AIBU to want Year 3 given discussion after watching Newsround?

[jesst81]

My 7-year-old daughter (Year 3) is really struggling with anxiety at the moment and I’m wondering if I’m being unreasonable here.
Her grandfather passed away about five weeks ago, which I’m sure is playing a part. We’ve been doing a lot of talking at home about feelings and grief, and generally she’s quite a sensitive child. She also loves learning about the world and is very curious.
Recently the school have been showing Newsround to the class during the day. I understand that it’s aimed at children and that the school say it’s appropriate from age 6+, but lately it has been covering things like the war in the Middle East and the UK’s involvement. My daughter seems to find this really worrying.
The issue for me isn’t necessarily that they watch it — it’s that there doesn’t seem to be much context or discussion afterwards. From what I understand, the children watch it and then move straight on with the day. My daughter comes home with lots of questions and worries that she doesn’t fully understand.
Her anxiety has escalated quite a lot. A few weeks ago she might have had the occasional wobble, but now she’s having what I’d describe as anxiety attacks several times a day. It’s really distressing to see.
I have spoken to the school and her teacher, but the general response has been that it’s age-appropriate and that they try to talk about it later in the week if they have time. I completely understand teachers are busy, but I’m struggling with the idea of children this young watching news about war without the space to process it or ask questions.
Am I being unreasonable to expect a bit more explanation or discussion around it for children this age?
Just interested to hear how other schools handle this or whether anyone has been in a similar situation.

Yes. It should have been clear from my post that it is the over protective adults I take issue with. Sorry you didn't understand.

If I took my 7 year old child to the GP and said "I make my child watch Newsround every day and she's getting anxious about the war. Can she have a referral to CAMHs?" I'm pretty sure they'd ask whether I'd considered not making her watch Newsround about the war every day.

The thing is that there are a wide range of children. Different sensibilities, different access to news via other sources, different ways of processing the world.

There will be some children for whom Newsround is anxiety-inducing with no upside.

For others, Newsround is the age-appropriate contextualisation of content they are seeing unfiltered elsewhere.

And others for whom watching Newsround is a positive part of learning about the world, building resilience, hearing perspectives they don’t get a home, perhaps.

I’m not gung ho about the first group, but catering only to the most sensitive, so that the others lose what could be helpful to them, can’t be the right answer either.

Then the school has to separate the kids for the activity.

This isn't what's happening though. Op's child is anxious anyway, and particularly so as a result of recent bereavement. Several panic attacks a day probably does warrant some kind of intervention. But Newsround is a trigger, rather than the root cause.

Why should children too young to process have to have this stuff forced down their throats at school? There’s nothing they can do about it. They will learn soon enough about the state of the world.

As a teacher, you will know that parents only have the right to withdraw their children from RE and sex ed lessons. Apart from anything else, who do you imagine would supervise them?

Overprotective parents create anxious children just a much as underprotective ones!

You implied it. No one else has a problem ( so why do you).

I don't think children talking to a teacher is a worry, but I worry you seem to think all of the children in a class would talk to a teacher about their worries.

Because that is so pratical....

Thereby telling those children they are too fragile to see what the others can see and increasing their anxiety.

Yes, we have this with my dn (8), his school also watch newsround I asked him about school and he started talking about Iran and bombs, he has started to become an anxious wee boy.
It's all well and good them learning about the world but why do they have to see the horrors that adults do.
My youngest ds used to have nightmares about being chased by terrorists 17yrs ago because I would watch the news not thinking about how his brain was processing this information.
I have a7yr old now and watch the news before they rise and after they are in bed for this reason.
Imo, there is nothing to be gained from this exposure on developing brains

Well when you put it like that it does sound ridiculous. My point is, that her daughter must be struggling with anxiety if watching Newsround is effecting her so badly she is having anxiety attacks. This is an extreme reaction to a children's news show.

Years ago I worked with a number of schools that embarked on an integrated curriculum, not sure if all schools called it that. It meant you didnt have maths, English, geography as distinct 'lessons' etc (this is primary Im talking about) but you picked something and explored everything about it, so that all of those parts of the curriculum were covered

Lets say this was applied to that concepts, you would teach about geography, where in the world are we talking about, how many people live there, what sort of landscape and towns and cities there are,w hat do they produce or have produced, what sort of foods or cultural aspects are there, what is happening now and what has happened, who are the main players that we know of (Im picking random things but you get my drift) and obviously its tailored for the age of the child. Its done in a teaching way.

I was very keen on this way of teaching.

Some kids will be fine to watch the news, some wont as you say.

Well I have avoided much News lately! Esp the ME crisis .However News round is designed for children, so covers many Topics .I think children need to know whats happening in the world, but only a very watered down version surely?If she is upset then have a chat .

I don’t think war content, even if it is a children’s program, is appropriate for this age group without any context or discussion. There may also be other children who are feeling anxious but haven’t told anyone.

I was in year 5 when the Gulf war started and I saw a lot of coverage. I was terrified because I had no context, but help unable to articulate this to my parents.

Year 3 is not a tiny child. Do you really think you can shield them from the existence of war? For a start they will meet kids with serving parents , and kids who are refugees, in their own school!

Edit - sorry see someone has already given same advice!

Do you have time to watch it with her and discuss in the morning before she goes to school? I think it's normally posted around 8ish which I appreciate might not give you a lot of time.

Children around the world don’t get to just turn off the news of what’s happening in their own countries, to their own families.

Life is brutal for most people, we are privileged to just be able to not engage with things that upset us a bit.

Shutting children off from the reality of life doesn’t help them build any skills, that’s for sure. They don’t have to live it, thankfully, so being exposed to the world’s issues in a child-appropriate way isn’t a big ask. It’s 10 minutes of their day, plenty of time left for hunting insects and play dough.

My 4 and 5 year old know in appropriate terms what is going on in the world and the various conflicts. My husband is Ukrainian so maybe we have a different perspective but I don't believe in shielding them from all world events is helpful.

I used to watch newsround with my class as young as 7. During the start of the war in Ukraine, I was with a class of 10-12 year olds. I showed it to them with a segment about refugees arriving in the uk and settling into school. I was in tears by the end of the segment and half the class were too. We ditched the planned first period to deal with it.

I have never shown newsround since unless I have had time to watch it before school and I pause it at delicate points to talk to the class. I would also choose not to show it some days after seeing the content.

Also, if the teacher has so little time that she can’t discuss what they have seen, why does she have time to show newsround? I’d complain further.

This is ridiculous. We don’t live in other communities around the world. Nor should we be racing to the bottom for our next generation. In many societies childhood isn’t a thing, it is here.

My children get one childhood and I want it to be full of laughter, optimism and and exploration. Not doom, gloom, violence and tragedy, they have their whole adulthood for that.

Exactly.

Well do you dispute that's where it will come from if they don't get exposed to a child friendly version in school? You said we should control how and when they get news, the trouble is you can't control what they hear in the playground and it's not all, 'flitty, flighty, easy come, easy go'. I remember as a very small child being told about nuclear bombs and mushroom clouds in the playground that terrified me.

Do you have a link to the program you quoted?

Yes but those situations can be discussed on a case by case sensitive basis. My child is 7 and has three Ukrainian children in their class who came over when the war started. They know this. But it doesn’t shape their friendships, the kids all just play together normally.

Kids don’t need exposure to harmful or grown up things- they exist, sure, they’ll come across it when they’re older, most definitely, but 7 is still a very young child. They’re learning about poems, playing in the playground still, still loving playing hide and seek and tag. They really aren’t benefiting from watching screens showing conflict and global risks. It’s totally age inappropriate.

I disagree with your stance about "shutting children off from the reality of life doesn’t help them build any skills".
They are children. They are gradually getting accustomed to life unfolding on them and they will have plenty of introductions to the brutalities of the world as they enter their teens. Adults who subject children to "reality" - meaning a constant exposure to the adult world of violence and conflicts - are basically throwing a non-swimmer into a deep pool of water arguing that it's healthy for them.

There is a time and place for everything. It's neither the time nor place for young children to be exposed to constant adult problems which they can neither process or handle at their age. Even adults often struggle to handle it, so why would anyone subject children to it?