It's not about your child's behaviour but your own.

Do you spend your life attached to your smartphone or tablet, never quite switching off, always poised to pounce when the new message alert sounds? If so, take heed: as with the rest of parenting, your child learns much more from what you do than from what you say. If you want to encourage a toddler to concentrate on one thing at a time, don't read bedtime stories with one eye on the smartphone.

It's never too early to set boundaries on, for example, the time a child may spend on a tablet.

If you feel your child is obsessed with a piece of technology or software, reduce its availability.

Abstinence is not the answer.

Your attitude to your child's relationship to technology should mirror the relationship to food.

Learning to socialise and interact online starts with learning those skills offline, not the other way round.

At St Mary’s Academy, students are not permitted to use mobile phones or other mobile communication technologies in the classrooms unless it is used as part of a lesson to support the curriculum under the direction of a teacher. Any mobile communication device brought into the Academy by a pupil must be handed in to the reception staff on arrival, where it will be kept safe until the student collects it prior to leaving the school premises.  We advise students to leave their mobile phones at home unless they definitely need them after school.  The Academy will not be responsible for any loss or damage caused to any mobile communications device.

Some Advice for Parents

We would ask you to think about the same kinds of risks you would talk about with your child if you had purchased a computer with any integrated webcam capable of video chat and video recording.  Remind them of the future consequences of pictures, video clips or text messages that can be widely distributed without permission or knowledge only to re-surface embarrassingly at a later date!

In purchasing a mobile phone, discuss firstly what your family boundaries might be, financially, app purchases, insurance, theft and appropriate usage. This also may include not sharing their number or email address with strangers or posting it on social media/networking site profiles.  To prevent unauthorised use it may be advisable to use a password pin to unlock the phone.

Many types of communication for speaking, texting or video-chatting can now work irrespective of phone signal or ‘credit’ on a phone network.  For example, Apple iPhones use a technology called ‘Face Time’ or ‘iMessage’ which allows users to interact based on account details or email rather than phone number.  Many other apps freely available also provide this facility.  As new popular games for phones allow the user to play anyone freely across the globe, it is vital that young people know how to keep safe and not disclose their name, location or personal identifiable information.

Keep lines of communication open with your child to ensure that they are not afraid to tell you if they have received an image, unwanted contact or are being pressurised to send any inappropriate photos of themselves.  Remind them to report any images they receive to yourself or an adult they can trust.

Why You Should Banish Tech From the Bedroom!

The Academy is a place of learning and we expect our students to be fresh, awake and ready to learn every day. It is really important that students sleep well at night.  For primary age children the NHS recommend around 10 hours sleep (NHS Sleep Requirements). If the child has access to entertainment devices like TVs, computers and especially mobile phones when they should be sleeping, the chances are that they will choose to use those devices. We advise parents to think carefully about how they manage their children’s access to these devices, especially when they should be sleeping.

Under-16s spend an average of three hours a day online. They watch videos on YouTube, scroll through Instagram (400 million users worldwide), post on Facebook (1.5 billion) and hang out on Snapchat (100 million) (Xiao-Ping, Chen - OBHDP). Their adolescence will be shaped in ways that are significantly different from the experiences of their parents, most of whom will wonder about the impact of so much screen time. Around 63% of smartphone users aged 18-29 actually sleep with their smartphone or tablet in their bed, and this may also be the case with younger children (You Gov/Huffington Post Survey).

According to Ofcom, eight out of 10 of us keep our mobile phones on during the night while we sleep, and around half of us use our phones as an alarm clock. Studies have shown that this is not a good idea and can affect the quality of sleep and performance the following day.

In recent years, scientists have discovered that our chronic sleep deprivation is linked to these devices being allowed in our sleep space. Remaining tethered to technology up until bedtime and keeping devices in our sleeping environments (leading to increased access) not only affects our ability to fall asleep, but the quality of the sleep we achieve by disrupting the body’s production of melatonin, the sleep-inducing hormone.

For more information on why you should banish your phone from the sleep space go to: 

Huffington Post - 7 Reasons not to take your phone to bed

Simple information about mobile phones, how they operate and what radiation is emitted can be found at:

SchoolPhysics

HELP YOUR CHILD ENJOY THE INTERNET SAFELY: CLICK CLEVER, CLICK SAFE

The internet opens up a world of entertainment, opportunities and knowledge. To help your child enjoy it all safely, the UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS) has developed the Click Clever, Click Safe code.

The code has been designed to:

• give parents the confidence to be able to help their children enjoy the internet safely
• help children and young people understand how their online experiences can expose them to risks

The code has three simple actions:

• Zip it - keep your personal information private and think about what you say and do online
• Block it - block people who send you nasty messages and don’t open unknown links and attachments
• Flag it - flag up with someone you trust if anything upsets you or if someone asks to meet you offline

It’s easy to remember when talking to children about online safety and it’s designed to help keep them safe on the internet. Make sure your child knows to always keep private information safe and watch what they say on the internet.

People may not be who they say they are online and it’s not always possible to control who can see your child’s information.Your child should know not to give out information like:

• their full name
• photos
• postal or email addresses
• school information
• mobile or home telephone numbers
• details of places they like to spend time

Make sure your child knows that they shouldn’t arrange to meet people that they have only met online. Even if they have been chatting with someone for a while, that person is still a stranger. You can help keep your child’s information safe by setting privacy settings. This can restrict access to personal information and photos on things like social networking sites. You should also encourage your child to use a nickname instead of their real name in chat rooms or on instant messaging services. To stop people accessing your child’s online accounts, encourage them to keep their passwords secret, and to change them regularly.

Get your child to block people who send offensive messages and tell them not to open unknown links and attachments. They should delete any suspicious emails or attachments as they may contain something offensive or have a virus that can cause damage to the computer.

One of the main ways children can come across inappropriate content online is through search results. Most search engines include a 'safe search' option that excludes results containing inappropriate images or key words. You can also install parental control software to filter out harmful and inappropriate content for computers and some mobile phones and games consoles.

The final rule is that your child should come to you or a trusted adult

• if they are worried or unhappy about anything they see online.
• If a friend they have made online has asked to meet them in the offline world.
• If your child does experience inappropriate content online, report it to the website it appears on.