A Perth high school has introduced a mobile phone ban at recess and lunch for everyone – including teachers.
While schools across the country have prevented phone use in class for years, Scotch College has extended its recently introduced ban to recess and lunch.
Headmaster Alec O’Connell said too many senior students had been spending lunchtimes sitting glued to their devices instead of interacting with each other, The Western Australian reports.
"It’s not about becoming a Luddite school," he told Today Tonight.
"It’s simply about being in the moment and bringing back a bit of social connection around campus."
Dr O’Connell sent an email to parents at the all boys' school, informing them of the change. In it he said the move came in response to teacher's concerns about student's phone use becoming a greater distraction.
"This level of constant connectivity causes distractions that remove the focus from learning and reduces social interactions during recess and lunch," he wrote.
He told the show that staff - including himself - were included in the ban, which had the exception of using phones in an emergency.
Do you think mobile phones should be banned in the classroom and during breaks?
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Top Comments
Yeah, sorry, this is rubbish.
I'm a teacher who often spends lunch time alone in the classroom, reading on my phone or listening to a podcast. I am "on" all day in the classroom and that time alone is essential for me to recharge. If I was suddenly not allowed to use my phone at school, I'd just start bringing a book. I wouldn't suddenly start spending my lunch times making "social connections" with my colleagues.
I don't see how this could be enforced either. Are they going to have someone patrolling the corridors, peeking into each classroom and making sure no poor teacher is trying to get five minutes to herself checking her Facebook? Are they going to mandate attendance in the staff room for lunch?
How do I know if a call is an emergency call until I answer it? How do they even define "emergency"? Why is it my employer's business what calls I take on my phone during my break? Or what I do at all during my break, quite frankly?
I don't object quite as strongly to enforcing this rule for students but I am also not particularly fussed about students using their phones at lunch time either. In the classroom? Sure, put them away. At lunch time though, I don't see the problem. Those students who are shying away from interaction in favour of their phones are probably not going to turn into social butterflies once you take those phones away. That's not how people work.
I think this is great