School’s phone ban wins praise
One school’s decision to ban mobile phones, locking them away in safes during school hours, has prompted a call for a nationwide crackdown. Rotorua Intermediate School has announced pupils will from Monday need to put their phones in a classroom safe at the start of the day, getting them back when they leave at 3pm.
Principal Garry de Thierry said pupils had been allowed their phones when computers and Chromebooks weren’t as readily available.
He said they took the progressive
approach of allowing students to use their phones to access learning, get emails and take photos for school projects.
However, now they were just distracting.
“It was just getting out of control. We had parents ringing . . . asking them what they wanted them to drop off for lunch and, when a child was feeling unwell, often they’d ring mum instead of following school process and going to the office.”
He said many pupils were constantly on their phones, using social media and taking selfies, proving a major distraction to their learning.
He said the school had bought 25 safes at $75 each for every classroom to store the phones.
“It’s been an expensive exercise but well worth it.”
De Thierry said the pupils’ reliance on mobile phones was mimicking adults’.
“It’s become normalised behaviour to have your phone with you all the time . . . but life will go on if you don’t have your phone . . . during the [school day].” Kaitao and Mokoia intermediate schools have the same policy, with students having to hand their phones to the office at the start of the day. Kaitao principal Phil Palfrey said students caught with phones faced being stood down. “They can be used to set up fights and bully other kids. These kids are not old enough to know the implications of having a phone even if their parents think they are.”
He said schools understood technology played a key role in learning but phones were just a distraction and all schools should ban them.
Rotorua Intermediate’s move has received support from parents. One parent said on the school’s Facebook page: “Totally support this! I know my kid is easily distracted at home so can only imagine what it would be like having hundreds at school.”
Rotorua Intermediate School prefect Neve Allibone, 12, said it was right to ban them during school hours.
“We don’t need them in class [so it’s easier to] remove them from the learning space.”