How young is too young for a school laptop?

“I don’t think we can have schools that only do what they want with laptop and iPad. There is no consistency on how much they should be used and when. I think that a certain technology is fantastic, but I am really worried about how distracted they can be and how useful it is.

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“The tasks are made on Google Classroom, so suddenly they are at the bottom of this rabbit den that is looking for on the internet.”

Nunn is concerned that schools are introducing laptops before the year 3 to help students prepare for the online Naplan tests and wants the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) to establish guidelines for all school sectors manage the use of the screen.

Last year, Waverley College tested a week without technology in which all the lessons were without laptops. Sydney grammar has long bent the trend and resisted computers in the lessons.

While students need digital literacy skills, the early literacy professor of the University of Notre Dame Lorraine Hammond said that small children were not necessary to use iPad and laptop for learning.

“In the first four years of school, attention must be on guided education by teachers in the main basic skills of oral language, knowledge of the sound of letters and the decoding words that lead to fluent reading skills,” said Hammond.

Schools sometimes use iPad to occupy children when they are “rotated” in groups in literacy or mathematical lessons, Hammond said. “The development of gross motor skills, the use of pen and paper and calligraphy is fundamental in the first literacy.”

A study Posted last year He showed a typing out of hand when it was to increase brain power, while experts warned that schools embraced heavy lessons without evidence to support the shift.

Nunn said that after raising concern on byod politics, Marist College North Shore sent a letter to parents to examine their opinions, even if they want devices kept at school during the night. The school will also give students of the 2nd year one day “without technology” on Tuesday.

A spokesman for the Catholic schools of Sydney, who manages Marist College North Shore, said: “In what is an increasingly digital world, we help students become confident and responsible for technology from a young age. We aim to use technology intentionally, with technology that improves learning rather than replacing traditional methods.

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“We continually review and update our policies to create a balanced and weighted approach to technology.”

Another parent of the elementary school, Aliza Hofbauer, delayed the purchase of an iPad for her son despite her school, Rose Bay, asking for the devices to be brought every day from the year 4.

“The cost is unreasonable, but this expectation that a child has an iPad in their bag … I didn’t even know that byod policies varied according to the school in which you go,” Hofbauer said.

“It is this more pressure on parents. What is so frustrating is that the tasks are made online and are distracted and move between screens and game apps.”

A spokesman for the Nesa said that schools are “in the best position to make decisions on teaching and learning mode, including the use of technology in the classrooms, in line with the needs and expectations of the school community”.

In 2023, the The NSW government has forbidden cell phones for all students of public schoolsA policy already adopted by many private and Catholic schools.

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