OFFLINEAFTER9 LOGO

Offline After Nine is a campaign being launched by all Ashby and Coalville secondary schools this term.

school-logos

The aim is to support parents, during the week, in limiting young people’s access to the internet, gaming and social networking (at night time) when they should be resting, sleeping and preparing for a hard working successful day at school the next day. Many parents have expressed their concerns over the last year or so about the 24/7 nature of their son or daughter’s  on line activities which has led to:
  • Access to inappropriate content
  • Contact from people they do not personally know
  • Involvement in other young people’s lives that they find upsetting
  • Various risky behaviour
  • Cyber-bullying
Schools increasingly find that many young people are troubled during school hours by things that have been shared online the night before, and this influences their ability to work effectively at school and to maintain good relationships. Note:
  • To sleep properly, young people need uninterrupted sleep where possible.
  • Electronic devices in the bedroom and lighted screens energise. It is recommended that all are switched off at least one hour before trying to get to sleep.
  • Young people who are in contact with others late at night are not resting and in many cases are not doing the sort of activities that will help their state of mind or studies the next day.
  • Sleepy children are more likely to make decisions that put them at risk of being groomed.
  • A recent Cambridge University study (2015) found that on average,14-year-olds said they spent four hours of their leisure time each day watching TV or in front of a computer. However, those students who spent an additional hour of screen-time on average each day achieved on average 9.3 fewer GCSE points by the time they got to the age of 16 – the equivalent of dropping a grade in two subjects.
  • The effect was doubled for students spending an additional 2 hours in front of a screen each day. Young people who spend a lot of time on their phone and on social networking sites are not engaged in normal family life.
#offline Please support our campaign to insist that young people are offline after 9pm during the week Fill in the Form Below to make your pledge today: