Phones, most of us have them. We have all heard stories about tragedies on the road caused by the distraction on their phone. But there’s another issue that hasn’t been addressed: PHONES AT SCHOOL.
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Some people think phones are a huge distraction and that it affects children’s learning, whereas others say that it can be very helpful to have your phone in class.
This is how one school dealt with this issue.
Mount Rowan campus introduced a rule about the use of phones at the end of July 2017. The rule states students cannot use any form of personal technology that belongs to them between 9am to 3.15pm.
If a phone is seen or heard that student is asked to take their phone to the office, were they will get a slip with a stamp stating the student hasn’t followed instructions.
Mount Rowan office worker Christine Quick said: “We use to collect at least 30 phones a day when the ban first started, but now we usually get zero to two phones a day.”
The leadership team at Mount Rowan were worried the students were more focused on their phones than their learning. They were also concerned students weren’t socialising with each other because they had their heads down the whole time.
Mount Rowan principal Seona Murnane explained the idea for the phone ban came from Ballarat Secondary College’s other campus (Woodman’s Hill) which had already successfully implemented the rule earlier.
It was also suggested by a casual relief teacher who had experienced a phone ban at other schools, and was based off pedagogical research.
“We researched from professionals working with young people,” Ms Murnane said.
“We knew we had to plan it well, with a written policy and communicate it with all students and guardians to explain why we felt it was important for student learning.”
Students at Mount Rowan had mixed feelings about the phone ban.
One year seven student Brook Bailey said:
It seems like everyone is trying a lot harder towards their work then they would if they had access to their phones.
English teacher Leanne Dumesny added: “I was ecstatic when I heard about this rule because the usage of phones was a huge issue in my classroom.”
Mount Rowan staff knew there would be problems that would appear in the first few weeks of the ban.
“At first students and families didn’t agree with this rule,” Ms Murnane said. “…We spoke to them to dig deeper and then try and resolve the problem.”
As time went by, people got used to the rule and the problems faded.
Overall, the phone bad has been successful because there are more interactions between students.
Students are more focus on their work and most importantly they are improving in school better than before.
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