Yahoo News Top private girls' school asks parents to sign pledge to curb phone use
A private girls’ school has asked parents and pupils to commit to reducing their smartphone usage by signing a contract.
The Family Phone Pledge was launched earlier this month by a group of A Level Psychology students at South Hampstead School in London.
The voluntary contract between parents and daughters includes optional pledges, such as limiting phone usage when with friends and family, not using phones in the hour before they go to bed and charging phones outside bedrooms overnight.
There is an option to allow for certain ‘exceptions’, such as a work emergency, which may allow for additional phone usage – something which will “need understanding on both sides”.
Laura Lee, 17, one of the document’s authors, told The Times: “The contract is purely voluntary but it is something we hope might help families set some ground rules.
“I really hope other schools adopt this. Social communication is being lost and it’s so rare for families to sit down together and watch something, and not all be on their different screens.”
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Headteacher Vicky Bingham described the contract on her blog as “a laudable initiative”.
She added: “Their proposed pledge is of course purely voluntary, but certainly something that I, as a school leader, was hugely impressed by – and, as a parent, very grateful for.”
