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?

I don't personally design the curriculum!

The school I work in has just removed iPads from KS1 classrooms because it's been realised that it's not a good idea. I'd kick up an almighty fuss to be honest, OP, the winds of change are blowing away from "yay iPads!!!"

This makes me feel really apprehensive about what school will be like for my current two year old! I would feel exactly the same as you, OP.

From reading the OP it seems that the info has come from various sources.

Re the Borders there is a fair amount of info in the public domain about how iPads are to be embedded across the entire curriculum, various core apps etc too. Speaking to parents from various schools here, it’s just as bad everywhere.

In my school PE lessons follow set lesson plans that are designed for us by senior leadership. I don't have the freedom to deviate from that.

I said “county wide”. Not “country wide”.

yes, there are local authorities in Scotland that haven’t got 1-1 device schemes.

We aren't in the UK anymore but our school district does not permit screens in classes until what would be P2 (age 6-7). They use learning apps which have been incredibly helpful for my DD who is slow to read. Being able to see the pronounciation and lengh of saying a letter with different colours under letters etc has helped her a lot and she wouldn't get that from a book. I think there is a balance, but it is the future so as long as your child can hold a pen and write I wouldn't think too much about this.

Our private primary is very much moving away from screens in the classroom- they are only used in a very limited, very intentional way (computing lessons mainly). I expect this will become a bit of a divide between state and private - lessons on iPads are much more cheaply delivered, though growing evidence that analog learning is better for children’s development.

Why not cut out the gaming and then the screenntime will reduce?

You are joking, right? I can guarantee you that educators have very little understanding of data privacy or terms and conditions of the apps they’re signing children up to or what data those apps are now collecting and monetising from each child or how exposure to online content influences the development of young brains. One primary school in the UK thought it was a good idea to introduce facial recognition technology for school lunches fgs.

None of this is good for our children and all about making teaching more convenient. Granted this is against a backdrop of reduced budgets and greater classroom size so I understand why teachers reach for these shortcuts. However , there is a huge body of research identifying the harmful effects of ‘education’ technology (mis)sold to poorly or misinformation academies or LAs.

@LainaDelBoy I’d be equally furious and upset if my DCs school had done this.

My DD has just finished Y1 and in both reception and Y1 they seemed to watch a LOT of TV and YouTube (including things like Danny Go). I was really surprised as we’re always reading about how the curriculum is too full to fit everything in!

I have a child who just started year 1 and would be horrified at what you’re describing.
my kid attends a state UK primary and screen use in the early years is pretty minimal.
dont put up with it, there is mounting evidence that learning outcomes are worse when screens are a main teaching tool.

We do have a library but it's tiny. It's not just having the books at the correct band it's a book covering the new phonics sound. There is I've for each of the 44 phonemes which needs to be read in the correct order as they are progressive. So 30x44 books and that's just for phonics. We are in a very deprived area and books often don't come back when sent home. We don't have a PTA fundraising for books and we spend most of our money of staff.
At my own children's school they have an amazing library (paid for by the PTA and constant requests for donations) ironically my kids use more tech than my school (because we can't afford the tech either. We have one class set of iPads for the whole school to share)

Cutting out a family game once a weekend won't make that much difference.

YouTube for PE is dreadful. There is also emerging evidence that children need a certain amount of time outside to protect their eyes from short/sightedness. It should be at least 2 hours a day. Screens instead of sport outside is a terrible idea.

All schools in my area have iPads and all kids are issued with their own from P7 onwards

How is school affording all these ipads?!

There are many reasons that I’m glad I don’t live in Scotland

and this has just been added to this list

@BrummieKara are you telling us with a straight faced that the curriculum stipulates you have to use YouTube in PE?

I worry about how schools just threw in iPads or chrome books with what felt like little thought. Of course I don’t stand in way of technology but as we know, it can go faster than our ability to get our heads round it. All that fuss about mobile phones and then we hand them an internet enabled device and an email login and let them get on with it. Course they are all communicating like mad across schools. Yes tech support can see their emails but I was in a school of 1200 kids, you couldn’t monitor them all. We got Pinterest enabled for them “to look at design ideas” for their “research and product planning “ Same with YouTube… and guess what, they use them as social media, in the classroom. Head teachers can be so gullible.

Trust me, it’s used all the time. Did you see some low life teacher got sacked the other day because he left his search history on whilst looking for a clip projected in front of a load of kids. Oh yes!

In the case of Glasgow city council, to the detriment of staffing (teachers and support staff) and other classroom resources.

Very interesting. So like music lessons and the arts, our kids in state schools get the cheap way