In an age where young people can’t seem to peel their eyes away from their phones, technology, TVs or tablets, one Co Armagh school has launched a new initiative aimed at encouraging kids to ‘ditch the screen’.
Killylea Primary School has spent nearly £1,000 on acquiring a range of family games in a bid to encourage students and their parents to have at least one screen-free night at home.
Each family is able to choose a game each week, in order to help improve social and communication skills at home.
Mrs Pamela Lowry, Principal of Killylea Primary, told Armagh I that it’s planned to run the initiative through to the end of Easter, when the light nights come in and children can get back outside to play.
She explained: “We are very much an outdoor learning school, so we’re always thinking of ways to get our kids active and look after their mental health and wellbeing.
“There has always been the issue of phones and digital technology in secondary schools but it’s moving down the year groups. Children in P5 have devices. A lot of our children, even from P1, are gaming.
“For me, it’s all about children’s inactivity, increasing childhood obesity, and mental health and wellbeing. During the winter, it’s not just as easy to go outside.”
Mrs Lowry said the issue prompted the school to “think outside the box” to help provide the kids and their families some degree of digital detox.
“We invested nearly £1,000 in buying games that would encourage families to spend time together with the hope that, one night a week, they could sit down and encourage their parents as well to get off their phones.
“I teach P1 and you notice the decline in children’s oral skills and communications, because we’re spending so much time on our phones.
“The hope is for it to be fun, first and foremost, that will give them an alternative to scrolling or gaming, and maybe spark that wee bit of family time together.”
The initiative was introduced last week and is already proving a hit with the pupils, with many children talking to each other about the games they’ve played.
So far, so good,” Mrs Lowry said. “It’s been very positive. Soon the prefects will be taking over responsibility of collecting the games back in and making sure all the pieces are together.”
Mobile phones and improper use of technology is an issue that has long plagued secondary schools and colleges, with schools across the country opting for different approaches in tackling the challenge.
However, as more young people grow up with increasing levels of ICT, the problem is becoming just as much of a challenge in primary schools too.
Mrs Lowry added: “Children are growing up with it now and there’s so many benefits to it. Things are changing for the future and we’ve got to embrace it, but it’s all about a balance.
“Children need to know how to use technology, but you know if you’re sitting and you start scrolling, half-an-hour or an hour of your life can be gone and it’s not added anything. In fact, a lot of our staff have taken up reading in the evenings as we now have a staff library.
“We see children, even from early ages, once you put an iPad in front of them, they’re fully focused on it and that’s very hard when you’re trying to teach at the front of a classroom and be interactive and engaging.
“We see children coming into school who are tired because maybe, unbeknownst to the parents, they’ve been up all night gaming.
“It’s all about getting a healthy balance.”
