As ever, the media is awash with wide-ranging and firmly held views on the role of phones in the lives of young people today, and we do, of course, have the recent government guidance on the use of phones in school.
As with most debates these days, it seems to me to be increasingly polarised and, of course often drifts away from the practical reality of raising a child into an adolescent and on to adulthood. The reality is that as adults, most of us rely on our mobiles for work, home administration and often keeping up with friends and family. The intention of this piece is to offer some thoughts on how, through the combined efforts of both parents and St Helen’s, we might be able to achieve some balance for our students.
The key paradox here is, of course, that sometimes it is really useful for both parents and daughter to have a phone and sometimes it is not, and both of those circumstances can exist within the timeframe of one school day. Tracking her on the bus – useful. Being able to communicate at the end of the school day – very useful. Her spending time on snapchat during Maths – not at all useful. The key point for learning in school is that phones are innately distracting. Hence, we remove them from students in Years 5 to 11 to promote learning. Parents are already supporting us with this; we asked them last term to tell us the make and model so that we can check the phone boxes; wonderful as our students are, they are, of course, resourceful and bright teenagers and are not above the occasional handing in of a dummy phone or claiming they don’t bring one to school. While Sixth Form students are allowed to bring phones to school, the devices should not be visible around school or in their lessons. They are allowed them in selected locations in the Benedict Building at present.
There is much discussion about ‘smart’ phone versus ‘brick’. At St Helen’s we respect parents’ right to make that decision for their daughter and so we don’t currently mandate parental choice. We would always suggest that members of the Junior Department only have ‘brick’ (if indeed they have a phone at all) – but the choice remains with the parents.
I think that we might all agree that the areas of worry include: screen time, social media, use of apps and content, access to inappropriate material and vulnerability to third parties who have the intent to cause harm. In addition, there is increasing concern about the impact on attention span and focus that the flicking between stimuli might engender. This is usually aligned with the daily grind of managing good sleep hygiene when students want to continue to chat online rather than go to bed. All of this has the potential to impact mental health, well-being and the ability to focus consistently on a single task.
As a school, by removing the phone during the school day, we can support students in being free from distractions during the hours of 8.40am–4.10pm (and prep for Junior Department). This leaves the majority of the day, including bus journeys, where they have access to their phones if they have one.
The government has quite rightly focused on schools, mainly due to the impact on learning and social time during the school day, but it seems the conversation around what happens outside that school day seems quieter.
Should parents have decided that a smart phone is appropriate, I would encourage them to remember that they still have power in this situation to do what they feel is right to protect their daughter – the solution lies in setting the parental controls on their daughter’s phone. Parents can control her screen time, lock down her apps, restrict her internet use, set downtime, set up web content filters – the ways in which smart phone use can be managed are considerable. The following resources can help from a practical perspective:
For iPhones: Use parental controls to manage your child’s iPhone or iPad
For android: Set up parental controls on an Android device – Android Help
I know that many parents are already using parental controls and are aware that setting controls does require ongoing conversations and negotiation around use. Parents have shared with me that continued monitoring is necessary as our intelligent adolescents do sometimes find ways around the settings. There is no doubt that ongoing parental persistence is required in order to be effective at protecting young people. As ever, we would advise that phones are removed and charged outside the bedroom at least half an hour ahead of bedtime.
In school, we will continue to teach about online safety and the pros and many cons of phone use as well as how to manage and promote positive mental health.
The government guidance helpfully reinforces what we already do at St Helen’s. However, I think if we are truly to support our students towards developing a healthy approach to phone use in adulthood, the approach is exactly the same as in her academic and pastoral life. The partnership between parents and St Helen’s is absolutely key. If we work in school on phone-removal alongside education and guidance, and have age-appropriate boundaries (either by choice of device or the controls you set), we can persist together to create a balance between protection and education that will support her now and into the future.
