‘The parents backed us... they are seeing big changes at home’
TERRY O’Sullivan said ‘inappropriate material’ being circulated between pupils aged 11 and 12 had led to ‘fractured friendships’ – and so he and his school’s staff decided to take action. The Blennerville principal said: ‘Here, we had a lot of our sixth-class students engaging in a group chat where the language was highly inappropriate.’ He explained how the school then implemented the ban on smartphone use outside school hours, remarking: ‘The only way we felt that we could make a stance on this was to invite all the parents of sixth class into the school here last Thursday. We sent the parents a note to say it was mandatory to attend, it wasn’t an option. ‘The school united on this; we had all 16 staff here and the eight members of the board of management, as well as the parents. The chairperson addressed the parents, as did I, and what I was trying to get across to the parents was the impact that smartphones and these apps were having on school life.’
He added: ‘We did not want to come across as a draconian school. This was the big grey area, we didn’t want to tell parents what to do.
‘Instead we came up with the recommendation/suggestion that we would run with an 11-week pilot programme where the children would remain social mediafree for the remainder of the year. We are a week into the pilot and parents have rang me to say they have seen big changes in their children.’
He continued: ‘Many parents saw their children back playing board games last weekend, out kicking a football and simply sitting next to their mother on the sofa and having a chat face to face.
‘The bottom line is, I think children in primary school should not have a smartphone.
‘If I was personally to put an age on it, it would be 16.’
And he told Richard Bruton: ‘I would invite the Minister for Education to come to our school and listen to parents and teachers on the frontline. He needs to see what I’m seeing – a lot of people do not realise the extent of what is going on.’