Last week was Heritage’s third annual Screen Free Week. Families were strongly encouraged to take part by saying ‘no’ to TV and video’s, gaming, social media and internet use – for recreational purposes, for seven days.

To quote Jane Rumble, Director of Market Intelligence at Ofcom ‘Millions of us are taking a fresh look at the role of technology in our lives, and going on a digital detox to get a better tech-life balance.”

Heritage’s concern is that our extent of dependence upon digital technologies is imbalanced and unhealthy, particularly for children during years of rapid development; neural pathways are established that become hard to change. A great many activities which have a clear positive impact upon childhood development are being displaced – such as playing outdoors, reading books, playing music, sport, board games, and so on.

At Heritage we prize the habit of attention as the single most important learning habit a pupil can possess. Hours of digital stimulation undermines a pupil’s ability to concentrate for extended periods of time, thus hampering intellectual development and academic performance.

The purpose of Screen Free Week is to encourage healthy and balanced living, and to take seriously the risks of excessive screen time. Many families reported spending quality time doing new craft projects, building dens in the garden, and baking. Family dogs were given more walks and Y4 spent Friday night away on camp which was perfect. One Mother posted: ‘The screen fast gets more difficult every year, which is exactly why it is interesting and important to do it.’

In their French lesson, pupils in Y9 were asked their opinions about Screen Free Week and these were some of their responses:

‘A mon avis les nouvelles technologies ont des désavantages: les enfants sont vulnérables s’ils postent des renseignement sur eux-mêmes sans penser aux dangers. En plus, on se laisse facilement distraire.’ Zachary

‘J’ai beaucoup apprécié la semaine parce qu’il faisait très beau at je suis allé à la campagne avec ma famille pour faire du sport.’ Alexander

‘J’ai décidé de participer dans la semaine san écrans parce que je crois que je passe trop de temps devant la télé, sur les reséaux sociaux at sur mon portable.’ Léah

“North Yorkshire? In May? Take a Warm Coat” was the advice we received when planning this year’s Senior Camp. For those whose children went however, our visit to “God’s Own Country” could not have had better weather.
The camp started at 06:40hrs on Monday 22nd May, when Chris Evans kindly enrolled Heritage School into the ‘Good Morning Chris’ club on Radio 2. Thereafter it was all go, with days starting at around 06:00hrs and finishing around 23:00hrs for the adults every day.
This year we camped at the Kettleness centre owned by Cleveland Scouts. It is a truly beautiful setting on the North Yorkshire coast overlooking Runswick Bay, a beach on which we spent a lot of time.
This was the biggest ever Heritage Summer camp, with over 60 children and 10 adults to supervise them. Activities included 5 Duke of Edinburgh practice expeditions, white-water rafting, pony trekking, indoor climbing, fish and chips by the beach, a visit to the Yorvik viking centre in York and endless games of ‘throw the whistling torpedo thingy at Mr Appleyard’ – a game remains a mystery to those of us who have never played it.
As we all sat by the campfire on the final evening, the warm Yorkshire sun (yes, really) setting to the west and adding a wonderful pink glow to the undersides of the early evening clouds over the bay I reflected on the following:
Each year we create new anecdotes and memories. Some of which you will have already heard and some of which will come out in the weeks and months to come.
Each year we see a discernible, positive impact on individuals and groups. This manifests itself in many ways – an increase in self-confidence, strengthening of friendship groups or just people helping each other to find a lost sock. This creates more rounded individuals who are more resilient and self-sufficient, skills which modern society and the workplace require.
Finally, each year we seek to improve upon the last camp. So make sure your children are there next year because it may be the time that we absolutely nail it!
The School Summer camp programme started 7 years ago with a simple vision to provide an affordable outward bound experience. This vision can only be delivered with the co-operation of the wonderful staff and increasing numbers of Parent Volunteers for whom we can all be very grateful indeed. We could easily use commercial providers for the camp, probably tripling the cost. The question in my mind is would the camp be three times as good?
Thanks to (in alphabetical order): Mr Appleyard, Mr Bell, Mr Duckworth, Mr Fletcher, Mr Hulett, Dr Martin, Mrs Oakley, Mrs Puckett, Mrs Robson, Mrs Scarlatta and Mrs Zaldua