School letting 8 year old watch newsround

[rhonyvsrhobh]

I think that it is important for children to know what is happening in the world - to an extent.

My 8 year old, primary 4 daughter came home today very upset and worried as she had seen on Newsround which is shown at her school that Russia have invaded Ukraine. She has asked me several times if we were going to get 'hit'. I have tried to reassure her that it won't happen (what else can I say) and not to worry. She then asked me to swear on her life that we won't be affected by it. I said I couldn't swear on her life but not to worry, it won't happen.

She is very anxious and I just don't think something so serious should have been shown to 8 year old children. I feel so sorry for them, they've had covid and now this!

AIBU to contact the school about this or am I being precious?

Forgot about newsround...that's perfect for children. Is it on BBC still.

It's on CBBC

If you know your child is sensitive, it's a concern and what's ok for most might need more careful handling. That's the concept of special needs - and it can become apparent after the event. Your child may be processing everything at a much deeper level. But it still does not mean shielding is a good idea because as mentioned - it's not possible with today's mass media. Perhaps you can limit the amount of home exposure but still deal with concerns realistically as you are akready doing - i.e., you can make guarantees but explain about risk and chance if they can cope with that - e.g., it 's unlikely they will see an elephant on the way to school. And hopefully there is somewhere you can get more advice starting with school. They need to be aware - and regularly ask if the children have concerns or questions.
YANBU to have concerns.

you can't make guarantees

This is the real world and discussing war may give perspective in an age of minor social problems. It's of more benefit and less confusing than being bombarded with a constant barrage of social and LGBTQI issues that appear to have led to wide spread anxiety amongst our young.

I don’t think you’re being unreasonable or precious. The news is a constant barrage of fear-porn (if it bleeds it leads) and when I heard them talking about vaccinating kids on newsround (recommended viewing during homeschooling) I told the girls to turn it off. We turned the news off in July 2020 when our then 10yo burst into tears with the announcement of yet another covid restriction. My advice to anyone who wants to retain some perspective in life and keep their mental health in tact would be to turn the news off and reduce their social media consumption. And that’s before we even touch upon BBC bias and propaganda. Yes, even on CBBC; anyone remember the 190-odd genders? Or the MSM journalists that uncritically disseminated the fake videos from China of people dropping dead in the street? They, bluetick journalists, didn’t even verify the sources. If you want your kids to be informed there are more measured and critical sources than the MSM.

@Badunkadunk

I don’t think you’re being unreasonable or precious. The news is a constant barrage of fear-porn (if it bleeds it leads) and when I heard them talking about vaccinating kids on newsround (recommended viewing during homeschooling) I told the girls to turn it off. We turned the news off in July 2020 when our then 10yo burst into tears with the announcement of yet another covid restriction. My advice to anyone who wants to retain some perspective in life and keep their mental health in tact would be to turn the news off and reduce their social media consumption. And that’s before we even touch upon BBC bias and propaganda. Yes, even on CBBC; anyone remember the 190-odd genders? Or the MSM journalists that uncritically disseminated the fake videos from China of people dropping dead in the street? They, bluetick journalists, didn’t even verify the sources. If you want your kids to be informed there are more measured and critical sources than the MSM.

Turn off your kids social media and shut down their access to the news, then go read tripe from conspiracy theorists yourself and fill their heads with that nonsense.

Sound advice my friend.

(or you could read stuff from a variety of sources, and then critically review what you have read if you have concerns about bias)

If you have an anxious child, the real danger is what they hear, unknown to any adult, from other children in the playground who don't understand what's happening either.

The anxious child is the child who most need to see a carefully thought out and reliable source of information, geared to their age and which they watch under the supervision of a trusted adult such as a teacher, who they can then ask questions of. When that programme even includes a segment about what to do if they're worried, as newsround did, then even better.

I would be very grateful to the teacher and to newsround if I had a very anxious child in that class.

Newsround is a daily ritual after break in our school. The kids love it. It approaches difficult subjects in a child friendly way, and gives children the chance to discuss it in class.
You may want to shield your child from ‘nasty’ things, but it is not good to wrap them up in cotton wool… this is a fact of life at the moment, and will be on the news and be in newspapers… better they get to talk about it than worry about it in silence. At least your daughter felt she could actually discuss it with you. It is very sad that it’s gone from Covid to a War for them.

Again, there is much suggestion that this was the the wrong choice on this thread but no answer yet to what might be an appropriate alternative.

This is a genuine question: if you are saying that teachers should not use Newsround, what would you like them to do when they realise that children are discussing the situation in unhelpful and ill-informed ways and upsetting and confusing others?

(remember, they are not History experts and this situation bubbled up very fast)

Newsround IS for children though. What's wrong with you? Precious.

Primary school teacher here! I teach across the primary age, and from about year 2 up, I show Newsround at the end of most days. I personally think it's important for children to have some global awareness, and Newsround always handles things very well, and appropriately.

I watched the episode you are talking about with a Year 2 class yesterday, with zero concern for the content. You are being way too precious.

It's been half term here, so I haven't had to deal with this yet. I am secondary, but fully expect most lessons and form on Monday to be:"what do you think about the war miss? Are we going to be invaded?" So I'm making sure I have answers.

I have also sat with yr5 dd this morning, with a wall map of Europe. She's been following the news ish anyway, but I've gone through possible misconceptions she might hear in school on Monday. We discussed how putin is a bully of epic proportions and how countries have not so much friendships with others, but mutual interests- like when you sit with Jane cos none of your mates are in. We looked at the distance between UK and Ukraine and discussed why UK isn't involved in the fighting. We talked about humanitarian aid. We talked about friends of hers from Poland and Romania and how they may have links to Ukraine. We talked about how Russian people don't all agree with the war and are protesting, even though its dangerous. Hopefully she's now equipped enough to cry:"bollocks" to any playground hysteria. Although she's a bit too goody to actually use the word bollocks.

I'm often quite an absent parent, but this stuff I can do.

YABU. I watched Newsround as a child - excellent and informative, age-appropriate media. In a few years you won't be able to control what your child watches and you'll look back wistfully at the 'Newsround' days.

OP YABU - it’s important that children learn about the world in a safe way. My 10 year came home and said she was worried and we explained it was a sad situation but it was very far away.
My teenagers wanted to discuss it in a bit more detail, thankfully in my lunch break I had read some background to the situation so felt able to have a proper talk with them.

OP you say that you don’t know what to say to your child. There’s quite a few articles online about how to talk to children about difficult topics like this. Try here:
lifehacker.com/how-to-talk-to-kids-and-teens-about-the-crisis-in-ukrai-1848589761/amp

I would also recommend subscribing to First News or The Week. They both give a brief overview of the news in a very safe, non-sensational way (I even enjoy reading them rather than watching the news).

It’s very important that your child feels they can talk to you about their worries, without you overreacting or getting stressed yourself, otherwise they will stop asking for fear of upsetting you.

Sorry that should have read The Week Junior.

Haven’t read the whole thread, but when I taught that age group I would have discussed with the parents before bringing the subject up. It’s so serious and scary. I’d want to respect the parents’ wishes about how much they wanted their child to be exposed to.

100% this. And to go further…i work with young people - I no longer use certain events, books etc as stimulus in lessons, which I would use years ago because pupils in the last 10 years are not equipped to deal with it and parents/carers would complain/question if I tried to. Having grown up in 70/80s we had to watch all those public service adverts etc - I wouldn’t in a million years show them to secondary age pupils now. Young people now are so mature and knowledgeable about social things which parents find acceptable but talk about a war or people dying and all hell breaks loose. Adults project a lot on to young people and they will be influenced by it - hence, if we are anxious it can be projected to youngsters. That’s my experience anyway

I would have discussed with the parents before bringing the subject up.

Definitely the ideal. What would you have done if the children were already bringing it up though? And were quite scared and ill-informed?

Another relevant article - schools discussing how they are going to manage these discussions with children.
The main theme seems to be that you can’t completely shield them, so it’s important they are getting balanced correct information - but don’t overdo it:

www.theguardian.com/society/2022/feb/26/ukraine-anxiety-children-psychologists-teachers?fbclid=IwAR0LaRKCBEBgSp499LQdH2UqUUxd77-QLijygdAtBJOcHZ2iJbsOlcBiolU

We had a similar issue with my then 8yo watching News Round at school when George Floyd was murdered. She was so upset and confused by it all.

It's not precious. It's hard to find the right balance, that's for parents and schools.

Nicely said, @TeaForTiger

@OchreDandelion

I would have discussed with the parents before bringing the subject up.

Definitely the ideal. What would you have done if the children were already bringing it up though? And were quite scared and ill-informed?

I’d have said something reassuring about it being a long way away, that someone was being very naughty and to talk to their grownups about it. Something like that.

@7eleven “a long way away” where are you that Ukraine is “long way away”. Are there no Eastern European origin children in your school? No military families?

It’s not “naughty” for a child to talk about the news fgs. If a member of their family is stuck in a country at war they will want to talk about it as is natural. If one of their parents is preparing to be deployed they will want to talk about it. False reassurance for their real upset so the other kids don’t have to even hear about it is just ridiculous.

@7 realised you could be in Australia or similar and then of course it would be far away (but then what you would say would be different to a UK response so not really relevant)

[quote Cbtb]@7eleven “a long way away” where are you that Ukraine is “long way away”. Are there no Eastern European origin children in your school? No military families?

It’s not “naughty” for a child to talk about the news fgs. If a member of their family is stuck in a country at war they will want to talk about it as is natural. If one of their parents is preparing to be deployed they will want to talk about it. False reassurance for their real upset so the other kids don’t have to even hear about it is just ridiculous.[/quote]
I don’t mean the child is being naughty. It’s the way I would explain it ‘off the cuff. I’d say someone in a country a long way away was behaving badly and it was very sad, but we were ok.