Mobile phones: "Away for the Day"
Queensland Teachers' Journal, Vol 129 No 1, 16 February, page no. 9
Over the Christmas shutdown, the Queensland Department of Education released its new procedure for students’ use of mobile devices in schools.
The department had failed to meet its own timelines for the rollout of the mobile phone “Away for the Day” policy and resources, which in November prompted QTU State Council to carry a motion condemning the department’s lack of timely advice, guidance, resourcing, and funding. The motion also dealt with the inadequate time left to implement organisational change in a psychologically safe manner.
The new procedure states: “All state school students must keep mobile phones switched off and ‘away for the day’ during school hours. Wearable devices, such as smartwatches, must have notifications switched off so that phone calls, messages and other notifications cannot be sent or received during school hours.”
The procedure assigns responsibilities to principals, staff, students, and parents.
Principals’ responsibilities include consultation with their school community and developing a local policy approach to implementing the procedure and documenting the school’s local policy approach in the student code of conduct.
The responsibilities of staff (including temporary relief staff) include ensuring they are familiar with the school’s local policy approach for student use of mobile devices, as outlined in the school’s student code of conduct.
The procedure states that students have the responsibility to “keep mobile phones switched off and away for the day, and notifications disabled on wearable devices during school hours,” and parents have the responsibility to “support their child to meet expectations of the school’s local policy approach for student use of mobile devices, as outlined in the student code of conduct.”
As at the end of Week 2, the most common impediment to the roll-out of “Away for the Day” was parents texting or calling students during class time.
“Away for the Day” resources specifically for students, parents and carers, and schools can be found on The Learning Place.
Background
QTU members were at the forefront of calls for state and federal education ministers to enact consistent policies for students’ use of mobile phones at school. Many teachers and school leaders have lived experience of the negative impact of mobile phones in schools, including students recording teachers without consent, students filming fights and uploading footage to social media, online bullying, and parents texting or calling students during lessons.
In a 2023 QTU behaviour survey, co-designed by QTU Area Council delegates and officers, respondents were asked, on a scale of 1-5, if mobile phones should be banned in schools. QTU members overwhelmingly supported the proposal, with the weighted average response being 4.3. Notably, many schools in Queensland already had a form of mobile phone ban in place.
In July of 2023, state and federal education ministers made a national commitment to ban, restrict or manage the use of mobile phones and other personal electronic devices by students for personal use in government schools. Ministers noted that a Queensland policy response would be “building on the existing bans across 95 per cent of government schools to introduce a full statewide ban from Term 1, 2024.”
The QTU welcomed the ministers’ commitment and engaged in consultation with the department, which was tasked with developing resources to implement the new statewide ban.