Head: Don’t bring phone to school
Pupils would race to school office and then it was ping, ping, ping!
Friday, 23rd January — By Daisy Clague
Tracy Lane, deputy head at Christ the King in Finsbury Park
A SCHOOL has become one of the first primaries in Islington to completely ban mobile phones on-site after a spate of muggings targeting children on their way to and from school.
Pupils at Christ the King in Tollington Park, Finsbury Park, would race through the corridors desperate to collect their phones from the school office after class and walk home glued to their screens.
But a new rule introduced in September says that children must leave their phones at home – and it has “changed the culture of the school”, deputy headteacher Tracy Lane told the Tribune this week.
Ms Lane said: “We used to have children running to the school office to get their phones at the end of the day. They would switch them on and they’d be ‘ping ping ping ping’, and then they were straight on social media, snap-chatting each other out of the school gates.
“And they weren’t being safe at all – they were immediately walking down the road looking at the phones, not paying attention to their surroundings.”
Ms Lane also told how the move to ban phones altogether was triggered by police reports of a significant increase in thefts targeting children in the area. Almost all pupils in Years 3 to 6, and many in younger years, have smartphones and use social media, added the deputy head, whose positive verdict on Christ the King’s new policy followed an announcement this week that schools are “expected” – though not obliged – to be “phone-free by default”.
Most schools use a system where phones are handed in at an office each day, rather than a rule not to bring them in at all.
Meanwhile, the government is under pressure from the House of Lords, Labour MPs and Conservative Party to follow Australia’s example in banning social media for under-16s.
Ms Lane said: “We have found improved behaviour, especially in Key Stage 2. Children are not standing outside the gates sending messages before school, they’re coming straight in, which is safer.
“They’re leaving school more focused, taking notice of the surroundings, and actually talking to each other as they leave.
“There has also be a significant reduction in phone-related incidents.”
These “incidents” are often the normal tiffs and dramas between primary school children, distorted and amplified on the social media platforms where they communicate – Tiktok, Roblox, Snapchat and Instagram.
“I think with children, they don’t understand the implications of saying something unkind if they don’t see someone’s physical reaction to it,” Ms Lane said.
“It’s that separation from the human connection. And they don’t understand that once you say something online it is always going to be there.”
She added: “It’s easy for children to be exposed to things that are highly inappropriate with just a few clicks. The algorithms do not take into consideration who might be viewing this material.
“Social media is part of our culture, it has a place, but we need to be doing everything we can to protect children on these platforms and promoting that face-to-face communication without being behind a phone.”
For parents worried about their children travelling to school without a phone, Christ the King calls to let them know when they have arrived safely.
Junction Labour councillor and chair of governors at Christ the King James Potts told the Tribune: “I think children are safer walking home from school when they haven’t got an expensive phone shining out for people to steal.
“It has been generally a success thus far and I’m hoping it continues to be, and so is anything that improves the behaviour of children in class and fundamentally makes them safer while they’re walking to and from school.”
The long-term plan is for the school to be completely phone free, including for teachers and parents.
While each Islington school has its own phones policy, other London boroughs like Barnet and Ealing have broadly ruled that smartphones should not be allowed.
Elizabeth Garrett Anderson secondary school and Arts and Media School Islington both have a no-phone policy that uses “Yondr” – lockable pouches that let children keep phones on their person without being able to use them during the school day.
The charity Smartphone Free Childhood called this week’s government announcement about a possible social media ban and phone free schools its “most significant” yet.
