From the Deputy Principal
Recently I have been diving into research about the impact of smartphone use on adolescents. I'm endlessly fascinated about how we can create the conditions to help the brains of our young people work best.
There seems to be a lot of opinion in the public domain about smartphone use, but not a great deal of robust research to inform those opinions. One of the big, apparently unanswered, questions is: when is the best (or least problematic!) time to allow our children to have a smartphone?
I was therefore grateful to one of our parents for sharing with me a podcast which explored exactly this question and thought the information worth sharing. You can listen here: When is a child ready for their own smartphone? - ABC listen
The study's author, Dr Ran Barzilay, a Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania, examined the impacts of smartphone use on depression, sleep and obesity.
...if you can delay the age of first smartphone acquisitions, it appears that age 13 is safer than younger ages, number one.
Number two, once you do give your kid a smartphone, have a very thorough discussion about the health implications of acquiring a smartphone for the first time. It's not something that you just give and you forget about it, it's something that requires monitoring, requires discussion with a teen about how it affects their daily life.
And insist on two things, and you can do it before giving the kid the phone, it's much easier to do than trying to un-ring the bell of very bad habits. Phones are out of the bedroom at night. That's a no-brainer.
And number three, there needs to be a limit on how long the kid is on the smartphone.
...It's not something that you just give the kid and forget about it. It's something that you need to constantly monitor, keep your finger on the pulse, and have open communication with the kid on how it relates to their health. Because now we have data from our research and other research that this is a health determinant, it's something that relates to both physical and mental health. And because we care about our kids, we have this open discussion about it. It's not that we punish them, and we don't give them the phone when they are five, it's because we now have data that it's not healthy for them. So this is why we wait.
Another bit of advice you may find useful is setting up an iPhone using the Assistive Technology settings so that the phone may be used as a 'dumb phone' - significantly limiting the functions available on the iPhone. This is just one site with instructions: How to Set Up Assistive Access on Your Child's iPhone | Tech Lockdown
Here at GSG mobile phones are not to be used on school grounds (with the exception for our boarders at approved times outside of the school day) and smartwatches should be in 'flight mode' or similar during the school day. If students need to make contact with family, they are very welcome to attend the Primary or Secondary Administration Offices and we are happy to help.
Shelter Together
The Shelter Together event held at PCYC last week was a great success. Congratulations to our Certificate IV Business students, our Hospitality students and our Music students who helped create, support and serve at this important community event. It is a great example of our students' (and staff) service in and for the community. During the evening there was a panel discussion which included questions about the personal and societal impact of homelessness and what various agencies around Albany are doing in response. The panel involved representatives from Advance Housing, Great Southern Community Legal Service, Palmerston House, Pivot Support Services and John Murray who added his lived experience of homelessness. It was encouraging to hear the focus of various agencies working together on addressing what is a complex and ongoing problem. The event has raised more than $70,000 to support youth homelessness in the Great Southern.
Mrs Emma Franklin | Deputy Principal - Head of Teaching and Learning