To be sick of school directly undermining me

[LainaDelBoy]

I’m at my wits end and really need some external perspective from people outside my local school/council area. (I moved to another part of the UK to raise my children, so this is not the school system I went through myself and isn't an area where there's much school choice - if you're not happy, you pay to go private it seems).

Since starting school at five, DD has routinely used a school-issued iPad (no one told me this would happen). I gradually discovered, mainly through what she told me rather than information from the school, that she had been signed up to all sorts of platforms and apps without me knowing/us being asked to approve.

It seems she has watched YouTube during lessons (I've regularly heard they've done PE on YouTube/"music" I've learned is often a sing along Disney song with the words at the bottom? etc) and come home talking about things seen in adverts. Some of the apps have coins, rewards and "friend" features which was a lovely (!!) sudden introduction to class bullying to deal with. and she's been using AI tools on the thing, but school haven't ever told me what it is/why/and I still don’t know what that tool was.

This week, another mum has just confirmed that the school ipads DO also all have email addresses through which they could message one another (although kids like mine age 5 aren't told the passwords for a couple of years yet - thankfully apaprently).

and tonight she's just come home talking about reading a book at school, only for a few questions later for it to bcome clear that it's not a BOOK book, it's another bloody ebook they scroll through on the ipad.

Stepping back a bit: I feel as though the school and council have taken away my ability to manage how much screen time my DD gets, while telling me I have "no legal right to opt out" of so much screentime at school when I asked about toning it down last year (I didn't ask for specifics, I just asked about the messaging stuff, and how much time they were on the iPad for typically).

We game a lot as a family (consoles/etc so i'm not anti-screens generally), but i just feel like there's a constant barrage of poorly done apps, videos and AI without clear limits or safeguards in her classrom. I don't know if it's like this in all schools.

In the UK, would you consider this "normal" or acceptable? Have other parents successfully asked for reduced digital screen learning/alternatives? AIBU to keep challenging it (the council are quite adament that their policy has zero flex)?

I don't know where to go from here and i don't want to be "that parent" but there are so many red flags here but i don't know if to keep pushing on it?

Delete, sorry, wrong information.

It happens a LOT to our son.
Hes a klutz/a complete disaster and has ADHD with no spatial awareness. His iPad has been dropped, stood on, “bricked” all sorts.
We refused point blank to sign for what is ultimately a very expensive paperweight, so the school are responsible for any and all repairs. We have said we don’t want lazy teachers, we don’t want him touching the iPad. But they insist, so we made it their problem. Frankly the cost of repairs will be nothing compared to the law suit we are currently planning.

It’s not how things are, it’s how some schools are using the tools.

At our primary we get passwords for things like Numbots and Tt rockstars which they are expected to use at home but I do it on my phone and monitor screen time appropriately. They are given a log in to a book store as you describe but I don’t use it as we have lots of books a t home and regularly use the library - but I can see how that is useful for a child from a family with few books and who don’t access the library.

My school doesn’t give out iPads. They sometimes use them in class for maths tests and for things like computing lessons. It’s good they are learning about the use and limits of AI. They need to understand it better than most adults currently do.

i also wouldn’t be that happy about what you’re describing OP. Have you looked at other schools to see if there a possibility of moving to one you’re happier with?

Schools can’t afford real books as they go home and don’t come back or if they do they’ve been damaged by being left in the garden or spilt drinks on. Ebooks don’t need replacing. Many schemes like ‘mastery maths’ are based around Numberblocks and it’s usual for children to watch little videos from BBC bitesize etc to enhance learning.

These software subscriptions alone can costs hundreds of thousands of pounds for a
licence that lasts 2-5 years. There are procurement docs in public domain in our local authority (in Scotland) that confirm this. Not to mention the device hardware costs. I doubt there is any money being saved.

My (scottish) school sounds similar, but I don't think it is as bad as you are fearing.

They use "sumdog" for maths, but it's just one tool to gamify maths - not the only maths teaching.

They do watch a bit of TV - newsround, number blocks, etc.

If it is a wet day, they sometimes do indoor PE as Just Dance or a yoga class, but more often they are outside.

They seem to spend a lot of time making power point presentations about random things, but they also make posters, etc.

So, it is a tool that they use, but part of a range of teaching methods.

Also, in P1, they were mostly learning through play. Very free flowing, little formal teaching.

I think you might be shocked at how slowly they learn to read, compared to down south. My school didn't seem at all fussed about pushing that too hard for the first few years, and I was worried about how slowly they were progressing. But then it was like they flicked a switch, and my DC went from not being able to read, to reading for hours every day.

This is not the case in my school in England. We looked at ebooks but decided to stick with real books but the ebooks subscription was significantly cheaper than buying and replacing real books.

Is your research published anywhere @DrBlackbird or do you have links to other good articles? I would love to read more. I am not a fan of EdTech for interventions and extra evidence to back up teachers over tech would be helpful in a setting where others are pushing for efficiency over effectiveness.

I would be keen to read more into proper research..I have found a lot of stuff online which appears to be funded by the companies themselves if you dig into the publishing. Not randomised trials or stuff a real scientist at a proper university has done! One link I followed from an email from school was literally on the game app website which I hadn't realised before I have started to do some digging last week when I was chatting to another mum.

@LainaDelBoyseriously. Join unplug scot. It’s all on there