School’s smart move to ghost smartphones

Gaelscoil Bhréifne in Cavan has become the first national school in the county to actively discourage smart phones ownership for its students.

The school has launched a voluntary code to encourage parents to refrain from buying mobile phones for their children until they go to secondary school.

Principal Niamh Ni Cheallaigh says that it is a voluntary scheme, and there is no pressure on parents to sign up.

“There can be a lot of pressure on kids to get mobile phones from their pals. The Parents Association came to me and said 'this is something we really want to do"', and I said I’m 100% behind them. Another school in Wicklow did it, but as far as we know we're the only school in Cavan to do it."

She said that there has been a lot of support from parents for the scheme, which makes its introduction much easier.

“We sent an email to all the parents and had very positive feedback from them. We feel, if parents come together, it’s a much easier thing to do as a community. We’re trying to be inclusive as a school so we can make it easier for parents; if we all have the same, it’s much easier."

She said one of the main reasons for the scheme was to protect children from the potential dangers of the internet.

“Unsupervised internet access is the main thing we’re guarding against. Kids are becoming so tech-savvy that we don’t know what they’re looking at on phones.”

Niamh is keen to emphasise that there is no pressure on parents to join in.

"It’s not a thing where if you already have a phone then it’s a problem. Some kids will have mobile phones for safety reasons to help them going to and from school and that’s okay.”

"We’re not going to get a buy-in from everyone, and that’s okay. People can opt in or opt out if they want. It’s more about coming up at junior, senior and first class, it’s a culture that we’re trying to encourage within the school. It may take some time. A lot of parents, even of the older classes, are trying to hold out until reach confirmation age if they can and feel it’s a lot easier if they all do it together. It’s not going to be strictly enforced, it is something that will be gently encouraged.”

Niamh also says that less screen time means the children will benefit from spending more time developing relationships with each other.

“It’s more about being able to encourage face-to-face friendships and communicate in person, it’s important that they don’t lose that... We encourage them to play traditional games and sit down, look each other in the eye and ask each of their friends are they okay.

“We have things like buddy benches to encourage them to keep talking to each other and so they don’t lose that connectivity as technology gains a bigger part in their lives.”