Mobile Phone Policy
As of Term 2 2022 our school was made a student phone-free space. This policy was implemented to improve teaching and learning, and encourage students to engage with each other and their surroundings. In addition, we hope that social behaviour will improve drastically due to students' being fully engaged with their teachers and classmates.
We use a system called Yondr to achieve this. Yonder has been used across the world, in over 1,000 schools.
Yondr surveyed over 900 school partners to measure the effects of creating phone-free educational environments. These schools achieved notable progress in multiple areas:
- 65% of schools saw an improvement in academic performance
- 74% of schools saw an improvement in student behaviour
- 83% of schools saw an improvement in student engagement in the classroom
Students are able to bring their phone to school but will need to turn on airplane mode and lock them in the Yondr pouch provided when they arrive at school; at the end of the school day students use the specially designed magnet to unlock the pouch.
If students are using their phones at any point throughout the school day it will be sent to the office and parents/carers will be asked to collect it. The student will not be permitted to collect the phone without parent presence.
Sun Safety Policy
Year-round sun protection is important for all children and young people in Queensland as research demonstrates that high ultraviolet radiation (UVR) exposure in childhood and adolescence significantly increases the risk of developing skin cancer.
Our school aims to educate our students about being sun safe in order to develop important, life-long, healthy habits, and acknowledges the important role adults play during and outside school hours to reinforce sun safety with children and young people.
In implementing this policy, our school and community recognise that:
- the policy applies to all school and school-related activities and events;
- the strategies are to be implemented during the whole school day and year-round; and
- a combination of sun safe strategies is more effective than a single approach.