Reactions by staff, students and parents to Kiama High School’s recent move to ban mobile phones appear overwhelmingly positive two weeks in.

As of the start of this year, students’ devices need to be placed in their bag – off or on silent – when entering the school and cannot be taken out until exiting the gates.

Deputy Principal, Melissa Anthony, hopes to see “improved engagement of kids in the classroom around teaching and learning, improved connections with each other and a reduction in negative incidents that have occurred because of mobile phone use”.

Year 12 student and 2023’s Young Citizen of the Year, Ava Snelling, says the negative incidents all involved social media and came as a result of everyone having such easy access to the platforms.

She believes the no phone policy will be beneficial in the long term, not only for education but for socialising and forming better connections with one another.

“During lunch and recess, everyone is so caught up in their phone and not in the moment. But in this last week, my friends and I have had more conversations and have really taken advantage of our lunch breaks.”

To help students who may be missing their device, the School has implemented a wide range of activities for the students to take interest in during breaks, including chess, uno, volleyball competitions and craft.

Principal Catherine Glover says they have upped their communication procedures with the office and parents have ‘overwhelmingly endorsed’ the school for making this move.

“Not only are the students not using their phones, we have staff with no phones as well. We have had P.E., for example, buy iPads so they can mark their roles without using their phones.

“Because whilst technology is a great device, when it impacts learning in the classroom or socialisation in the playground, it is not teaching kids how to use their phone responsibly,” Mrs Glover says.

President of the Parents and Citizens Association, Jenny Buckley, says although intentions are good, it is still very early days.

“If you were trying to teach a class and you’ve got kids on their phones doing the wrong thing and not being engaged, yes phones would be a distraction.

“But what a lot of kids do these days is use their phones as a research tool, looking up things on the internet or taking photos of the board. It’s something they are used to do doing as part of their everyday learning.

“It will be easy for those younger kids and harder for the more senior ones, I would imagine,” Jenny says.

There will be a mid-year review of the policy at the end of Term 2.