Parents banned from using mobile phones because they are ignoring their children

The majority of schools do not allow mobile phones to be used in class, and there are some schools that demand pupils hand their phones into their form teacher at the start of lessons, with the devices only being returned at break times and the end of the day. France has gone one step further: as of July 2018 it completely banned the use of all mobile phones by pupils on school grounds. Applied all the way from kindergarten to the ninth grade, the ban was put in place after research proved (as if the research was necessary) that phones distract pupils, and impede their learning.

A news story caught my eye this week, concerning a school banning phones in the playground. I initially thought this restriction seemed a little harsh - why shouldn`t pupils, enjoying a well earned break from their lessons, be granted the right to a little time on their phones? A second reading showed that I had misunderstood the story - the restricted use of phones in the playground didn`t apply to pupils, but rather to their parents.

St Peter`s CE Primary School in Leigh has recently banned all parents from using their phones when collecting their children in the playground. Wendy Cathie, headmistress of the school has instigated the ban, as she had become increasingly concerned with how parents were not engaging with their children at the end of the day. A post she issued publicly on social media explains her feelings:

`How many of you are so engrossed in a conversation with your friend or on the phone, that you forget to say to your child `Hi how was your day?` smile warmly at them or give them a hug?`

She went onto say that she hoped the banning of mobile phones would contribute to the pupils` mental health, while also strongly encouraging parents to listen to their children at the end of the day.

`Please take a moment to listen and talk to your child. The power of talk has a huge impact on our children`s language development,` her public Facebook continued.

This story is depressing on so many levels. Why is it that a school is required to discipline parents, to enforce guidelines so that they will not ignore their own children? The end of a school day is so very important for children and parents. A child spends the majority of its time either at home or at school - the end of the school day is where these two words join. Children haven`t have seen their mother or father for five or six hours - what kind of a message does it send if their parents are more interested in looking at their phones than engaging with their child at this moment?

`It really pulls at your heartstrings when you see parents on phone calls and pupils are running out to see them,` Ms Cathie went on to say. `Sometimes they don`t even say `hello`, they just walk off.`

Philip Pulman, well known author of His Dark Materials, has spoken out many times regarding the insidious nature of mobile phones, saying parents need to ditch their phones and speak more with their children to boost their vocabulary.

`It fills me with despair when I see somebody pushing a pushchair along with a child in it and the parents walking along behind them talking into a mobile phone,` the author has said.

Mr Pulman`s were made after a study, conducted by the Oxford University Press, found that almost half of all five and six year olds are at serious risk of underperforming academically because they have a severely limited vocabulary. The study went on to disclose that more than four in ten children in their first year of secondary school possess a deficient vocabulary, and were suffering from a `word gap` that was likely to negatively affect their education.