Template letter for Primary School Heads
Dear [ ]
We are writing to you as a group of parents who are concerned about the impact of smartphones on pupils at [ ] School. We know how much pressure schools are under and are so grateful for all the work you and your team do for our children. We also acknowledge that it is not the school’s responsibility to dictate when parents buy devices for their children. However, as a school leader, you are in a powerful position to help shift societal norms. Children spend more time in school than any other place outside the home. Our movement has shown us that parents – and many young people themselves – want schools to help them minimise the impact of smartphones in their lives.
The problem
When we first started giving smartphones to children, we didn’t understand their impact. Now, there is a growing body of evidence linking smartphone use with an array of harms. Smartphones are correlated with anxiety, depression and loneliness. They are a gateway to pornography, cyberbullying, grooming, violent and extreme content. Research shows that smartphones affect academic performance and many children show signs of behavioural addiction to their devices.
Underpinning all these harms is one that is potentially the most significant of all. Smartphones are experience blockers, distracting children from engaging in the real world. The average UK 12-year-old now spends 29 hours a week – equivalent to a part-time job – on their smartphone. This leaves little time for the real world activities and relationships that enable us to learn the essential life skills needed for the transition to adulthood. It is not surprising that new research shows that the younger a child receives their first smartphone, the worse their mental health.
And yet, the age a child gets their first smartphone is getting younger and younger. In the UK, a fifth of 3-4 year olds own their own device and 24% of 5-7 year-olds do. Many people don’t want to get their child a smartphone but feel they have no choice because everyone else is. No parent wants to isolate their child from their peer group. The solution to this problem lies in better regulation of Big Tech, but enacting legislation takes years – time that we as parents of children today don’t have. In the meantime, our most powerful defence lies in banding together and taking collective action.
What role do primary schools play?
Currently there is no guidance from the government or NHS around when children should get smartphones, and in that vacuum, primary schools can play a powerful role in resetting to healthier norms. If primary schools are explicitly smartphone free, there is less peer pressure for children to have one. It becomes easier for parents to make pacts to delay together, meaning whole peer groups can transition to secondary school with simple phones rather than smartphones. If Heads support parents in delaying, parents will feel more confident in saying “no”.
What we’re asking of you:
1. Please make your school a genuinely smartphone-free environment
Letting everyone know that your school doesn’t allow smartphones on the premises sends a powerful message to the whole school community
2. Encourage parents to delay
Please consider encouraging parents not to buy a smartphone until their children are at least 14. Parents are desperate for guidance on this issue, and your support would help parents to say “no” with confidence. Consider letting them know about the Smartphone Free Childhood Parent Pact via the school newsletter – it’s a digital tool that enables parents to come together and delay with others in their school community.
3. Start taking collective action with other primary school heads
Initiate a meeting with the other primary school Heads in your area. In St. Albans, we saw just what can be achieved when school leaders come together on this issue.
We are keen to work with you to help reset the norm around smartphones, and protect childhood for longer.
Would you have half an hour to discuss this?
Yours sincerely,
[ ]
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