Cambridge High School students are chatting, laughing and playing games together more during break times since cellphones were banned in New Zealand schools, says principal Greg Thornton.
“Previously they would all gather around a phone, and I guess that just doesn’t happen as much now; they’ll just gather around, look at each other and chat,” he said.
“I think that there are some great consequences from the government making a statement that actually you need to put [your phone] away for a big chunk of your day and downstream kids connect again. It’s pretty cool.”
Photo by George Dolgikh. pexels.com
Cambridge Middle School principal Daryl Gibbs needs no convincing. There was already a policy in place banning cellphone use at the school when he arrived seven years ago.
Daryl Gibbs
Under new government rules introduced on April 29, schools must ensure students do not use or access a phone while attending school.
However, there are some exemptions, such as when a phone is needed for health reasons.
Head girl Chiara Woodford said it had been “hard to adjust” to the new policy.
She fully supported phones being turned off in class, which helped students focus.
“People get it in class totally, and they respect that, but they don’t understand why you can’t use it at breaks and things like that, because they don’t see how it affects their learning,” she said.
“Kids are always on their phones and iPads or whatever these days, so maybe they’re just trying to restrict that, which I understand, but you also use your phone to find your friends and to hang out with your friends,” she said.
Greg Thornton
Woodford said policing the ban was hard for teachers, who already had enough to do, and there were other negatives. It was harder to contact other student leaders about changes to meeting times or locations, and she could not post photos from school events on Instagram.
Thornton said Cambridge High School consulted with the community and banned cellphones during class time a few years ago because “they were really affecting learning and the concentration of students”.
The government’s new rules meant extending that policy to include break times.
The school began asking students to have their phones “away for the day” in term one, before the government officially implemented the policy on the first day of term two.
“We found that the community actually were really supportive, and the students have been great – they understand that it’s a national directive and are supportive and recognise that,” Thornton said.
Chiara Woodford
Gibbs said students hand in their phones before school starts.
“It gets locked away for the day and the teacher hands it out when the bell rings and they go home,” he said.
“For us it’s always been that way, so it seems strange that it’s such a big focus for the government, but I guess at a high school level it’s having a positive impact from some of the principals I talk to.”
He said the policy was easy to manage because students were mostly with one teacher for the entire day.
“Whereas at high school, where they’re all over the show, I imagine it’s a whole different nightmare to manage.”
As the parent of a year 11 student at Cambridge High School, he likes the new policy.
“My daughter says on one hand it’s boring, but they actually talk to each other a lot more now,” he said.
“She spent the other day reading a book, and the teacher was like, are you reading an actual book? Oh, that makes me happy! But she said in the past she probably would just have been scrolling through her phone.”
