Is it possible to find a school with very little/no exposure to digital??

[OlliEliza]

My child will start reception next year, and I've just got to know that all of the schools in my area rely heavily on screens from a young age. (I'd like to keep in mind both primary and secondary schools.)This is absolutely a deal breaker for me. Is it possible to find a primary school with no screens at all, and is it possible to find a secondary school with very minimal exposure to them? What I mean is no mandatory iPads; books, and exercise books in daily use, handwritten homework, computers used for IT, research, etc.

What is going on is truly appalling for me. The only school that I've found is a Montessori school, but it's very expensive. Any luck in finding those schools?

There is a private school somewhere in the UK (I would guess London, but google it) that bans screens for young ones. Ironically, the tech bros and sisters in California do not allow their own kids to have screens, and pick schools that don't use them much, but I'm guessing you're asking about the UK? Our primary let them use them quite a lot, but given that most parents do, I guess that's normal. Some of the TAs seem to let it happen more-when they have an actual teacher, they don't use them much, but in one of the classes, the teacher is out a lot so they have the TA.

YANBU Op and I have no idea how this has happened!

I too have a kid starting in reception and it didn’t even occur to me because how can people be so stupid!

Let alone the ones in charge of teaching our children.

It’s a hill I think many parents will be dieing on.

We can’t afford to move. There’s other parents in our area too on the same page. Think our school is going to be not quite sure what’s hit it with the influx of Covid professionals moving in but we are doing our best to plan. People are applying for governor positions.

I think we have a chance with the primary. But the secondary’s are a lost cause. Teacher parent friends tell me kids sit on iPads all day and it’s the most depressing thing. Not local ones tell me they actually just encourage some kids to have a nap now because there’s no way they are making it through hallucinating at a screen and instead will disrupt the class and pastoral will do nothing.

I am with you OP
We are screen free at home with the kids.
Our school has interactive whiteboards but don’t use ipads.
I don’t like Montessori so was glad to find a traditional school

You will very, very easily be able to find a primary school which minimises the time children themselves are physically using technology. Yes, there are exceptions and schools which are very much the other way as PPs have said here. But on the whole, as someone who has spent time in 100+ schools across several local authorities, most children at primary age have one Computing lesson a week and may, at a push, get to spend 30 mins elsewhere on an iPad or a laptop. Again, there are schools that are very different to this but they definitely don’t represent the majority.

What you will not be able to find is a school that doesn’t use the interactive whiteboard or only uses it sometimes. From Y1 up, the big screen will be used in almost every single lesson to show material and examples. If you have an issue with this, it’ll be hard to find what you’re looking for.

Finland. But I got lucky in the area I moved to as some schools in Finland use screens a lot more e.g. for digital textbooks (though I expect not in primary schools)

Found you one! Might be a bit of a commute tho...

The formal research on screen time for children is nowhere near as clear cut as all screen time = bad. Many studies use vague definitions of “screen time”, rely on self reporting and struggle to properly separate out factors like socioeconomic background, pre existing mental health, parenting, sleep and what the child is actually doing on the screen in the first place. So if your budget doesn't stretch to Montessori or relocation to Pennsylvania I really wouldn't worry too much.

Try finding a poorer school. I teach primary and we have 30 iPads for the entire 420 children in school. The laptops have to be plugged in constantly for them to work and they are so slow that most have to be turned on at the beginning of lunch so they will be loaded and ready for an afternoon lesson. Most of the time we end up having to do ‘unplugged’ computing lessons as we don’t have the resources. Yes we have smart boards, but that is for the PPTs that we teach from

I'd be very surprised that any state school is giving all thier students an ipad!!! Mine are at our local comprehensive and no-one has an ipad!!!
We live in one of the most affluent parts of wales so not an inner city school with no resources - both the primary and secondary schools are very well regarded.

Mine went to a lovely state primary school. no devices were used unless part of IT or doing a maths website. I still have all their books they used for maths, science, english etc up in the attic. They would have watched something on a projecter / interactive white board - same as we would have in the 80s when they wheeled out the TV on a trolley.

Secondary school no devices, not even phones allowed at school until 6th form when they can take thier laptops in if they want. Still lots of written work but they do email teachers etc and there is an app to track homework etc.

Our primary was like this. I have no issue with this level of screen use in schools.
My DCs are in secondary now and they have exercise books, use real books for English etc

I think this thread serves to demonstrate the wild amount of variation at play here. There should be top down policies to prevent the excessive and irresponsible use of screens, apps and gaming in schools. Particularly with young children. This would bring it all into line.

Go and have a look at local schools. I’m not sure what you mean by ‘crap’ in terms of schooling as staff are doing the best they can with funding they have.

I teach secondary - I use a 'screen' but its my whiteboard and more often than not I am writing on the white board element of it instead of using the projector/powerpoint. However there are huge benefits to some things I have where I can model how to do something either with online tools - like a huge protractor, or use a camera whilst I do something on paper on my desk. All my students use books and pen and pencil. Homework is set online but it is written homework done in books.

At my childrens primary - a few times they will watch something on the screen or it is used to play music for their show etc to sing along with as no access to piano. Homework is set online, only in year 6 was it completed online.

My daughters secondary does require some gadget but textbooks are prohibitively expensive these days (approx £20 a book - times that by 240 students per year group - thats a cost of £12,000 per subject - yes they can be reused but when we used to hand them out approx 20% were damaged or lost every year. Much cheaper to have the book electronically - and no parents won't buy the books!

In England state education must be free and no school can force the parents to buy a ChromeBook or an IPad. When I was an English teacher, we couldn’t even make the children buy their own set texts; we could suggest it might help but we had to provide books for every child if their parents didn’t want to buy them. So I’m not sure how these schools are managing to ensure every child buys an iPad!

The interactive whiteboard is another story. In my day we had overhead projectors where we would put the PowerPoint on our computer and then project it to the class. So a different form of ‘screen’. Interactive boards are really only a more sophisticated version of this - unless you want to go back to blackboard and chalk? And then, when the teaching bit is done, pupils would then do their own individual work, pen on paper, building up their skills. My secondary school had 2000 students - no way could they have supplied 2000 laptops/ iPads.

In short, I think this 1-1 scenario is exaggerated ( certainly my grandkids seem to be getting a similar education to my kids) and the use of the whiteboard is just a better version of what we’d been doing for decades.

And if you’re asked to buy tech, you don’t have to. That is the actual law.

I wouldn't worry too much about secondary if you currently have an Reception child. Secondaries are making lots of changes with regards to phones and I would expect there to be a knock-on effect on screen use. At the secondaries near me, kids don't bring a device to school, but would be expected to have access to one at home. It could be a family computer though, rather than an individual tablet.

That's ridiculous. They banned smartphones but encourage iPads! What's the point? I truly hope that something will change over the couple of years

is it primary or secondary?

That hasn't been our experience os schools.
Yes som things are screen based but by no means everything and at primary school very much still all about writing by hand. This was to such an extent it was detrimental to one of our children who struggles with hand writing and would have been far happier if they could have typed all their written work.

In Secondary I have found more homework is online but not all of it. We looked at multiple secondary schools and I can't recall any that did all learning solely on screens although all used technology to a greater or lesser extent.

I don’t think you’re being fair to say it’s “the crap that goes on in the state sector”. Yes you’d have to pay for a school that is as screen free as you’d like, but it’s not a state v private issue. Steiner / Montessori are alternative educational approaches and ideologies. Many private schools will have iPads / Chromebooks and will use electronic whiteboards just like state schools. In fact with their better funding there’s likely to be more tech.

The issue isn’t “screens” it’s about content.

Primary. Not a lot you can do once they hit secondary as a lot of homework is submitted online.
But while they are little they will be screen free. I know they will have play dates and may use screens there and that is fine. But where I can limit it I will

Lucky you! You mean that there're no devices at all in secondary except an interactive board?

Lots of secondary schools don't use phones, tablets or chromebooks. It's completely normal to still handwrite in books, take handwritten notes and only use computers in a computing lesson.

Have you looked around all your local primary schools to see how they use technology?

In the secondary school I teach in - no devices are needed in lessons, phones are in locked pouches, some access to devices in IT rooms for some lessons, but on the whole yes only device I use is my interactive whiteboard day in day out.

I know its not the same across the board, 3 secondary schools out of the 7 we are in a trust in do ask for devices. So there is a choice locally.

My daughter is in Y3 and I think they only use laptops once or twice a week. Everything is workbook based, homework also. Tbh I thought this was still the norm.