Primary school introduces ‘conversation lessons’ after pupils find it hard to talk to each other as smartphones damage social skills

A secondary school has been forced to give children ‘conversation lessons’ due to the damaging impact of smartphones on children’s social skills.

Teachers at Shelton Secondary School in Derby set up ‘ring coaching’ groups for pupils after noticing it was becoming increasingly difficult to talk to each other due to decreasing attention spans.

In the sessions, young people practice conversation, how to maintain eye contact and treat disagreements respectfully.

The school is among groups in the East Midlands city calling on parents to wait until their children have finished secondary school before being given smartphones, after it was discovered smartphones were being given to pupils as young as eight.

The alliance has produced a package of letters and guidance to be sent to families as pupils prepare to move on to Year Seven this September, reassuring parents that their children do not need to bring smartphones to school.

Jon Bacon, Shelton juniors’ headteacher, explained that his team was increasingly having to teach children basic interaction skills that were previously learned naturally outside of school.

He said: ‘Attention span is lower, concentration is lower, children find it difficult to communicate effectively with each other, especially in conflict situations.

‘We’re actively teaching this now because we’re finding that kids can’t do it because they’re not socializing like they used to.’

Headteachers Jon Bacon and Gemma Penny are leading a group into schools in Derby urging parents to wait until their children have finished secondary school before being given a smartphone

Pressure grows across the country for tighter controls on young people’s smartphone and social media use

Mr Bacon added that he and other headteachers in the group felt smartphone use among pupils was ‘affecting the running of our schools and the health and wellbeing of the children we care for’.

he said Derbyshire Live: ‘We want to do what we can to support that, and I think this unified message will definitely do that.’

The schools’ initiative follows a major study by campaign group Smartphone-Free Childhood (SFC), revealed by the Mail this week; It also turns out that parents believe childhood is now worse as a result of social media.

Pressure for tighter controls on young people’s smartphone and social media use is growing across the country.

A three-month public consultation on children’s use of digital technology and potential limits on social media and other services such as gaming sites and artificial intelligence chatbots concluded on Tuesday.

The same day, at a meeting with bereaved parents who lost children after watching harmful online content, Sir Keir Starmer signaled he could move beyond an Australian-style ban on under-16s accessing social media.

The Prime Minister said he wanted a ‘game-changing’ policy that would protect children from the harms of social media and aimed to unveil the plans ‘within weeks’ after 70,000 responses to consultations on the ban were analysed.

The Derby schools group decided to focus on the transition period between primary and secondary school; because many parents feel that getting their child a phone is a ‘rite of passage’ at this stage; But they also acknowledge that parents of young children are increasingly under pressure to buy phones for their children.

Paul Appleton, principal of Cherry Tree Hill Elementary School, said students as young as eight are “starting to think about having their own cell phones.”

Gemma Penny, headteacher at Allestree Woodlands secondary school, said the idea was hatched at the end of last year when senior leaders realized they were facing many of the same issues around smartphone use, online safety and exposure to social media.

Ms Penny said: ‘Schools in Derby will be phone-free so (we say) don’t buy your child an expensive smartphone because they won’t be allowed to use it at school anyway.’

The guidance will reassure parents that smartphones are not necessary for young people to succeed in school and address security concerns that parents often cite as one of the main reasons for giving their children phones.

Cherry Tree Hill Elementary School is also part of the collective. Paul Appleton, the head teacher of the school, said that as smartphone use began to affect children’s communication, schools had to deal with this problem directly.

He said his school now talks about smartphones and their use as part of the onboarding process for new parents.

Mr Appleton said students ‘start thinking about having their own mobile phone’ from Year Four onwards.

‘We’ve seen some parents put their kids up looking at their phones, never talking to each other, making eye contact or anything.’

The SFC report survey found that 84 per cent of parents now believe their childhood was worse than their own. It revealed that online platforms are the biggest threat to children’s well-being, and that raising children is now more difficult and full of conflict.

A staggering 94 percent identified social media as the biggest threat to children’s well-being.

Parents said they felt pressure to allow online access sooner than they wanted and tried to remain firm when their children said ‘everyone already has one’.

A separate report by the Academy of Royal Colleges of Medicine said online platforms and smartphone use ‘rank alongside smoking and wearing seatbelts in cars as a unifying force for the medical profession’.