Going phone free
Going phone free
Phones in schools have been making the headlines lately.
Where do you stand?
Opportunity for learning or distraction from it?
This week’s highlight from the We Are In Beta Community shares one school’s approach to tackling distraction.
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This week inside We Are In Beta
📵 Going phone free.
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📵 Going phone free - why and how we did it
This is a guest post by Alex Pett, Headteacher, Logic Studio School, Feltham.
The final straw was the irate parent calling in demanding to know why her child would be in detention.
The call was received before lunch, way before any parent communications had gone out about sanctions taking place that day. Somehow, this parent knew more about the incident than we did. It turned out that this was because the child in question had taken themselves to the toilet and called home.
We have operated a ‘No phones’ policy for as long as I can remember. When seen, we would confiscate devices for increasing lengths of time. Sometimes for up to half a term. Looking back, the time wasted on enforcing this was intolerable. We knew students were on social media and texting friends whenever they thought they could get away with it. I would overhear students arguing that they were ‘just checking the time’ or that ‘it just fell out my pocket’. The confrontation between staff, students and parents as we sought to confiscate devices was often just unworkable.
Why go phone free in a school?
Over recent years we have seen a noticeable decline in basic social communication skills, increased anxiety as a result of excessive social media use and an expectation amongst students that they should be accessible at all times.
There is no getting away from the fact that phones are now a part of our society. They provide countless benefits to modern living.
But for many students, they have simply not existed for long enough periods of time away from these devices. They have become hooked on the buzz of the notification.
We must do more to teach our young people how to switch off. Developing healthy habits of engagement and disengagement with technology.
How do you go phone free in school?
So, what did we do? We went extreme.
We told our students (and their parents) that from this September students would hand over devices at the start of the day and have them returned at the end.
Communicate to parents
It started with clear communication to parents, we needed their support. We talked about the negative impact that phones can have on learning in the classroom, the distraction that they are even when they are away in the students bag. We shared our understanding that parents wanted the ability to call their child on the way too and from school. We explained that we wanted to support students to undertake a daily switch off and that we were the best place for this to happen.
Communicate to students
With students we focused solely on the distraction that these devices cause and the issues that arise. They know these phones are an issue. We explained how we would support them to go without. Most importantly, this was a collective thing, not just for the troublesome few. It would be a cohort wide, daily detox.
In the full article, Alex shares answers to questions like:
How does being a phone free school work? What does their policy say exactly? What’s been the most surprising thing they seen through the process?
In Alex’s full article, you can access
mobile phone policy (screenshot below)
parent communications: letter and video
logistics, equipment and costs of the initiative
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On a personal note.
I’ve been conflicted about phones in schools.
I’ve worked in schools where they’ve been used in lessons and aided learning.
I’ve worked in schools where they’ve been allowed at break times and led to a decrease in (visible and physical) poor behaviour.
I could see the benefits (in those contexts).
Proponents would ask: “They’ll have smart phones when they’re older - so why not teach responsible use now?”
But then I think of the hours my colleagues spent investigating social media spats -and the anxiety and distraction from learning they cause.
With resources so scarce in schools, it just doesn’t seen worth it.
And then I imagine the social media fuelled world my daughters are growing up in - it terrifies me.
So I applaud schools who are tackling such a tricky issue with such conviction.
Where do you stand? How does your school manage phones in schools?
I’d love to hear from you. Just reply to this email.
Thanks for reading.
@NiallAlcock and the We Are In Beta team
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