Kia ora koutou,

We have noticed an increase in the number of students bringing smartwatches to school this year.  

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 a number of 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. It is important that students 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.

We appreciate that in some circumstances it can be useful for older children to bring their mobile phone to school so that they can contact family before or after school if needed. This is why we do not ban mobile phones, rather we 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.

Whilst we do not currently ban smartwatches at school, there are some things that we wanted to highlight as you make decisions about the devices your children bring 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 that devices such as smartwatches are causing particular issues for individual students, we will let the student’s parents know, and may request that they not bring their device to school.

In any event, our strong recommendation is that smartwatches are not brought to school.   If they are at school, we ask that they are not used as a personal device during school hours, and we ask parents and caregivers to support us with this.

Thank you for your support.  

Jared