X-Factor shown in DC's Reception class - normal nowadays?

[MurderOfProse]

My oldest DC has just completed her first year of school at the local state primary. We have been pretty happy with the standard of teaching generally.

At home we don't watch a lot of TV, at least not when the DCs are up. It's not a judgemental "TV IS BAD" choice, it's just how we roll - the DCs are happy doing non-TV stuff. Lately my oldest has become obsessed with Justin Bieber and One Direction - not something she's been exposed to at home.

I expect a certain amount of exposure from her peer group both at school and her friends outside of school. I assumed that was where it was coming from at first. But it seems the origin of this new obsession is actually from the classroom as her teacher has actually (not heresay, she told us herself) been showing clips from X-Factor and presumably other shows.

Leaving aside all issues of taste (I appreciate trying to control a child's taste in anything has a snowflake's chance in hell!) it doesn't feel right to me that a school should be essentially validating and encouraging a love of reality TV shows like X-Factor by showing them. What message is this giving out about role models? Surely this is outside of school stuff? What else are they watching that I don't know about?

Is this normal in schools nowadays, to show X-Factor and the like? I feel like an old fuddy duddy!! It Wasn't Like This in My Day! My old teachers would be horrified I am sure

It doesn't happen in our school which is not a private school so to anyone sneering about private versus state it is not usual.

Rosemary wins the prize for finding the most tenuous reason to have a go at state education.

Because obviously the higher grades at private school have absolutely nothing to do with the very obvious fact that every single child present, by definition, has the highly supportive family structure that leads to higher grades. On account of how their parents are willing to pay through the nose for their education.

Not all private school children have a highly supportive family structure. Plenty have rich, dismissive parents. Some have rich, abusive parents. Some attend on bursary and scholarship. It's not all puppies and rainbows in the independent sector.

But that's not exactly on topic.

My DS's teacher plays Benny Hill when they tidy up :o

This is one of the most depressing things I have heard in a long time. Am seriously considered home educating DS now.

There can be no justification whatsoever for showing kids x-factor in class no matter how small the clip!

Mea Culpa Sunscorch. Perhaps I over-generalised. But not as much as Rosemary did

(Likes the sound of Benny Hill at Tidy-up time. All work and no play .......)

I would be horrified. I don't let my 11 yr old watch X Factor. It's over-sexualised and demeaning to the participants. If his yr 6 teacher put it on I would complain (and they do have a 'talent' competition every year at school - that's fine - but it's not styled on X Factor), but in reception?????? I would definitely complain.

I would mention it to the head but with in open mind - make it clear you are open to some kind of reasonable explanation. The head might feel the need to close ranks when speaking to you but might have a very different view when debriefing the teacher afterwards.

Yeah, I'm thinking when we go back I might raise it casually in conversation with somebody a bit more senior - not in a complaining way, but in a "how does this tie into the curriculum?" kind of way. I really like her teacher and genuinely think she has otherwise done a good job, hence my confusion on this issue as showing X-Factor in class does not seem to tie up with what I've come to expect from her.

I have no issue with video in the classroom, just what the video is!

sounds good - leaves the head a bit of space to have a quiet word.....