down a cordoned of street. The other stories were anti-bullying week, I’m a Celebrity starting and 20 years of Harry Potter.

I think it’s great for children of all ages to learn about current events and how to analyse all different varieties of media so that they don’t end up getting all their news off of Facebook and trying to burn down 5G masts.

If you were discussing the news with them at home then you would feel less worried about what they were hearing about at school.

@coconutmonkey

I agree with you by the way. There are many ways to discuss events happening in the world with children without showing them the BBC view of it. Essentially, all Newsround shows them is the agenda and issues which the BBC/British government want shown. I teach Reception/Year 1 and my OH teaches Year 5/Year 6 (different schools). We both encourage and believe in open and judgement-free discussion of current affairs in our classrooms and neither of us believe that Newsround fulfills that.

This is the teaching equivalent of NHS nurses who don’t believe in vaccinations.

I agree with you and I don’t think the news represents ‘reality’ in a way that’s helpful for adults or children, even if it’s age appropriate. I don’t follow current affairs myself because I find a daily account of all the bad things that happen in the world is terrible for my mental health. Human beings are designed to live in small communities - that is the scale that is comprehensible to us. Knowing about everything that happens everywhere, with no power to influence what happens, is of no use to us. If something really important is happening, you find out via word of mouth anyway and can investigate further if you’re interested. I would be happy with my kids seeing newsround occasionally but I don’t see why they have to be signed up to this constant news culture.

Showing my age, I can remember sitting in the school hall along with all the other juniors (Yrs 3-6) to watch the footage about the Aberfan disaster. Definitely not produced for children.

Much better that they watch events produced for their own age group and as you know OP, at least you can be prepared for the questions they might ask.

You can't protect them from everything, children are generally more perceptive and resilient than we give them credit for... the world isn't all Disney, sunshine and rainbows, they need to be aware of what is happening around them.. they cannot live in a bubble.

I’d be more concerned that children are watching TV at school.

Newsround is what we used to watch when we came home from school.

@coconutmonkey

I agree with you by the way. There are many ways to discuss events happening in the world with children without showing them the BBC view of it. Essentially, all Newsround shows them is the agenda and issues which the BBC/British government want shown. I teach Reception/Year 1 and my OH teaches Year 5/Year 6 (different schools). We both encourage and believe in open and judgement-free discussion of current affairs in our classrooms and neither of us believe that Newsround fulfills that.

Wow. I wouldn’t want either of you teaching a child of mine. Do you want them watching GB news instead? Or a YouTuber telling them why they shouldn’t get vaccines? Is that the sort of thing you’re hinting at?

My kids watch it - I've minimal issues with it apart from during the height of the early part of the pandemic when DD2 was really struggling with anxiety and became virtually agoraphobic and we were really trying to downplay things to her in a very factual but low-key way and would have wanted more control over how things were presented to her at that point in time. This was after the period where she was convinced it was called the Macaroni virus having mis-heard it on the radio at grandparents!

If I didn't have kids who would tell me they'd been watching it - I would like school to let me know just so I'm aware what way things that they might raise again have been presented to them previously - but it tends to come on the telly on a morning at the point where it's "get a shift on and find your shoes" time anyway.

Newsround is edited for children's viewing specifically, and they cover plenty of happy, feel good stories as well.

YABU to think children need to be shielded from the world.