https://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/minister-working-on-plans-to-ban-mobile-phones-in-secondary-schools-1663687.html
To me this is obviously a step in the right direction, but it has been obvious for many years and none of the other ministers did the obvious thing.
No she is not! Wait until the covid inflated Leaving Cert results come out on Friday & points remain high
There are many things I could call Norma Foley-- 'visionary' is not one of them. There is an impending election and tis the season to be jolly busy launching stuff and claiming credit.
As regards free meals and free books, this is part of the predictable Government pitch to the middle class average tax paying voter ahead of November. As to how these initiatives actually work or the success criteria, that's entirely up to the school leaders and teachers ie the credit for any success is due to the schools implementing the measures. As regards phones, she's just repeating what dozens of previous commentators in the space have been saying for ages and is seizing the moment, what with potential EU legislation and sanctions re: social media gaining pace. So no, she ain't no visionary, but yes she can read a prepared speech with all the buzzwords very effectively
I went to school in the mid 2000's.
If caught on your phone.
I'm fairly sure if caught on our phone.
First offence confiscated for a month.
2nd offence until the end of term.
3rd offence until the end of year.
Most teachers would be reasonable if your phone went off once.
Everybody bought phones and some had a spare phone to hand to the teacher if they got caught.
Dr Maureen Griffin.
https://www.mgmstraining.ie/
Hey, who is the Ennis based health professional? Please PM if you don't want to put it up here. Thanks.
Great idea and should be easy enough to implement: kid found using a phone in school has phone taken off them. It's popped into the office and only a parent of the kid can collect it.
Interesting...I didn't know that.
How is it enforced there if there is an issue do you know.
Some wagon of the fiona o'looney ilk was giving out about the free book scheme on newstalk there...
It's five years too late and they should be giving them free ipads....govt completely out of touch with the reality in Ed now she says
It's hard to please de people I tells ya...
Sorry for that bit of.....miserabilism?
Dr Maureen Griffin is the lady in question.
Resources section
Them school dinners are junk food
fine in poor areas
People should make more effort and send them in with a sandwidge and then feed them a proper dinner when they get home
so no phones for teachers either to show good example. How will they book their holidays. On school time.
Not only is it a good idea, it is a very necessary step. It's going to happen everywhere eventually.
At EP last weekend, group of under 18 girls getting very bored with the boys sitting down who wouldn't take their head out of the phones....girls walked away and I told the boys put the phones away and follow them girls....they did.
Yes election "banter" to prove she can spoof with the best
This idea has been working very well in other sources of education like Youthreach and Community Training Workshops for some time. It is very successful and to see young people sitting together at breaks having conversations instead of having their faces stuck in mobile phones is very pleasant.
Mod - Moved to CA. Local charter now applies.
I don’t think I’d go so far as to say Norma is a visionary, and I do like her, but it’s because of the stability she brings to the role in her position as the Minister for Education.
It doesn’t seem to me that she has any interest in proposing new legislation to tackle the issues, but rather she has been interested in getting all stakeholders on board to create a culture of intolerance of mobile devices during school hours:
“I’m very clear that I think we need to establish in our schools a culture of non-acceptance of the mobile phone.
“Moving forward now with the band working with our schools on mobile phones, particularly in post primary, it’s not the issue really in the primary, in that they’re not using them particularly during school hours in the primary.”
Frankly I don’t imagine it has a hope of success, but the fact that she wants to create a culture suggests that it will be the students themselves who will be frowning upon their peers inability to resist succumbing to FOMO.
Will do, thanks.
There's a big conversation needed about technology and children, both in and out of schools, and most parents and children are completely uniformed of what the risks are.
Not in the slightest. The Law requires the headline to be posed as a question.
Any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no.
This was not a media headline, but a question.
You may as well say a thread entitled "Anybody know where I can buy Goat's milk?" Should receive only No as an answer.
My phone fell in water so I don't currenty have access to school app where I have all the details. Drop me a pm in a few days if I haven't posted her details here. I was a bit unmotivated heading in to her talk but found her brilliant. She used to write reports for sex offenders for court hearing, so she is acutely aware as to who may be on the other end of your child's phone
The woman in question has lectured to circa 200 schools trying to implement safety policies around technology. We can't wait for the department or anyone else to do this, it really is a matter for parents to get informed and to protect their children.
In a nutshell the cure seems to next to no social media/gaming until after puberty, then shared phone use with a parent. In tandem we need to give them more freedom in the real world to make mistakes takes risks etc and develop naturally.
She went missing during height of Covid. She has neglected the problem of excessive prefabs in our schools (there are connected vested interests) and she has allowed publishers release a new "must have" edition of schoolbooks every year or two with trivial changes. Complete money racket at taxpayer expense. The Dept of Education is still the worst run in our permanent government.
Thanks for the link, will check it out.
Can you give me some info on who in Ireland is discussing the health impacts of technology on children please, I'd like to hear more about what they're saying?
Was it Dr. Siofra Harrington by any chance? As far as I know she is from Ennis, she is an Optometrist who has done some excellent research on the affects of too much screen time on children's eye health. The results are shocking.
Below is an ophthalmologist taking a wider look at the some of the science behind this, it's a long video and goes into a lot of different areas, how we're getting over exposed to blue light and lacking non visible light exposure (infra red and UV), and how it impacts people.
The consequences for young people are much more severe, so we should be limiting screen time where possible.
Parents need to wake the fcuk up and actually parent, not just farm out the job to schools. Stop being your kid's big buddy.
It's about 10 years too late from the oldest of Generation Z, but it is a welcome development. Huberman doesn't have many donkeys on and Haidt is well worth listening to.
My son's primary school recently had a talk with an Ennis based health professional who is leading the charge in terms of getting smart phones and technology in general out of the hands of primary school children and even older.
Schools can't do this on their own and it requires parents to be educated on the dangers and effects and for buy in for most of parents so keeping kids exposure to social media at a minimum until they are old enough.
Mobiles were just becoming a thing when I was around Leaving Cert level. The school policy then was, if one was seen it would be confiscated. Those of us who had one and were subtle, never had theirs confiscated. People who wanted to be the Big I Am, couldn't help to show off and got theirs confiscated. Why not go back to a similar policy?
School Meal Programme has been rolled out to thousands of extra schools.
Free book scheme rolled out to secondary now
I think she will go down as one of the better ministers in this government
Won’t happen. 1. Phones banned outright. 2. Student A keeps bringing one. 3. Detentions, eventually suspension. 4. Cycle continues to the point where Student A’s attendance is suffering, so too their odds of attainment. 5. School advised by inspectorate to soften up on reprimanding kids like Student A for bringing phones to keep them in classes. Same thing currently happening with repeat offenders with poor behaviour.
Lets see, a new law, which is impossible to enforce, and therefore will not be enforced after a couple of weeks of hassle. Norma Foley keeps her seat or leaves with a golden handshake.
Sounds like all their other measures.
Yes.
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