Tablets replacing pencil and paper in P4....?

[Stilts]

Right all apologies in advance if I sound like a hand-wringing Guardian-reading panicked mum here, but bear with me.

My kid is in P4 in East Ren and we've been getting increasingly pissed off with the schools over-dependence on technology for homework. They are slowly getting rid of any paper whatsoever and are going to have all homework done via tablets in future. For now as an interim step, the kids write their homework on paper, then parents have to photograph it, upload it and send it to school. The teacher then marks it and leaves comments in the app. This also reflects the approach in class whereby more and more work is done on Chromebook and less on paper. Tablets for home use are not provided by school.

This is mirrored by the approach in class in which more and more activities are done on iPad or Chromebook which don't need to be. It seems to be an approach of 'if it can possibly be digital, let's do it on computer'. I think it should be the opposite.

I have so many problems with the approach but genuinely want to know what others think. Here's what I think:

• We all know the problems with staring at screens on children's developing brains. Surely this is the opposite direction from where we need to be going, getting kids engaging with the real world rather than staring at computers all the time. If they are also staring at TVs and playing games and looking at YouTube all the time, why add to that with more screen time?

• In my house we are not anti-technology. We are both occasional gamers and allow our kids to use ps5 and laptop games, watch TV etc. But these are in serious moderation. We also model for our kids what we expect of them - we don't use social media or spend hours scrolling etc. The last thing I expected was to be battling school as well as the excessive marketing targeted at my kids from game companies etc.

• The apps and programmes they use are totally crap and take ages to wrangle with. My child is not able to do it on his own. It therefore means I'm taking time out of my working day to fiddle with the technology, and it impacts my own digital health on top of the 8000000 other things I need to do for work, kids, house and life.

• The school says they won't really need good handwriting in future. But sorry that's nonsense. Yes you might not be sitting writing essays. But you need to be able to write envelopes, a note for the window cleaner, a sign on a meeting room door at work, a post-it note. Your writing needs to be legible. Why is that even in question?

• I genuinely don't have a working iPad to give him so it's my work laptop or my phone, which I'm uncomfortable with. Is it now my responsibility as a parent to buy my kid some expensive gadget he doesn't need so he can learn?

Well, verdict - am I mental? Are the school in the wrong?

No, Your not mental. I totally agree.

Totally agree with you. And in the private sector - at least where I am - the schools are much more tech averse in the primary years (obviously it's part of the curriculum but significant amounts of hand written work, jotters going home to work in, no reliance on 'learning' apps at Early level...) which I can't help but feel is likely to widen attainment gaps further.

We have apprentices at work 16-18 year olds who cannot write a legible sentence - they have to complete written timesheets for what work they have done and they cannot even read what they’ve written when you ask them the next day.

I despair for the younger kids.

Thanks all, glad it's not just me. And really interesting about private schools @totalwinwin - this was my partner's guess as he was privately educated. It feels like such a failure of the education system.

I wonder though if someone involved in designing the system genuinely believes it's the right approach for kids or if it's just laziness because it's easier for the school to manage.

This is not at all the case in my kids school and I have a kid in p5. Lots of emphasis on reading and arising and lots of stories and doing comic strips…(also in Scotland)

It depends a lot on the school. East Ren is well known for trying to be “future focused” and “ahead of the game”. I teach somewhere a little more laid back about tech, but that’s partly because we have very little money to buy hardware that works. That said, if you are worried about screen time either approach the school or cut down on time on screens at home. My DC does get screen time for fun, but included in that time is stuff like Times Tables Rock Stars and Sumdog.

Completely agree with you - increased digitalisation is not good for children's education, they do not learn as well from a screen as they do with pen and paper.

Is moving school an option? This would put me off the school completely.
If not, I would stop doing the homework once tablet based. Tell them you’ll be spending the time working on pencil-to-paper with appropriate maths and English workbooks, plus any other objects assigned for homework.

It’s also not good for their eyes to be on iPads etc that much. Agree with @totalwinwin mine are private and can’t think of any iPad use in primary…I’d talk to your parent council rep.

there’s a line about iPads being more inclusive as dc with SEN can find them easier (this is not true for my dc with SEN but you’ll get that pushback).

And I agree with @OneWilde it’s easy enough to set your own age appropriate paper based homework, I’d do that

I'm a teacher and completely agree.

It is terrible for children to be looking at screens yet schools sell it as being helpful for them. I do feel it's easier for teachers.

In my child's school, they don't get homework but parents are to look at online resources. It's sold as being better but actually it's much worse. Bring back spelling words, weekly maths and reading books.

Interestingly our school, in another LA area, last year started focusing more on getting the children to write more. HT is very aware of the impact of screens on children’s handwriting and writing stamina. One thing they do well.

Agree to a point. Our school is uses a mix, which I think is the sweet spot. We still get reading books , but I strongly believe being able to navigate technology, use apps and complete work using a computer system/tablet will become as essential as the written hand. There will be next to no jobs in the future that do not depend on technology in one way or another. I just completed an MSc at a leading Uni, I don’t think I put pen to paper once. Everything is electronic from the coursework to the communication from lecturers to the plagiarism tooling, indexing apps and eventual hand-in system.

Not being IT literate, or used to completing tasks electronically will be a distinct disadvantage for children for further education and eventual employment. Maybe sad, but true.

Nonsense like this makes me so glad I've retired from teaching.

Kids spend far too much time of screens at home. Schools should be doing less screen time, not more.

I've got a p6 and a p3 in Aberdeenshire. They do some stuff (coding, typing up work they've already drafted, research etc) on tablets at school and have access to a couple of apps for homework (Sumdog etc) but the bulk of their work is written. They also bring books home from school and their homework diaries need to be written in and signed.

I wouldn't be happy with everything being online and we have 3 computers, an xbox, a laptop, 2 tablets and 4 phones (Dh is a software engineer with dreadful handwriting) so it's not as if we withhold electronics.

It also doesn't seem very inclusive.