February news articles
05 Feb 2017
Mobiles at school - for or against?
The Press & Journal looks at technology in the classroom. Gregg Davies, head teacher at Shiplake College in Oxfordshire, has banned mobile phones. "It struck me as really sad that students weren't talking to each other,” he says, adding that he has no regrets: "Pupils have since said they've found the ban liberating… [they] are actually having proper conversations.” Meanwhile, Graham Mackenzie, retired rector of Dingwall Academy in Inverness, says: “If anything I think mobile phones can be used as an encouragement. You need to work with [them] instead of against them and use them as a creative learning tool.” Professor Sarah Pedersen of Robert Gordon University adds: “I think schools should constantly consider their policy. You need a proactive policy rather than a reactive one.”
The Press & Journal
Primary kids engaged in explicit online behaviour
A quarter of primary school children have sent rude or sexually explicit messages on apps like Facebook and Snapchat - while half of six to 11-year-olds have also seen foul language online. A study by phone insurer Row.co.uk additionally found a fifth of parents fail to monitor what their children get up to online. It also discovered girls were three times more likely than boys to be caught sexting.
The Sun