Schools say smooth transition as kids forced away from screens
By Kirra Livingstone
HINTERLAND students are more sociable and active in lunchbreaks while cyberbullying is being kept in check across the day, in anecdotal findings after a school phone ban was introduced across the state.
Schools who spoke to GC&M News said the ban – enforced from Term 1 – had been a smooth transition that was followed by a noticeable increase in student socialisation and participation in school activities.
Beerwah State High School deputy principal, Wayne Lancaster, said the transition had been easier than expected.
“We thought we were going to have some troubles with the kids with phones, we’ve had some but nowhere near as much as we thought we were going to have,” he said.
“I think that the phone ban for us has been a pretty smooth transition, I think communicating clearly to the students and the parents has helped with that.
On top of the seamless transition, the school said the ban had seen obvious social improvements across the year levels.
“We notice how much more kids are interacting at lunch time, and we have a lot more students wanting to do other activities at break too,” Mr Lancaster said.
“There’s more kids that will go play touch on the oval, or basketball on the hard courts and things like that.
“I’m not going to say that cyberbullying hasn’t decreased, we don’t see it happen during the day, so there’s been a reduction of those things happening definitely.”
The State Government’s ‘Away for the Day’ campaign was directly aimed at reducing cyberbullying.
“Putting mobile phones ‘away for the day’ will encourage face-to-face social interactions between students, as well as promoting their health and wellbeing by providing more opportunities for physical activity during break times,” Education Minister Grace Grace, said at the time.
“It will also reduce the exposure of students to the unsafe or inappropriate use of technology, such as cyberbullying, accessing harmful content or breaches of personal privacy.”
Maleny State High School principal, Deborah Stewart, said cyberbullying had definitely decreased during school hours.
“The number of cyberbullying issues that the school has had to investigate compared to last year has certainly decreased,” she said.
“It may be that the bullying is occurring more after school, weekends or the holidays, rather than during school hours.”
Glasshouse Christian College principal, Mike Curtis, said the school banned mobile phones about eight years ago.
“Mobile phones are just total and utter distraction devices,” he said.
“It’s just totally opposite to what we want to have at school, we want to be focusing on teaching and learning and even being with each other.
“We have noticed a decrease in cyberbullying, there’s never been a point in which there hasn’t been a ban, but certainly yes we have found that it has improved.
“I think socialising and doing sport and activities at lunch time for students, there has been a definite improvement.”
kirra@gcnews.com.au
