Earlier this week the Government launched a consultation on children’s use of social media, following actions in countries such as Australia who have recently enacted a ban on social media for those under 16. Alongside a ban, the Government are proposing restrictions on designs which encourage addiction such as streaks and infinite scrolling. It may not surprise you to learn the design of certain apps promote addiction, it – literally – pays to keep people on your pages so designers make this their aim. Infinite scrolling means there is no end to a ‘page’, and this continued scrolling quickly leads to algorithms narrowing the breadth of content your child views, potentially throwing up more harmful content. I was pleased to see positive moves being taken in supporting parents by providing guidelines on screen time for children aged 5 to 16, but like many, I’d welcome more robust action from the Government on preventing more harmful content getting online; Chief executive of the NSPCC, Chris Sherwood expressed a similar worry, you can find his comment towards the end of this BBC article.
At Hollygirt, we continue to support pupils in ‘Getting it Right’ when it comes to mobile phone use, we want them to be responsible around their usage. The Government commented that schools will be ‘phone-free by default’ by announcing that Ofsted will be reviewing school phone policies (we wait to see if ISI will follow suit). In light of this statement the senior leadership team and I will discuss next week if we should expand our phone pouch policy to include all times at school, not just the working period of 8.40am to 3.45pm. If you have any views on this, please do share.
This week has been Sparkle week in the Prep school and the Seniors heard from Dr Holbrook on Monday about Kindness and what this really is. Dr Holbrook explained it’s easy to be ‘nice’, but this is often surface level, to be kind requires a deeper intention and concern for those around you rather than how you might be perceived. Kindness is one of our core values, we celebrate and reward kindness through assemblies and by giving out House Tokens to pupils who uphold the value, and plenty have been awarded this week. It was a delight earlier today to receive a very lovely card from the EYFS pupils thanking me for reading them a story before Christmas, decorated with plenty of sparkles!
Ever Onward and Upward
Ms Purdy