Last year, St Albans primary schools banned smartphones. This is what happened

For Matthew Tavender, School Chief in Cunningham Hill Elementary Schools, the problem was not children using their phones during school hours, it was a widespread impact Social media When his disciples left the classroom.

“We were dealing with a drop in Monday morning,” he explained. “In the last 10 years it smartphones They were near, I didn’t hear one at school. But what we’ve seen was a pity smartphones They had outside school and the influence of that inside. ”

Last Maja, his primary school – together with 32 others in Sveti Albans, Hertfordshire – I decided to deal with the problem yourself. They sent a joint letter to families, declaring their schools without smartphones and calling parents to give their children to the devices for at least 14 years.

The advantages, says, Mr. Tavender, it was clear to see.

The report before Christmas to assess the use of smartphones among his students was found that only seven percent of 6 students have a smartphone, down from 68 per year ago.

“Our older children, who would have a smartphone, but now they are not – their attention is much better,” says Mr. Tavender. “There is definitely improvement in their relationships. They say more, they are playing more, while a lot of our age is 6s (at the age of 10 or 11) either pretty sitting before.”

Research from Regulator ODCU last year was determined that children aged eight to 11 are more likely to possess a smart phone than not, with 59 percent of them.

Once children go to high school, this is almost universal. In Cunningham Hill Schools, they had some children in 3. years (at the age of seven or eight) with their smartphones, and this is not uncommon.

Ofcom has found that about a quarter of five-seven-year-olds have a smartphone. Usage Social media Tools for applications and messaging are also increasing for primary school children, and the recent installation of Yugov found 23 percent of children aged eight to 15 consumption More than four hours a day using screens.

Before Cunningham Hill took over the action, the staff saw a lot of problems coming from WhatsApp uses, said Tavender.

“It was the biggest cause of harassment and a problem with friendship in school,” he explained. “The WhatsApp Groups became larger and bigger, some had about 90 people in, and half of them were not in our school.

“The interactions between our children was very negative – a lot of inappropriate language, inappropriate images shared. Nothing sexually, but there were comments on violence and race and such things.

“We had a number of 6 years Andrew TateAnd certainly some boys returned who he was. ”

Twenty years ago, if the children fell in the playground, they can be removed from the fight at the end of the school day. Now the complaints are accompanied by home through applications for current messages, Mr. Tavender explained.

While the problems were generated from children Social media The use has declined significantly in the first year of the experiment, they did not completely disappear, he added.

In October last year, problems were circumcised among the small group of children who still had smartphones, and the parents had to warn of inappropriate messages shared.

Until then 10-year-old ten-year-old Graham Dill starts at 6. year in 6 years, hoping that almost all grades will not have smartphones. “Taking something is much harder than not playing people to have it in the first place,” he said.

As a parent at Cunningham Hill, which also works as a private teacher, Mr. Dill has two different perspectives of the influence of smartphones and social media on children.

Tutors of children who do not go to school; some of the behavioral issues or who are too worried to attend.

The maintenance of his students can be difficult in the post-smart age, he explained, “I work with children about 13 to 16 years and are extremely obstructed.

“It affects their concentration and their ability to take a deep breath and be present on the task. They need that task to immediately start or want too much stimulation if it is too boring.

“With one boy, it’s constant default to get his phone out of my pocket and it’s a steady reminder – no, put your phone.”

When Cunningham Hill announced his parents to go without smartphones, Mr. Dill was very pleased. Every year, the group in the school has a smartphone ambassador to the relay of information to other parents and holds them to keep the coupon.

Mr. Dill children, George and Thomas, are 10 and eight years old, and he believes that if parents are loaded when their children are younger, it is easier to maintain the promise to free them.

“If most people don’t do that [giving their children phones]Then it becomes much easier, “he explained.” We have this battle right now with Fortnite. Everybody wants to be fortified and we [Mr Dill and his wife Rachel] You don’t want to play them.

“It’s because their friends play Fortnite to want to, and I think it’s the same with phones down the line.”

His boys are also beginning to recognize low moods that can be generated from too long spent online. “The comedian is such that I can recognize that at that moment he was dissatisfied,” he explained. “We are trying to make them understand when the device should be drawn.”

Parental ambassadors on Sveti Albans Primary schools have now set their sacrificially in local high schools and hope that the lobby of the lobby will push them to take more action.

Deputy Chief Queens Park Community school in London, Paul Drummond, has three children in high school in Sveti Albans. Their school, Samuel Ryder Academy, allows students to bring phones to school, but they should not be seen in class, and they should not be used for personal use on the spot.

In Queens Parkwhere g. Drummond works, politics is stricter. Children are not allowed smartphones in the years 7, 8 or 9. In key phases 4 of the students are permitted, but I cannot be seen in the school site. On key stages 5 or levels, students are allowed phones, but they should not be seen and can be used in classes only when the teacher allows it.

He explained: “Since We’ve Banned Phones from Being Onsite At Key Stage 3, The Expectation Is That If Students Need A Phone So Parents Can Track Them, They Should Use an Old Nokia.

“One of the problems that there can be a racial stereotypility of children with old Nokia, with public thinking members, they are phones with a burner. Some parents are very worried about it.

“But since we banned phones in key phases 3, protective problems, harassment, and other problems are completely significantly reduced,” Mr. Drummond said.

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Recent survey More than 15,000 schools have been determined that 99.8 percent of primary schools and 90 percent of high schools have some form of banning the phone.

Academics at the University of Birmingham also concluded in the study published in February, which only banned smartphones in schools do not improve children’s grades or well-being or reduce their overall use of the phone.

Instead, they claimed that any prohibition should be part of a broader strategy for lowering the use of the phone among students.

As a parent, Mr. Drummond experienced the difficulty of trying to reduce the use of social media families. Plan that there is no screen time together during the evening, and the ban on the phone goes up, came out of the window when the hit is a look, he said.

In his opinion, the limitation of access to the telephone approach should be together with the education on the use for both their children and students. His School was courting a textbook every week for the whole school on the big new stories of the week, which teaches the children the resolution, Mr. Drummond said.

“We spent 20 minutes discussed the news, from where it comes from. We are talking about the misinformation, reliability and importance of the development of opinion and political engagement.

“Lower line is that if someone has internet access, they can look at all they want to really. So we try to get people to understand the danger, but also understand why it is great to look at things and find things.”

OFCOM research revealed that the engagement of children with news and liquid affairs is low and almost exclusively through social media.

Netflix emission adolescence recently launched a national debate over Dangers of children’s release into digital spaces.

The series follows the 13-year-old Jamie Miller whose exposure to Misogynist Internet communities may have contributed to kill a female classmate.

While the Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer supported the show shown in schools, he said that the ban on the phone leading the governments “completely unnecessary”.

For g. Tavender, stricter measures from the government would be very helpful.

“That the government is to say that we ban the phones, then it would be very easy to get that message, because it’s just the way it is.”

He is against the “postal number lottery” in which some schools have stricter measures than others: “It should be a national decision as in other countries, for the ban on the phone and social media for children.

Meanwhile, he wants to keep the movement that seeks and persuades a local high school to ask parents to delay their children smartphones.

The school also tries to cross telephone use and convince more of their students to go outside and encourage outdoors.

Mr. Dill feels the same way. While he encouraged him changes, elementary schools Ul Alban, want politicians to board the ship.

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