Dear Parents and Carers
Over recent years we have gained quite a lot of experience at crisis management here at Myton; cyber attack, RAAC, travellers etc. However, crisis management is remarkably simple when it comes down to it – the key people gather around the table and I ask “can we keep the students safe?” And until the answer to this is yes, we go no further. We must do whatever we need to do to keep students safe, and until then, we don’t even consider to what extent we can teach them anything. In the case of RAAC we had to educate year groups at home and change all internal timetables and rooms to keep our students safe – caused massive upheaval for everybody but that’s what it took.
Some crises are less obvious and creep up on us and that is what has happened with children’s use of smartphones. I would describe the amount of harmful behaviour we see through smartphone use as a crisis; it is causing harm to children, affecting learning, causing behaviour issues including bullying, facilitating sexualised behaviour, leading to addictions including gaming and porn, draining this school and others of resources dealing with the consequences and it is changing the definition of childhood. I’m not alone in describing this as a crisis – numerous charities, police chiefs and most organisations working with kids do the same. Even the Tories are now campaigning for smartphone bans in school (remarkably more vocal on the subject now they’re in opposition, complete lack of backbone on it when they were in power – lets see if Labour have any more nerve).
So we kick in with crisis management and I’m sorry to say that when I ask whether we can keep children safe with smartphones on site, my answer is no.
Therefore, as I told all the Year 6 parents on Open Evening, my decision, along with school leaders and Governors is that Myton becomes smartphone free. And when I say smartphone free, I mean none on site at all; no pouches, lockers or bags. It will be a complete ban, which also means no smartphones to and from school (our safeguarding records show misuse of smartphones is even worse than on site). Only then can I look you in the eye and say I can keep your child safe. I am aware (and have received several letters to tell me) that many parents are very strict with their own children and they can be trusted. I certainly hope so (though I have sat in my office more times than I can count with a parent with their head in their hands saying they had no idea what was happening online). My answer to this is that of course many kids are responsible users but whilst smartphones are here, I may struggle to stop your child being shown something appalling by somebody else or being filmed against their will for example. So an outright ban, a nice simple rule, is where we are heading.
There is a lot of work to do with this before we come to parents and students with a draft policy, a detailed rationale and the answers to all the potential questions e.g. bus tickets, apps we use in school, medical and hearing impaired exemptions (diabetes, epilepsy, for example) so please hold the questions for now, this will all come in good time.
However, in order to take parents on this journey with us, we will be hosting an information evening on Tuesday 21 October (6.30pm until 8pm) where representatives of smartphone free childhood will share with you the evidence of the horrifying impact smartphone use is having on our kids. You can reserve a place to attend here.
In the meantime I will share some key points of the draft policy for information as I did with the Year 6 parents….
- Smartphones will become a prohibited item
- This will be an outright smartphone ban from school site, travel to and from school and school trips
- The ban will cover Years 7 to 11. Sixth Form students may have them but there will be far stricter controls
- The policy will detail a list of non-internet enabled ‘brick’ phones which we will allow on site provided they are in bags (we understand the potential need for communication after school with your kids, it is only smartphones that will be banned)
- We haven’t set a date to implement yet but it will be as soon as practically possible in 2026
I’m not sure any of this will come as a surprise as we have been sharing thoughts on this topic for some time and it is becoming such a high profile debate now that a lot of schools are looking at policies. However, as I said, please hold the questions for the time being as we will share all the details when we are ready.
As I said at the start, whatever must change in order to toggle the ‘no’ to a ‘yes’ for student safety will be done and I hope by working together we can raise generations of children in this community who learn how to be safe with technology before the entire online world is opened up to them.
Please save the date of 21 October and attend the information evening (again, the form to reserve a place can be found here) – I believe all parents should be aware of all the evidence regarding smartphone use. I will also be putting together a parents’ forum on this to support with finalising the policy and landing the key message. Let me know at [email protected] if you feel as strongly as I do about this topic and are interested in being part of this forum.
Best wishes
Andy Perry
