TV in Reception

[NOG2014]

How much TV does your reception aged child watch at school?

My four year old recently started reception at a local private pre-prep and tells me every day that she watches TV. I noticed there is a very large TV in the classroom and didn't think much of it assuming they watch educational programmes once in a while when relevant to what they are learning. However, DD comes home daily saying she loves school as she watches TV. So I asked about it at parents evening in a jokey 'DD loves school because she says all she does is watch TV' kind of way to gauge the reaction of the teacher. The teacher replied saying they don't watch TV all day, they watch it for wet play and if a child has been good they can choose to have 10 minutes of TV as a reward. However, DD is still coming home telling me she has watched TV every day - Numberjacks, Alphablocks, Paddington Bear and various other programmes which I am not familiar with. When I ask her if it was a treat for good behaviour she says no, the teacher just put it on for everyone to watch even though it has not been raining.

How would you feel about this? I don't want to be 'that parent' and don't mind the use of TV in the classroom on the odd occasion as a treat or when relevant for a topic. But it does appear to be most days which I just didn't expect and would be interested to hear the experiences of others.

Our wet play is pen and paper and games such as board games, cards and building blocks. No TV.

I taught in a special school which didn't have an afternoon break. The children needed a bit of down time during a long afternoon and we needed to be able to clear up after one lesson and set up for the next. So Hey Duggee* was part of our timetable.

*it's great for autistic young children, with its predictability.

I’m a reception teacher, I often put a video on the interactive whiteboard while we are getting ready for lunch - I need to supervise 30 children going to the toilet, washing their hands, getting their coats etc so I put numberblocks or counting songs on the IWB for the children sitting on the carpet to allow me to do that (my TA is on her lunch break at this time). At the end of the day, I put it on again while I help them all get their coats, bags etc and give out any books or letters that need to go home.

Curious how it works for breakfast, afterschool club, and play schemes etc. Do they have regular TV?

You knew it was going to be a good day when then TV was wheeled in and you got to watch Geordie Racer

So what do you expect them to do instead during wet playtimes?

@funtycucker Dark Towers was my favourite. For some reason we got to watch that one twice.

Teachers aren’t generally paid for playtime. It’s their toilet break, so not lazy to put on something to help children switch off from lesson time for 15 minutes.

I teach reception.
I do sometimes put a cbeebies bed time story on. But generally no I don't show them any TV. Number blocks is used in maths and we watched the cbeebies diwali programme.
I would kick off if I was you.. 10 kids and 2 adults and they put on that much tv! Outrageous.

What a shame they do not get a book read to them as a treat.

Teachers are paid for playtime- it is within directed hours but they do also need to go to the loo!

I spent breaktimes setting up my classroom for the next lesson. So getting it loads of stuff to occupy the children hadn't that I couldn't set up the tables with the equipment and resources needed for the lesson. I absolutely wasn't available to be able to treat them a story.

When I was a younger teacher there was a lot less pressure on every minute of a lesson having to be a taught moment. So I'd have been able to get the children to look at books or learn their spellings for a few minutes of the lesson while I set up. But that's completely unacceptable now. If anyone from my SLT came in at the beginning of a lesson and there want active teaching going on, they wouldn't be happy.

Break time is break time. Sometimes the class could do something on their desks, but sometimes I had to put the TV on. And it's not the end of the world. It's supposed to be a break for the children.

Ugh

So getting it loads of stuff to occupy the children hadn't that I couldn't...

So getting OUT loads of stuff to occupy the children MEANT that I couldn't...

Said nobody who actually works in a school, ever!

With respect Whizzi24, you have no concept of what it takes to mange 30 reception children. You can’t just pop them all in and out of waterproofs in 15 minutes 😂😂😂 Staff are entitled to a break/lunch break and it’s very normal for children to watch something for 15 minutes during wet play. Nothing to do with teachers being lazy 🙄

Numberblocks is part of the maths mastery programme and there are good quality resources linked to it on NCETM. There are also a range of useful educational video clips that can be used to support teaching across the primary range. Acceptable to use TV for wet playtimes, but I wouldn’t expect my teachers to be using it beyond that. We don’t show movies in class time except eg, as part of a Christmas party.

Teachers don’t supervise in break time, lunchtime staff do.

Being paid for breaktime depends on the school's own breakdown of the 1265 hours.

I wen to school through the 1970s My primary school didn't have a TV at all. My senior school had one television for 600 pupils. We perhaps watched television once a year. The schools programmes were designed for children stuck at home and I remember watching them when I was off sick.

@Plantstrees the schools programmes weren't for children stuck at home 😂
Look and Read came with teacher resources such as work sheets/books, suggestions for linked activities etc.
The BBC radio ones I remember us listening to (in the 80s) had songs and I remember one year the excitement of the song booklets arriving.
The Pippin the Dog films were educational safety ones (don't go with strangers, stay off the railway lines etc). They were new in the 80s but I remember seeing some of the 70s versions too. Again these would have come with teacher resources to continue the lesson.

I wouldn't be happy with this and would want to talk to the school further.

My son was in reception last year and they don't have a TV - they have toys and crafts etc for wet playtime. I didn't watch TV at school in the 80s/90s either - we had a TV at secondary but it was one per several classrooms and was wheeled in for specific things, not every day

When I worked lunches we were not allowed tv on but if a teacher covered lunch straight away tv was on for any time inside.

Funny to read that nearly all the teachers do not understand that cbeebies programs, videos are the same as TV: it's a screen time.
And writing on a screen board - screen time.
And when you count the total of hours that kids are looking on the screen it is more than any adult has.