This year we are excited to announce a new initiative called Fón Free Friday. Following the success of our mobile-phone free Sports Day and subsequent surveys, we have decided to trial mobile-phone free Fridays starting from next Friday 30th August. Every Friday, students will be encouraged to leave their phones at home. If they choose to bring them to school, they will be asked to put them in a secure box for their 4 class periods and the phones will be returned to the students by 1pm.
This initiative will be facilitated by members of the student council and overseen by a team of teachers each week. The reason for this initiative is that when surveyed, 65% of our own students said they were distracted by their phones during the school day and over 70% of them have a screen time of over 6 hours a day. However their most used Apps are not school related and are predominantly social media Apps like Snapchat.
Teaching and learning in our classrooms is our priority as is the safety of our students. Should parents and guardians need to contact students, our school office is contactable by phone and all year heads can be contacted through the school app via email should there be an urgent message for your child. A school wide commitment to this initiative is essential and our teachers, SNAs and auxiliary staff have agreed to take part in this trial venture.
We will be reviewing the success of this programme after the School Walk at the end of September and will be seeking feedback from the whole school community. We believe this is a positive step towards progressing the focus and diligence of our classes and we thank you for your cooperation and encouragement.