Kia ora koutou,

With the Governments new directive regarding mobile phones coming into force from the start of this term, we thought it was a good time to remind you of our expectations at school.  

We already have a long standing "no phones" rule at school. Though we appreciate that in some circumstances it can be useful for children to bring their mobile phone to school so that they can contact family before or after school if needed. We do insist that they are placed in a "phone box" in their ALS or at the office for safekeeping between 9am and 3pm.

You should be aware that whilst we can monitor what ākonga are doing on school devices at all times, we cannot do this on personal devices, and therefore cannot be sure the content they are accessing is appropriate.

We'd rather children didn't wear smartwatches to school.

There have been incidents of smartwatches causing distraction from learning, as tamariki can easily and subtly use them to play games, send messages etc. Notifications and ‘pings’ from watches can also cause a distraction to the child, and those around them.

Smartwatches have been used several times to contact parents, and vice versa, during school hours. This can be tricky if a situation has happened or a child has become upset, and staff are not aware of this. This can also cause anxiety for parents if they are not onsite at school and cannot directly help with the situation. Students must come and see a member of staff if there are any issues at all at school, so that we can help to resolve issues and monitor ongoing situations. We will contact parents quickly if we see that it is necessary to do so.

There are some points that we wanted to highlight as you make decisions about letting your children bring smartwatches to school - and how they use them while they are here:

• Smartwatches are expensive items and are usually very treasured by their owners. As a school, we strongly recommend that such precious items do not come to school.
• Schools can be rough and tumble places at times. Knocks and bumps can happen, and items can get damaged or broken. We take no responsibility for any damaged or lost personal devices.
• Our ākonga are young and are in the process of learning to be responsible for items. Whilst we teach our students to take care of school devices and resources, and we follow up if poor behaviour leads to items being damaged, we generally do not hold them responsible for payment or replacement of damaged items, except in specific circumstances of willful damage. 
• Accidents do happen in schools, with many young children around. Our advice to parents is that if you are not willing to accept the risk of damage or loss of personal devices, please do not send them to school with your child.

If we see smartwatches being used for anything other than telling the time during school hours, we will ask the child to remove it and it will be kept at the office for you to collect at the end of the day. 

We'd appreciate your support with this.

Jared