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?

@rrhuth

Of course kids should learn about the world and deal with upsetting things - but just putting on the Newsround every day is not, IMO, good practice and it is not teaching.

But the discussion afterwards is.

A big part of what’s wrong with the modern world is we’re obsessed with Big Stuff that’s happening 1000s of miles away and which the vast majority of us have virtually zero understanding of the complexities and context: Israel/Palestine, gun crime in the US, the war on drugs, the rise of China, poverty in Africa, etc etc. Aside from a shake of the head and a “how terrible” this stuff is meaningless to 90% of adults and 10x meaningless to children. We need people to start thinking locally and understanding and connecting with issues in our own towns and country first. That’s what primary school should be for - not worrying about North Korean nukes, global meltdown and the middle east.

My children came home and asked me about the Liverpool bomb today. They are 9 and 7. We talked about it for about an hour, covering topics such as mental health, bravery, religious extremism and terrorism. My 2 could hold their own in any conversation about current affairs from the troubles in Ireland to the Holocaust to whether we should always trust the government. They aren’t quivering wrecks. They are kind and full of empathy, always looking at both sides of the story. I’m proud of that.

@Bellfor How long is the discussion afterwards - I missed that.

I was understanding thsi was going on instead of a teacher-led lesson. Because to watch Newsround is quite a chunk each day, do they have time for that + discussion every day?

They will hear about in the playground but maybe in inaccurate or inappropriate way

He wasn’t traumatised at all so what’s your issue exactly?

[quote ADreadedSunnyDay]@Tilltheend99
I have no problem kids learning about current affairs but private schools do this in a more structured way through projects etc not by sticking on newsround. My other problem is that the school day is so limited anyway this is time away from core literacy and numeracy skills. over a third of kids in DS class are needing extra support with reading and i would much prefer all the kids got more supported time than watched newsround.[/quote]
I don't know about in other schools but we have it on at snack time. So it's not instead of anything. The show lasts 8mins so hardly a massive chunk of time

Newsround doesn't need to be vetted by a teacher first it's literally designed for children in an age appropriate way. As pp said teachers then discuss the events after watching and sometimes work is done based off stories. I used to be a ta and loved newsround discussions. Children are a lot more astute than people seem to think they are.

I watch it with my class most days. They tackle stories that are potentially upsetting in a very sensitive way, focus on the positive and always have at least one good news story. I like it. If your ds thinks a man on fire in a taxi is cool then Newsround is the least of your worries tbh - saw that story, definitely wasn't presented as cool.

I think Newsround is ok although would expect the teachers to encourage discussion and guide the children in their interpretation of what they are being shown.

In my experience schools aren’t always great at doing that, especially for neurodivergent kids who may take things literally, eg climate change, where the narrative in schools was frankly terrifying for my autistic daughter and it left her feeling quite scared for the future and distrustful of adults. (Since she is now homeschooled we’ve worked through this)

Even on things that are upsetting - life is sometimes upsetting and learning to deal with that is a vital part of growing up.

I do not think it is beneficial to children to be shielded from reality in that way so YABU.

[quote rrhuth]@Bellfor How long is the discussion afterwards - I missed that.

I was understanding thsi was going on instead of a teacher-led lesson. Because to watch Newsround is quite a chunk each day, do they have time for that + discussion every day?[/quote]

I actually eye rolled. I think I might need a deep sigh too.

How on earth would I know how long the discussion is? Newsround is not 'quite a chunk' of time, its a few minutes at the end of the day. I would find it impossible not to discuss after watching, the very nature of the program prompts discussion. Some schools actually value the educating of children as well rounded individuals rather than churning out arithmetic and script writing robots.

(FYI, I teach ks1 so no, I don't use newsround. It's not age appropriate for my class. But we do discuss news stories as and when)

I don't know about in other schools but we have it on at snack time.

My view is that having background TV news instead of just space to chat to your friends is a step backwards for kids.

@rrhuth how would you teach current affairs in a better way? Bearing in mind the people who make newsround spend their working day researching and producing their content so that it is interesting and appropriate for primary age children. It takes up 7-8mins of class time. Planning and preparation has to take less time than the actual teaching otherwise teachers wouldn’t have time to be in the classroom. I don’t think I could do it better than Newsround.

I watch it in registration with my year 7’s and we have a discussion before they go to lessons

@Bellfor

If done everyday with little teacher involvement is not great. They would be better doing one decent session per week. Watching it won't be achieving much and they won;t be spending much time each day talking about it.

Of course kids should do news stories, but watching newsround every day is either perfunctory or is taking up a lot of time in the week.

[quote Grida]@rrhuth how would you teach current affairs in a better way? Bearing in mind the people who make newsround spend their working day researching and producing their content so that it is interesting and appropriate for primary age children. It takes up 7-8mins of class time. Planning and preparation has to take less time than the actual teaching otherwise teachers wouldn’t have time to be in the classroom. I don’t think I could do it better than Newsround.[/quote]
@Grida I taught secondary so my experience with this age is limited, but I would prefer my kids to have had 1 x 40 mins on one episode + pupil engagement than 5 x 8 mins of just watching newsround.

That seems a bit of a strange comment. It's not about hiding what's going on in the world from children, they hear about things within their families, from each other etc and these things naturally come up in discussion with them. There are also many times where it's appropriate to teach specific key events or link back to stories which have been prevalent in the news. The trouble I have found with Newsround is that more often than not, there is a clear bias which we as adults can discern and then think critically about. Children take it more at face value and aren't as critical of what they're viewing. This goes for social media/YouTube too. We should be teaching them to think critically about the media they're taking in. I would much rather allow them to discuss issues which they're interested in and consider different viewpoints, discuss sources of information and how to become discerning news viewers.
But anyway, that's clearly worrying. I forgot that teachers are merely supposed to fill children up as if they were empty, impressionable vessels.

@rrhuth have you ever actually watched newsround with a ks2 class? You can't not end up with discussion! It's the way the program is produced.

If there really was absolutely zero discussion fair enough, but in that kind of environment I would guarantee newsround would be the least of the issues with the school/teaching & learning.

Well apparently YABVU OP, but I’m in your corner. My DC would get so distressed by what was on Newsround, but guess they’re just meant to suck it up buttercup and realise that they live in sh*t times. Not allowed a childhood any more dontcha know.

@Tillymintpolo

I watch it in registration with my year 7’s and we have a discussion before they go to lessons

These questions only apply if you do it every day - our school has a different thing each day, one of which is news, but if you do do it everyday:

How do you feel about the research that says too much focus on news increases anxiety and depression in young people?

How do you prevent the news affecting the kids in your class who have these problems?

Oh dear, I think I’ve been parenting wrong. DC (9 & 12) have grown up with the ‘proper’ 6pm news on every night. I’d assumed given its on at 6pm, it was considered suitable. They seem perfectly well adjusted but I’ve obviously not thought this through properly

[quote Bellfor]@rrhuth have you ever actually watched newsround with a ks2 class? You can't not end up with discussion! It's the way the program is produced.

If there really was absolutely zero discussion fair enough, but in that kind of environment I would guarantee newsround would be the least of the issues with the school/teaching & learning. [/quote]
You only get discussion if there is time allowed for discussion.

I do not believe that can be the case - 5 x 8mins for the programme = 40mins/week, if they do 8 mins discussion too, it would be 80mins/week - that is a LOT for newsround.

That is my point - if they did one per week and did it properly then great.

I'm not sure if you know what Newsround is? It is a children's programme on CBBC not adult news. From what you've said it would seem good that these topics are being talked about so your 8 yo can learn that a taxi blowing up is not 'cool' in the slightest. Perhaps you need to talk about the real world a bit more as he seems to lack empathy.

80 minutes out of the 1950 minutes they are at school a week? No, it's not a lot. And it's well worth it if it sparks debate. And ticks off some off the English NC too! (Oracy)

@DrBlackbird

Well apparently YABVU OP, but I’m in your corner. My DC would get so distressed by what was on Newsround, but guess they’re just meant to suck it up buttercup and realise that they live in sh*t times. Not allowed a childhood any more dontcha know.

Some kids are very sensitive. My middle son was very worried by the constant Covid news, but he’s interested in politics in general.

The responses on the thread are rather ironic given the general grasp of news and current affairs on these forums.