TV at school nursery - AIBU

[RedIvy18]

I was quite surprised to hear that a local school nursery (where sessions are 2.5 hours either in the morning or the afrernoon daily) have the children watching TV for the first 10-15 minutes as they wait for others to arrive.

Just to be clear that I do allow my child to watch TV etc but AIBU quite surprised that they would do this at a school nursery?!

I work in a pre-school, we put the TV on at the end of the day while we set things up for the next day. It’s no big deal, the children have had lots of stimulation and learning throughout the day.

Why?

It's a good way to keep the kids busy whilst the workers are also busy welcoming everyone

It's not like they do it all day

Depends what they’re watching. Ours watch some jolly phonics videos, if it’s a wet lunchtime they might have some numberblocks. If it’s educational content and it short bursts I’m fine with it but I’d be pissed off if it’s whole episodes of paw patrol or similar crap though!

I felt the same way when I hear my child's preschool lets them watch tv on ipads

i still don't know how often they do this

A lot will depend on what they are watching for me. A phonics programme or something like children's yoga is different from Peopa Pog on repeat for example

@DoctorRoseReturnsmy DS is at a nursery at the moment where there are no screens at all and the other school that we have looked at don't allow tv time so I was surprised to see it at this preschool. I don't work in education or childcare but (maybe mistakenly) thought that screens wouod be discouraged in those types of settings.

@TheNightingalesStarlingit would be whatever is on ceebeebies at the time I think! I personally quite like a lot of the programmes on there but just wasn't expecting it to be on at nursery. I agree that there can be some learning benefits. I just thought that they might be busy doing other things. They are there for 2.5 hours and the tv is on for 15 of that.

2.5 hours is a really short session- I get longer out of the gym crèche! Our school nursery is 8.15-12 for the half day or 8.15-3 for the full day. I totally get TV as an educational learning aid, for wet break times or at the end of a long day whilst staff are cleaning up but I agree with you that that’s crap when the session is so short. And why is the session so short? How do you get anything done? It makes no sense to me! If I had a choice of settings it’s not one I’d choose anyway.

I’ve recently found out that this happens at my son’s nursery too as I’m really unhappy about it. We are pretty much screen free at home due to the impact on his behaviour . We will maybe watch a movie at the weekend as a family but that’s it.

hes recently told me they watch tv when the other kids nap. I think it’s pretty unreasonable for me to be paying >£7 an hour for him to be sat in front of a screen watching Mr Tumble!!

I was debating whether to raise it with the manager but don’t want to be “that mum”. It seems from responses so far that most people think it’s ok though 🫤

Most school nurseries round here do it in the morning as they do staggered start times so it means there are enough staff to supervise kids being dropped off and get them sorted. I would not expect it in a private nursery for younger kids though as higher staff ratio.

Why isn’t it three hours?

In our EYFS classes, nursery and reception, the children come in and the teacher is on the door and the TA on the room and they sit in a circle and look at a book.

A small amount of tv to aid at times is really not a big deal, it can be quite calming for little ones if they've had a busy day. Dd doesn't get to watch much, but I wouldn't worry about a small amount.