I just wanted to remind all parents that phones are not permitted to be used during school time at Peak School. Children, who have an after school activity or such like, are allowed to have a phone in their bag in case they need to contact a parent or caregiver after their activity.
If we see a phone out of the school bag, we confiscate it until the end of the day.
I note with interest that France have announced today moves to ban phones from all schools. This is a bold move for a country to make but the government have decided to try and push through this legislation as they feel the phones are a distraction for the children and are concerned about the amount of screen time the children are experiencing on a daily basis. If successful, it will be the first country I am aware of to make such a move.
One potential issue is the introduction of the new watches that can receive texts and allows the children to send emojis or a short verbal message back to the sender. I actually like the idea of these watches as it allows the parents to control the contact list (only those in the contact list can message the child), it also allows the parents to know the location of the child via the gps in the watch.
We are starting to notice more and more of our children are wearing them but an issue is parents contacting the children during school time and that is then requiring children to respond which is actually distracting them from the lesson. I have told the staff to ask any child, who is wearing a watch and clearly communicating with someone during class time, to put their watch in their bag until the end of the school day. We are only talking about a very small number, but experience would suggest that that number could potentially grow quite quickly so I wanted to make you aware of the school’s stance before it becomes a bigger issue.