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Top-performing Sydney schools are limiting screens in class. Here’s why

By Lucy Carroll

When Robin Chand guides parents on tours through Killara High, there is one topic he is almost always quizzed on: What is the school’s policy on laptops in class? “When I answer it, parents breathe a sigh of relief,” he says.

“Students must bring traditional stationery – exercise books, rulers, pens – to school every day, for every subject. We use laptops for specific tasks, but it needs tight monitoring,” explains Chand, now in his fourth year as principal at Killara High, one of NSW’s top-performing public comprehensive schools.

Recess and lunchtime in playground spaces at Killara High are laptop-free.

Recess and lunchtime in playground spaces at Killara High are laptop-free. Credit: Flavio Brancaleone

As classrooms become increasingly crowded with digital devices, a trend turbocharged by Kevin Rudd’s Digital Education Revolution, the latest global test surveys reveal Australian students spend more time on screens during the school day compared with most other OECD nations. Students clock up about four hours a day on technology.

“It’s an issue parents are concerned about,” Chand says. “They don’t want their children glued to screens all day. Our playground spaces are laptop-free during recess and lunch.”

A veteran English and legal studies teacher, Chand believes laptops should not be used as a “core tool” in class, but rather to enhance learning or for a specific purpose.

“I might ask students to look up a new piece of legislation or law reform issue online in a class. But laptops need to be used judiciously, and they cannot replace books and handwriting,” he says.

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At top-performing private school Reddam House in Bondi, classrooms are laptop-free in English lessons from years 7 to 9.

The head of Reddam’s primary school, Dee Pitcairn, says the use of digital devices is minimised in primary grades. Instead, students take a 50-minute lesson once a week in a designated computer lab to practise typing and research skills.

Year 6 students in class at Reddam House in Bondi.

Year 6 students in class at Reddam House in Bondi.Credit: Edwina Pickles

The private school moved away from using e-textbooks on iPads in 2019, and laptops became the preference under its bring-your-own device (BYOD) policy.

“Laptops are used only when called on by the teacher, but we need to police it quite rigidly,” says Dave Pitcairn, principal of the senior school. Laptop-free English lessons mean students are less distracted and can focus on note-taking by hand to build comprehension skills, he says.

NSW schools set their own technology policies. Some ask parents to buy students laptops or tablets under BYOD policies, while others supply them.

Some public schools ask students to bring their own iPad from as young as nine years old, at a cost of up to $800 with headphones, case and a keyboard, and ask parents to load them with more than a dozen apps.

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But the rise of technology in Australian classrooms and concerns about distractions and overuse has prompted some schools to question – and audit – the time students are on devices.

High-performing public school Ashfield Boys High conducted a major survey of its school community about the issue in 2016.

“It found most teachers and parents thought students should spend a maximum of 25 per cent of the day on screens,” says principal Dwayne Hopwood.

Ashfield Boys doesn’t have a BYOD policy and limits time students spend on laptops.

Ashfield Boys doesn’t have a BYOD policy and limits time students spend on laptops.Credit: Louise Kennerley

“We looked heavily at the research on the connection between distraction and devices. Children don’t have the executive functioning to manage them well.”

The school, which outranks some selective schools in HSC English advanced, limits how much time students spend on laptops and keeps a bank of devices that teachers can book.

One parent at Ashfield Boys, Susan Terravecchia, said it was reassuring to know her child attends a school “where they aren’t looking at a screen all day”.

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“My other child went to a different high school that used laptops a lot. We did not want to go down that path again,” she says. “We feel so fortunate to be at a school where the principal really is ahead of his time.”

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The school invested in mobile phone lockers last year before a statewide ban on phones in public schools was rolled out in late 2023. Students drop their smartphones into lockers at the start of the day and collect them after last period.

“The impact on the playground has been extreme, even just the sheer amount of active play,” Hopwood says.

At selective private school Sydney Grammar screens are kept out of class, while another all-boys school, Waverley College, is considering weaving tech-free periods into the timetable.

One teacher at a regional public high school, who spoke anonymously to speak freely about the issue, said technology in class has become “a huge problem”, with students distracted by gaming and videos in class.

Students misuse department-approved games such as Minecraft Education, she said, and can bypass blocks on websites by tethering hidden mobile phones to laptops.

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“I’m starting to think we just need to start over. It’s also concerning how many need help with basic literacy and numeracy when they get to high school.”

She said BYOD policies meant those students without a laptop would borrow one from the school, “but often they’re not charged, or are broken”. Other teachers say they are forced to run classes from the back of the room to monitor the work students are doing on screens.

Chand says while Killara High uses both laptops and hard-copy books, if technology is used in an unstructured way, it can pose huge challenges for teachers in managing the classroom.

Killara’s deputy principal, Craig Date, says technology can be especially useful when accessing certain online tools such as three-dimensional environmental models in science classes.

Students at Killara High School.

Students at Killara High School.Credit: Flavio Brancaleone

The NSW curriculum embeds information and communication technology across primary and high school, and students need to use computers at school to access online resources and materials.

Teachers say access to digital devices is useful for running online tests, adaptive quizzes and assessments which can give immediate, in-depth feedback to help improve learning.

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Almost a decade ago, leading educational psychologist Paul Kirschner in Urban Myths in Education declared new technology was unlikely to revolutionise education because the essence of learning would remain with the teacher. It is not the medium that decides how well a student learns, he says, but the quality of instruction.

“I’m not anti-laptops. I’m for using technology at right moment, for the right things,” he told the Herald. But Kirschner is firm early primary school students have “no need” for laptops or iPads at school.

English teacher Kyra Maya Phillips taking a year 9 class at Reddam House. Years 7 to 9 English lessons are laptop-free.

English teacher Kyra Maya Phillips taking a year 9 class at Reddam House. Years 7 to 9 English lessons are laptop-free.Credit: Edwina Pickles

“Not many things in lower elementary school require the use of technology to do it well. They need to use fine and gross motor skills as much as possible.

“There’s also a keeping up with the Joneses effect. It’s a competition between schools to have the newest technology to draw in as many parents as possible.”

Kirschner prefers students take notes by hand. “Students can often type as fast as a teacher speaks, but writing is slower. It means they need to paraphrase information. And summarising is one of the eight generative learning strategies, so it helps with remembering.

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“Problems appear when students have multiple programs and websites open. It’s a constant battle for attention. A student might hear things, but they aren’t processing information.”

When the Rudd government’s policy, which provided laptops for students in year 9 and up, ended in 2013, many schools looked for ways to fill the gap via BYOD schemes.

Daisy Christodoulou, a London-based former teacher and author of three books on education, said schools rushed to add screens to the classroom out of pressure to be seen as modern and advanced, but have not necessarily considered how they would improve learning.

“There is growing evidence that screens and social media distract from learning,” she says. “We read differently on screen than on paper – we skim, scan and skip information. Taking notes on screen is also different to writing them out by hand. Again, there is evidence that handwriting can be very beneficial for learning.

“There are some educationally sound websites and apps out there. But I would be happier if students were accessing them on desktops rather than on phones and tablets. And I would be happier if there were significant chunks of school time that were screen-free.”

While several schools are scrutinising their policies, some teachers have questioned the proliferation of educational apps and if they were being driven by commercial interests.

Online game ABC Reading Eggs has been condemned by learning difficulties experts as mimicking a video game rather than being an educational tool.

The most recent Programme for International Student Assessment survey revealed four in 10 Australian students were distracted by devices in class. Spending more than an hour a day on screens at school was negatively correlated with achievement.

Greg Ashman, maths teacher and deputy principal at Ballarat Clarendon College, said laptops were helpful for class quizzes or tests.

“We can get immediate feedback – they are also good for practising particular types of questions and for recall activities. They can be really useful,” he said.

“But in a history lesson, for example, if all students are doing is copying and pasting text and from the internet into a PowerPoint, and faffing around with animations, that’s not helping students learn.”

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Original URL: https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/top-performing-sydney-schools-are-limiting-screens-in-class-here-s-why-20241118-p5krdg.html