Lisa Kerr discusses the senior school’s mobile-phone policy, which has recently been updated to be more restrictive and in line with that of the junior school
Running a school may be a challenging role, but I have no doubt that parenting remains the toughest job around. Along with headship, it of course brings huge rewards, but enforcing the boundaries that children so desperately need seems to be harder than ever these days.
One area where parents voice their struggle is in relation to controlling their children’s use of mobile phones. I don’t mind confessing that, as a parent myself, l’ve found these particular pressures increasing with each of my children, and I was definitely stricter with my eldest than I am with my youngest. Third-child syndrome perhaps, but also the result of growing peer pressure and the increasing ubiquity of devices. Effective schooling means working in partnership with parents and, at Gordonstoun, mobile-phone use is something about which families look to schools for guidance and, dare I suggest it, top-cover.
Since 2017, Gordonstoun has adopted a firm approach to controlling device access, but even in the face of a usage ban, we felt children were spending too much time online. So, we surveyed our parents, spoke to our students, consulted staff, and looked at the scientific evidence. We also looked around us, at our beautiful 200-acre woodland campus; the golden beaches that are just a walk away, and at the short drive to...