Watching television at nursery

[StepfauxWife]

After a bit of advice - DD is almost 2.5 and has been at nursery for about 18 months. Very happy with the care, few issues around their organisation but they are great with the kids.

We've just sat down to watch Frozen for the first time as a treat and my DD said she watches Frozen at nursery! I know they listen to the soundtrack but she has been pre-emoting what happens next, e.g. "Elsa's sleeping, sshh!" So I can only gather that she has seen this before.

I'm a bit annoyed that she has been watching television at nursery - I don't pay them £1500 a month to put my child in front of the screen for 90 minutes at a time!

Is this usual at other nurseries? Not sure if I'm being PFB about this..

They might have watched it as a Christmas treat? That's the only thing I can think of...

That's what I'm hoping! But not mentioned beforehand. The fact that she was able to pre-empt what was about to happen makes me wonder whether she has watched Frozen more than once..

I went to a Christmas party and the children were put in front of the laptop to watch a few episodes of Peppa Pig while the staff tidied up after the the party. Which now makes me wonder if it's a regular thing.

I think I'll raise it with them - of its occasional, I think I can live with it. But if it's more regular, then I have a real problem with it.

I worked in nurseries when I first left college.
Ours used to watch Teletubbies everyday (many years ago), usually the older ones who were too old to nap but still needed quiet time.

It was a very short period of time out of a day of painting, sand and water play, numbers, learning, outdoor play etc.

Unless they are plonking them in front of the TV all day long I would not be concerned. To be quite honest most of the 2.5 year olds would have not sat through that length of film anyway and would have drifted off.

All 3 of mine have watched TV (well, DVDs or videos) at different nurserie, either as part of wind down time at the end of the day or as quiet time in between all the other activities. I really don't have a problem with it - as long as it's not for hours on end it's just part of a normal day imo.

Thank you for your response. I'm interested to learn what other experiences people have.

You're right - DD watched around half an hour of Frozen before wandering off to do something else.

Private nurseries usually work on minimum staffing and often won't have cleaners or have minimal cleaners, so staff do need to be able to occupy children so they can clean up or have a break.

I think short bursts of tv watching is fairly normal in nurseries. My experience is that after lunch there was a huge job to clean up the mess left. The children were all corralled into one corner, while the clean up was carried out, for safety and efficiency reasons. Since the area was too confined for the usual running/jumping around type activities, a short cartoon was played to occupy the children. Once the clean up was complete normal service resumed. This happened more often in winter months or when weather was bad, as otherwise the children could be sent outside to play instead.

All children watch peppa pig on an iPad in the last 20 to 15 minutes before pick up time. Watching a part of a movie in quiet time or near Christmas is normal. Nursery is about having fun and education.

Exactly Jesabel. Children are often grouped together at points in the day from my experience to allow the staff to have lunch in lots of nurseries. Cleaning up after the children's lunch (imagine the mess from 12 babies/toddlers!) and clearing up everything including mopping and vacuuming, cleaning the bathrooms etc is done by nursery staff in most nurseries I have know. They are usually on pretty rubbish pay too.

I've worked in nurseries and TV (or interactive whiteboard) has been used as a learning tool, but not so much tv programmes as songs and activities like counting songs on YouTube etc. It was also used during wet play when there are less staff (as on lunch breaks) but the kids can't go outside, to keep them occupied. Then Peppa Pig or similar might be shown.

90 minutes in one go would be too much at nursery but in DS's they watch about 20 minutes each day. They haven't in previous rooms - I think it's because in this room the majority of kids have dropped/are in the process of dropping their nap, so it's a nice quiet time activity instead. DS sometimes naps, sometimes watches TV depending on how he feels.

My DD doesn't watch tv at nursery and she is 2, I haven't had a look in the 3 year old room for one but I will have a nosey when I go. I think I would be a little bit miffed if they were watching alot of telly at nursery, as she is a big CBeebies fan at home (I limit her watching it don't just stick her in front of the tv) and I like that she gets to do messy things that she doesn't get to do all the time at home. But if it was for short periods of time and something fairly educational while the staff clean up or to give the kids a treat I think it's okay.