Ms Lauren Reynolds:

On phones in schools, our school brought in a rule stipulating first years were not allowed smartphones but that they could have a typical old "Blokia". This gave the kids the ability to remain as kids. They do not have the stress of someone taking a photo or video of them. There is another school locally that banned phones altogether. In this regard, there was more of a problem with the parents than the students themselves because the parents asked what would happen if they needed to contact their children. I believe that the blocking of smartphones was very beneficial but not the blocking of phones in general. A phone that is not a smartphone can still be used to make contact with someone although it has no access to social media or the Internet.