Smartphone Free Childhood - Reducing Screen Time - Healthy Minds policy

At Bangabandhu, we have adopted a Healthy Minds policy where we advocate for no child of primary school age to be given a smartphone. We also advocate for reduced and limited time spent on screen for preschool and primary aged children. We believe that our commitment to these ideas support parents to reduce screen time at home and have the power to say no to giving their child a smartphone and removing it, if they have already done so.

As a school we have made a conscious effort to reduce screen time and children's access to the Internet. We have made the following significant changes:

• Stopped setting online/screen based home learning tasks. We no longer use Mathletics, Times Tables Rock Stars or Manga High but instead give families written and practical maths as well as two maths games each half term. Playing maths games together develops positive social interaction and communication skills; skills that are negatively impacted by using tablets, phones and computers. 
• We have removed all use of iPads and laptops from lessons unless the purpose of the lesson is to use aspects of technology. For example, children will not be using an iPad to research in Geography. We also don’t show films etc at wet play or during any part of the school day.
• We have recalled all laptops that we gave to Year 1 to Year 6 children following the Covid 19 pandemic when online learning increased.
• We have stopped our weekly quizzes as this required internet based research for most families.​
• Children are not allowed to use Smart Phones on the school premises. We insist that parents do not give a phone to their children in the school playground.
• If parents feel that children do need a phone, we encourage parents to find alternatives including 'brick phones' etc.  Older children, who walk to school alone, are not allowed to bring a Smart Phone to school and should hand it into the office. We will only accept 'child-safe' phones (brick phones).

How are smartphones, screen time and Internet access harming our children? The Evidence.

• There has been an explosion of mental illness in Gen Z, the generation that grew up with smartphones. Multiple studies from across the world have found a correlation between teen depression, anxiety and suicide, and excessive smartphone use.​
• Through their smartphones, UK children are exposed to violent and sexual imagery; grooming via sexual predators;​ cyberbullying and sexting.​
• Smartphones have a negative impact on learning, academic achievement and the kind of cognitive functioning needed for success at school. They are designed to distract children’s attention and increase dependency on them. Schools which ban mobile phones have higher exam results.​
• “As many as 1 in 3 children now enter school developmentally delayed.” Cris Rowan, paediatric occupational therapist 
• “In Britain, an escalation of problems associated with pervasive tablet used among preschool children has been reported by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, including developmental delays in attention span, fine motor skills and dexterity, speaking, and socialisation – as well as an increase in aggressive and antisocial behaviour, obesity and tiredness.” Mary Aiken - The Cyber Effect​
• Pre-teens ‘lose a night’s sleep per week to social media’​ - Study by De Montfort University, Leicester ​
• ​Students spend 6 minutes on average attending to their studies before being distracted by social media and texting.​ - Report by Rosen et al, 2013​
• A consistent relationship has been demonstrated between problematic smart phone use and ... depression, anxiety, high levels of perceived stress and poor sleep. BMC Psychiatry​
• The chance of young person having a mental health issue has increased by 50% in the last 3 years. ​
• Eating disorders have doubled in the last 6 years. ​
• Rates of self-harm have increased by 364% for 10-12 year old girls since 2010. ​
• Anxiety rates for under 25s have trebled since 2010. ​
• The younger a child is given a smartphone, the worse their mental health is today. Source: Sapien Lab, 2023​
• Children no longer have respite from bullies at home  - 84% of bullying to children with smartphones happens online.

When seeking to overcome negative feelings of low self-worth about their bodies, young people are four times (76%) more likely to turn to social media apps such as Tik Tok or Instagram than to talk to friends and family (18%). There is an irony in this, as most (69%) young people also say that social media has a negative effect on their mood, making them feel stressed, anxious, and depressed. Many of them (62%) are worried that their mental health is being damaged by the online content that is pushed at them through social media algorithms, and by the amount of time they are spending on social media.

Join the growing number of parents who are choosing to wait until their children are much older before they have access to a smartphone.