{"id":321908,"date":"2026-02-28T14:09:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T14:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/321908\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T14:09:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T14:09:09","slug":"how-a-wicklow-schools-ban-is-inspiring-pupils-worldwide-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/321908\/","title":{"rendered":"How a Wicklow school\u2019s ban is inspiring pupils worldwide \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Rachel Harper approached other primary school principals in Greystones<\/a>, Co Wicklow, three years ago to discuss heightened anxiety levels among older pupils she had no idea she was starting a journey that would bring the world\u2019s media to her door. <\/p>\n

Those early conversations led to a voluntary ban on smartphones across eight primary schools in the town and attracted interest from media in Ireland, across the rest of the European Union<\/a>, the UK, the United States<\/a> and Australia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Harper laughs at how one foreign reporter asked if an Irish \u201cvillage\u201d like Greystones even had the internet and if people lived in thatched cottages. <\/p>\n

The international interest in the \u201cIt Takes A Village\u201d initiative in Greystones, led by Harper, highlights the global nature of the challenges facing young people, parents and educators, given the ubiquity of smartphones. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter where parents are in the world,\u201d said Harper, principal of St Patrick\u2019s National School. \u201cThey all have huge concerns and that unites us. I\u2019m really proud Ireland helped get a conversation going.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"'It’s‘It\u2019s not like a rite of passage any more that when you get up to fifth or sixth class you must have a phone,’ says Rachel Harper, principal of St Patrick’s National School. Photograph: Alan Betson <\/p>\n

On Thursday evening, Harper travelled to Ratoath, Co Meath<\/a>, to share the experiences of her school community and encouraging others to join the campaign. <\/p>\n

\u201cChange does happen when we all work together,\u201d she said. \u201cUltimately this is about empowering young people.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the initiative\u2019s first year, workshops for parents were central. Last year they brought in transition-year students to talk to the area\u2019s younger primary school students in sixth class. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe 16-year-olds have so much wisdom to share and they have inspired us so much,\u201d Harper said.<\/p>\n

She said transition-year students \u201caren\u2019t saying anything different to what we would say as teachers or parents, but it just lands so much better\u201d.<\/p>\n

The mentoring programmes had proved to be \u201ca very simple idea but very effective\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd it has kept the journey going. I\u2019ve no doubt that parents would have got bored of the voluntary ban eventually, but this makes it an ongoing process,\u201d Harper said.<\/p>\n

The demonstrable effect of the voluntary phone ban was in how it had taken the pressure off parents and children, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not like a rite of passage any more that when you get up to fifth or sixth class you must have a phone or you\u2019re not in the cool gang,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"RachelRachel Harper with T\u00e1naiste Simon Harris and research author Mags Crean of Maynooth University at the launch of research on the It Takes A Village scheme last year. Photograph Nick Bradshaw <\/p>\n

The Ratoath event was hosted by Fine Gael<\/a> MEP Nina Carberry<\/a>, who told the gathering that online safety would be \u201ca big part of Ireland\u2019s EU presidency\u201d.<\/p>\n

Carberry said managing the tech giants was \u201cbest done at an EU-wide level. Ireland can do its bit, but with 27 countries working together and making the platforms accountable is the most powerful we can be\u201d.<\/p>\n

Minister for Education Helen McEntee<\/a>, who also attended the Ratoath event, said the Government was watching how the ban on some social media platforms in Australia was being implemented, but she said age verification was the central focus at present. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf we\u2019re going to introduce age verification, how do we make sure that it is going to be effective? The digital age of consent at the moment is 16, but we don\u2019t actually implement it in the way that we should,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Bodie Mangan Gisler, who is in sixth class in St Patrick\u2019s, Greystones, and where his mother Alizia is a teacher, said the mentoring from older students had been \u201creally helpful\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cFourth years understand us and they give us loads of helpful tips, so that if something bad that ever happens we know that we can tell the parents and that we know how to deal with it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

His mother Alizia said she had \u201cdefinitely\u201d seen change in children she taught since the voluntary ban came into effect. <\/p>\n

\u201cBodie\u2019s my first child, so I\u2019m really nervous about handing him the internet, so to speak,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd just to know that I\u2019m not the only parent and there\u2019s others in the same boat and they are just holding off for a little longer and that\u2019s really helpful to me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Rachel Harper approached other primary school principals in Greystones, Co Wicklow, three years ago to discuss heightened…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":321909,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[986,5148,3775,5983,1556,61,60,15949,202,52465,80,115],"class_list":["post-321908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mobile","tag-australia","tag-european-union","tag-fine-gael","tag-greystones","tag-helen-mcentee","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-meath","tag-mobile","tag-nina-carberry","tag-technology","tag-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=321908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/321909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=321908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=321908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=321908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}