This second report on the Pymble Ladies’ College Wise Phone Initiative, based on data collected midway through the pilot year, confirms continued positive impacts on sleep among Pymble Wise Phone users. Additionally, research shows a positive impact on schoolwork management and classroom attention for students using these College-managed devices. The report also identifies risks associated with mobile phone and social media use and provides important insights for parents and educators. Perspectives from parents and the College Wellbeing team provide further insight into student wellbeing, and the application of a participatory social lab research methodology is examined.
DR SARAH LOCH AND VICTORIA ADAMOVICH, PYMBLE INSTITUTE
DR JON SAE-KOEW, CURTIN UNIVERSITY
INTRODUCTION
The Pymble Wise Phone Initiative
The launch of the Pymble Wise Phone Initiative in November 2024 empowered parents to exchange their daughters’ smartphones for, or to make their daughters’ first phone, a school-managed, restrictedfunction mobile phone. The interest amongst parents in Year 5 and 6 at the time of the launch was high, with parents requesting the College make the model opt-out, rather than optin, so as to normalise this different approach to phone use. The initiative aims to address the ubiquitous nature and detrimental effects of mobile phones in our society. Usage trends are seeing children of younger and younger ages using, or expecting to use, smartphones with full internet connectivity. The Pymble approach is to give families options with their phone choices in order to interrupt negative cycles of unregulated phone and internet browser use.
This approach has the capacity to make a positive impact in child and adolescent development, especially in the areas of learning, identity development, communication and relationship skills. In a survey response, a Year 6 parent echoed the College’s goal: ‘...having a collective approach so all children in the school are having a positive experience with the internet and phones is so important for their development’. It is the College’s hope that investing in our students’ lives through a different approach to phone usage can help them to make a more secure transition towards adulthood without the detrimental effects of cyberbullying, and exposure to exploitative and negative unfiltered content.
What sorts of issues are schools experiencing?
Principals and wellbeing leaders have been assisting students and parents manage unwanted outcomes of phone and online cyberbullying, image sharing, exclusion and screen addiction for many years without significant change to the root of the issue – the phone itself with its internet connection. The Pymble Wellbeing team reports that issues deriving from mobile phones, chat groups and social media can be complex. They can involve multiple students and sometimes students from multiple schools, and information can be shared instantaneously and publicly, without the capacity to contain or retrieve problematic, offensive and illegal material. The results of online actions taken by children, taking seconds to do, can be long lasting and have a profound impact on the child and family and the community around them.
Teachers recognise the difficulties families have in managing phone use which can be challenging in individual homes. The Pymble Wise Phone Initiative plays a role in supporting parents, and teachers are noting the complexity they experience;
“[I’m] hearing from parents that they find it really difficult to manage their daughters’ screen time. I think [the initiative is] fantastic because it’s given parents a tool to be able to do this. They can say it is supported by the school so they are not alone and it’s not just up to them”.
(Junior School leader, interview, May 2025)
Parent understanding of the issues that can arise is revealed in this
comment from a Year 6 parent who is aware of the tendency of students to, ‘unintentionally cause others to feel left out, stir the pot [and] perhaps lead some kids to feel as if they aren’t quite measuring up…’. Another Year 6 parent shared their daughter is now ‘more centred and calm without the noise of these text groups and chats’.
Members of Pymble’s counselling team explain some of the issues they observe, as shared in a focus group;
“It’s not black and white. There’s a blurring of the usage in and out of school time. There’ll be chats and messages that might start during lunch time but continue through into the evening. Students want to make sure they don’t miss a message ... There’s not a time when you can safely step away and not be online... and for some students, there’s an anxiety about ever stepping completely away from their phone”.
(College counsellor, focus group interview, May 2025)
“You may see groups of 12 to 14 year olds walking around and they’re all dressed the same way. They’re all wearing a white top, exactly the same kind of jeans and the same white sneakers. They do that online as well. It means that you’re kind of having to perform. Before, you had to perform during the school day and after the school day but now you have to perform online, too.”
(College counsellor, focus group interview, May 2025)
These observations of adolescent behaviour reflect the intense experience children and young people can have with mobile phones. In a focus group interview, a boarding supervisor shared her
observations of changes boarding staff have noticed since the Pymble Wise Phone Initiative began;
“A lot of times last year, we’ve got a couch outside and there’d be four girls lined up on the couch or all sitting, you know, squished in next to one another. But all with heads down on their phones. I don’t see that anymore there. There has been more social interaction as the year is progressing”.
(Boarding supervisor, focus group interview, May 2025)
The data collected for this phase of research reflect changes in awareness which is starting to bring student, teacher and parent views and experiences of phone usage together. A Junior School leader reflected on how students themselves are increasingly ‘aware of the pitfalls of technology’ and the goal of ‘having a balance’. A teacher in the Middle School team described the initiative as ‘a protective layer’ and reported on how some parents are thinking differently about mobile phone use for children. Considering the role of parents in leading the change, a Year 6 parent reflected on her own parenting;
“As a mum, I took the advice from the Wise Phone launch event to spend more quality time with my daughter... I think she used her phone for entertainment because she didn’t have my attention. Since I’ve been spending more time with her, she isn’t showing as much interest in social media anymore which is great”.
(Year 6 parent, survey response, June 2025)
Conveying a sense of empowerment, a member of the College Counselling team commented on
the value of the initiative from their professional perspective,
“We’re tipping the scales the other way and that feels brilliant, partly from my perspective as a psychologist and partly as an advocate for young people”.
(College counsellor, focus group interview, May 2025)
As the pilot initiative continues through the remainder of 2025, further data will be collected and used to help shape the program going forward.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This report addresses three core themes: how phone usage has evolved over the first half of year, whether student behaviours (such as sleep and focus and attention on school work) have changed due to the phone initiative, and how students’ internet usage and online risks compare to national statistics. The methodology involved an online survey for students and parents (Years 4-8), focus group and individual interviews with members College staff, and a participatory, studentfocused, social labs approach piloted with a Year 5 class.
Key findings indicate that the Pymble Wise Phone remains the dominant device for students in Years 4-7, with a significant proportion of students exclusively using it or using it in conjunction with a smartphone. Excluding Year 8 where uptake was low, Pymble Wise Phone-only users ranged from 36% (Year 6) to 57% (Year 4), rising to 67-75% when including dual-phone users. A shift towards smartphones occurred in Years 6 and 7, primarily among dualphone users, who cited the desire for group messaging and broader
internet and app access as reasons for returning to smartphones.
Of critical interest is knowing how our students use their phones. Our research finds that smartphone users across both Junior (Year 4-6) and Middle Schools (Year 7-8) spend significantly more time on their phones on school days than those involved in the Pymble Wise Phone initiative. The research shows that Pymble Wise Phone and no-phone users across the age groups studied are significantly more likely to have greater focus and attention on their school work than those with a smartphone. This important finding is paralleled by continued benefits in the amount of sleep students get when they keep their phones out of their bedrooms at night time. Pymble Wise Phone users also continue to report dedicating more time to alternative activities such as hobbies, playing with friends, reading and playing outdoors.
While Pymble students’ engagement in beneficial online activities (e.g. schoolwork) largely mirror national trends from the Mind the Gap report (2022), Pymble students report a lower incidence of sending photos or personal information to strangers compared to national figures. The frequency of seeing upsetting online content was also lower than national percentages. However, less than half of Pymble students in the study would tell a parent about a negative online experience, and a third of respondents said they would tell no one, with older students often preferring to ignore the problem, highlighting a need for continued and contextual education in this area.
Through interviews and focus groups with College staff, a spectrum of
insights are shared. Junior School staff report the most significant benefits in student behaviour changes, as well as a positive impact on their workload. Increased social interaction amongst boarding students and the decrease in intensity or obsession around phones is noted by boarding staff. In their survey responses, parents express strong support for the initiative, sharing their respect for the College’s role in making a ‘brave decision’ and taking a ‘collective approach’. Many parents also requested changes to the initiative to help onboard existing devices and align with household infrastructure.The piloting of the social labs methodology, aimed at involving students and teachers in the research process, has proved a valuable addition to research methods for this project. Our first experience with social labs demonstrates how research can facilitate student ownership and generate richer research questions.
RESEARCHING THE PYMBLE WISE
PHONE INITIATIVE - TIME 2
This is the second in series of research reports produced by the Pymble Institute into the Pymble Wise Phone initiative. The research questions are:
1. Has the usage of the phones changed?
2. Have there been changes to student behaviours in the areas of sleep, friendships, managing schoolwork, giving focus and concentration, and physical activity since the Pymble Wise Phone Initiative began?
3. How does the internet usage and online behaviour of Pymble students compare to nationwide statistics?
4. Data in this report draw from the
following sources:
• Online survey, Year 4 to 8, students and parents
• Focus group and individual interviews with College staff
• Social labs approach with a Year 5 Mathematics class
Online survey
The online survey used for Time 1 was adjusted for Time 2. A similar survey was given to students and parents with all participants remaining anonymous. Branching is used in the survey which is based on the phone/non-phone type the respondent selects. For example, if the respondent selects their phone type as a Pymble Wise Phone, the questions they subsequently answer will relate to this type of phone. The survey took around ten minutes to complete. The Time 2 survey had a much higher completion rate of Year 4 to 8 students than parents. We maintained the set of demographic and usage questions and added questions about online safety and screen time use. Questions from the Australian e-Safety Commissioner report, Mind the Gap (2022), were used to measure our school community against the national context.
Interviews with College staff
Group and one on one interviews with members of the Junior School, Middle School, Counselling and Boarding teams were held with Pymble Institute staff. Participants were invited to reflect on the impact the initiative was having on their student care work, and interactions with students and parents around phone use in general.
Social Labs with Year 5 students
Social labs help researchers explore ‘open-ended societal problems’
which develop ‘in the realm of public participation’ (Marschalek et al., 2022, p. 420). A trial of this methodology with a Year 5 Mathematics class affirmed the importance of student voice and action in this research area. We embedded the labs within lessons for a mathematics competition and students developed mathematical questions relating to phones and phone use. The social labs methodology allowed students’ research questions and inquiry processes being showcased, without detracting from curriculum time. This approach is likely to be more fully developed in subsequent research.
Methods of analysis
Quantitative and qualitative analysis techniques are used in this report. The qualitative analysis uses input from the open-ended comments in the survey, focus groups and one on one interviews. In-depth quantitative analysis was conducted by a research consultant with expertise in biostatistics. This extended analysis involved the use of statistical tests to explore the relationship between phone use types and key student outcomes.
An overview of the tests is found in the first report, Pymble Wise Phone initiative: Analysis of student and parent data, Phase 1 – February 2025 (Loch, Adamovich and SaeKoew, 2025, p.7). These include Chi-square goodness-of-fit tests to assess whether the distribution of phone types (Pymble Wise Phone only, smartphone only, or both) varied significantly within each year group. Chi-square tests of independence were used to examine associations between phone type and categorical wellbeing indicators such as sleep duration, physical activity, and whether students kept
their phones in their bedroom at night. Kruskal-Wallis H tests were used to investigate whether students’ self-reported ratings of friendship quality, schoolwork management, and classroom attention differed significantly across phone use groups. All analyses were also stratified by year level (Years 4–8) where possible, to explore patterns across developmental stages and schooling contexts.
The focus groups and interviews generated qualitative data. We spoke with eight people and asked openended questions which subsequently generated two themes - changes in student behaviour relating to phone usage and support for parents from the school. Participants received a Participant Information Sheet and gave verbal consent to participate and be audio-recorded. Participants’ confidentiality has been maintained with names de-identified in the final transcript and in this report. The interviews were conducted in Term 2, 2025, and participants received the questions in advance of the interviews. Transcripts were compiled by AI tools and were then adjusted by the researcher and sent back to interviewees for review.
The social labs were analysed by discussing the events within the classroom from the perspectives of researchers and teachers using a range of iterative data created by students in the class. Marschalek et al. (2022, p. 436) outline social labs as being useful to, ‘identify the gap between the current situations ... and the desired future and in that way defining the specific challenge to be addressed and to develop the means to address this challenge’. In this spirit, students themselves contributed to the data analysis
by creating and presenting their research journeys to answer their own questions. The researchers’ observations added a further layer of meaning to the context within which students formed their insights.
LITERATURE REVIEW
This literature review focuses on research into mobile phones, internet use, social media, risks of harm to children and young people, and parental involvement in children’s digital lives. The area is increasingly topical as the Australian Federal Government is currently expanding laws to delay the access under 16-year-olds have to social media. The Government’s rationale, championed by the Prime Minister, is that, ‘delaying access to social media ... until the age of 16 will protect young Australians at a critical stage of their development, giving them three more years to build real world connections and online resilience’ (Prime Minister of Australia, 2025).
Mobile phones in today’s world
Phone usage is increasingly raising concerns for parents and those working in education, psychology and health. Most children in Australia can access internet-enabled phones from a young age and many do so without guardrails. The material they encounter, and the algorithms generated, can present a mental health risk for children and adolescents. These can include poorer sleep outcomes, exposure to negative online material and behaviours, issues arising in the social media ecosystem and addiction to online sites and to the phone itself. The Australian e-Safety Commission Mind the Gap report (2022) finds, ‘exposure to negative online content and sexual content is prevalent among young people
aged 14 to 17 years’ and notes that ‘many parents underestimate the prevalence of children’s negative online experiences, and many are not aware of their teens’ exposure to negative content.’
Harm prevention through delaying the acquisition of mobile phones and subsequent management of phones through childhood and early adolescence should be a concern of all who have responsibility for children’s health, wellbeing and education. The importance of this issue cannot be understated as 91% of young Australians (14 to 17) own a phone (Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, 2023) and mobile phones are the most prevalent way children access social media (Mind the Gap, 2022). Parental involvement in their child’s digital life is recognised as a preventative strategy, but many parents find effective involvement difficult to achieve. The Mind the Gap report (2022, p.90) states, ‘more than half (57%) of parents with a child aged 8–10 implement at least one restrictive online measure. This figure drops to 27% of parents with a child aged 11–13 and to 16% of parents with a child aged 14–17’.
Another perspective on phone use by children and adolescents is highlighted by researchers considering children’s viewpoints and rights (Livingstone et al., 2018). The United Nations Rights of the Child Declaration (UNICEF, 2025) reminds us that children have the right of expression, to play, to information and to privacy. In the contemporary age, researchers are asking how these rights are exercised online and what right children have to protection from harm in digital environments? (Global Kids
Online, 2025). Researchers are also advocating for children themselves to contribute to policy in this area in ways that ‘disrupt ‘adultist’ perspectives and set out a child rights approach to internet governance’ (Livingstone et al., 2024, p. 414).
Parents and phone management
Parents are regarded as the biggest allies in supporting their children’s phone use and reducing problematic usage levels, but researchers acknowledge a high level of intervention is needed for parents ‘to be proactively involved’ (AbiJaoude et al., 2020, p. 139). Using international studies, Abi-Jaoude et al. (2020) ultimately identify a need to reduce children’s phone use time, rather than insist they completely abstain from the online world. Using data from a Swedish study, Sorbring (2014) highlights parents’ anxieties in managing phones and other devices are grounded in uncertainty of their own digital skills and perceptions of their children’s usage. Sorbring (2014) finds that when parents need to support their child through a negative online experience (most often generated by mobile phone use) their level of anxiety increases as the complexity of the issue can be high and their ability to rectify it can be low.
Cyberbullying and phones
Cyberbullying is a form of bullying with the features of intent to harm, a power imbalance, repeated behaviour and harmful communication delivered through an electronic platform or device (Field, 2018). The impacts of cyberbullying can be severe. In Australian, the Online Safety Act (2021) is overseen by the eSafety Commissioner with the goal of protecting adults and children. As more children are exposed to the internet and become
reliant on it for education, leisure and communication, additional protections are required for children to promote internet safety and reduce cyberbullying behaviours.
Beyond the government level, schools are frequently seen as the site where online safety should be taught. The Digital Around the World (2022) report states that school anti-cyberbullying policies should create, ‘a positive school culture, prevention and intervention strategies, support systems, clear definitions and reporting procedures’. When parents are mostly responsible for providing phones to their children and parents can struggle to monitor and manage phone use, this places schools in a difficult position in relation to building a positive culture of phone usage.
Addiction to phones and mental health concerns
Internet addiction is defined by a pattern of excessive internet usage which impacts domains of life including sleep, study or relationships, and contributes to mental health problems including stress, anxiety or depression (Antoniac et al., 2024). The psychology field has developed a Smartphone Addiction Scale which is used in research alongside other scales such as the European Cyberbullying Intervention Project Questionnaire and the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale. Findings by Wu et. al (2022), using these scales, identify addictive usage of mobile phones amongst research participants in Chinese Middle Schools in 2021. They describe mobile phone addiction as, ‘a behavioral addiction in which users have psychological and behavioral problems due to the abuse of mobile phones’ (Wu et al., 2022, p.1).
Their research identifies a positive correlation between high levels of mobile phone addiction and high school students’ depression (Wu et al., 2022), and they highlight that cyberbullying can occur from influenced students who then cyberbully other students in an attempt to ‘alleviate their depression’. These researchers also reference further significant concerns generated by heavy mobile phone and problematic internet use; specifically, depression, perceived stress, loneliness, and social anxiety (Iranzo et al., 2019; Bochkareva & Strenin, 2021).
Xiao et al. (2025), researching United States teenagers, examine the proposition that, ‘teenagers who show signs of being addicted to social media, mobile phones or video games are at greater risk of suicidal behaviour and emotional problems. They report on a study which tracked more than 4,000 adolescents for four years. The study found that, ‘that nearly one in three American teens reported increasingly addictive use of social media or mobile phones. Those whose use followed an increasingly addictive trajectory had roughly double the risk of suicidal behaviour at the end of the study’.
A study of Korean adolescents researched the associations between ‘smartphone overdependence (smartphone addiction) and suicidal ideation’ (Shinetsetseg et al., 2022). South Korea, similar to other countries with a high level of advanced technology development, has noticed social changes in stemming from fast transitions to smartphones, especially amongst adolescents. The National Information Society Agency of South Korea (2012) found, ‘the percentage
of smartphone addiction was 8.4%, which was found to be higher than the internet addiction rate of 7.7%’. Further data were obtained from the results of the 2020 Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey with 40, 000 participants which found, ‘adolescents with high-risk smartphone use showed a significant risk of suicidal ideation and suicide attempt compared to the adolescents who were general users.
Phone use and social media
The most common access to the internet for children is via their phones and this brings a range of benefits and challenges (Mind the Gap, 2022). A significant issue with smartphones is the access they allow to social media. On the beneficial side, this can provide helpful information to young people on a range of topics through a direct and private mechanism. Social media platforms, however, coupled with the instantaneous communication possibilities afforded by mobile phones allow people to post, share, see and absorb content through social media without filters and without a break in the volume.
Jonathan Haidt’s popular book, The anxious generation: How the great
rewiring of childhood is causing an epidemic of mental illness (2024), highlights the impacts of the rapidity of viewing influential, and possibly harmful, material. Abi-Jaoude, Naylor and Pignatiello (2020, p. 136) identify connections between phone use, social media access and mental health concerns. They explain, ‘social media and smartphone use may be contributing to the rising burden of mental distress among youth ... increase in mental distress, selfinjurious behaviour and suicidality’.
This research also identifies a gender differentiation where the ‘dose–response relationship’ shows ‘the effects appear to be greatest among girls’ (Abi-Jaoude, Naylor and Pignatiello, 2020). Mental health disorders can be more prevalent amongst girls, with research into smartphone addiction identifying, ‘higher levels of anxiety and smartphone addiction in comparison to males’ (Al Qaderiet al., 2023). Abi-Jaoude, Naylor and Pignatiello (2020) reference examples of extreme content children may see on social media including, ‘thoughts of suicidality and self-harm behaviours’ and the ‘sharing images of self-inflicted
injuries’. They stress that this material is commonly posted, it contains no graphic content warnings and adults may be completely unaware of what children are creating, posting and engaging with. The researchers record concern with the commentary associated with harmful content stating, that comments, ‘rarely offered encouragement or discussion of recovery’ and instead romanticised mental illness and normalised self-harm (Abi-Jaoude, Naylor and Pignatiello, 2020, p. 137).
RESEARCH
PROJECT METHODS –TIME 2, JUNE 2025
Data collection – Online survey
The online survey for Year 4 to 8 students and parents was conducted at the end of Term 2 (June 2025), the midway point of the first year of the Pymble Wise Phone Initiative. Responses were anonymous so we do not know if the same people responded to both Time 1 and Time 2 surveys, but the Time 2 respondents were drawn from the same pool as those invited to participate in Time 1.
Students completed the survey under teacher supervision which ensured
Table 1: Participation of students and parents in Time 2 survey (June 2025)
Table 2: Survey instrument content for Time 2 survey
Mind the Gap (2022) questions on Internet Usage: What device, Activities online, Risky online behaviour, Upsetting online behaviours and how to deal with it
a high participation rate (see Table 1). Conversely, parent participation remained lower than Time 1 levels. Newsletter and email reminders were sent and phone calls made to parents by administrative staff to remind them to complete the survey. The open-ended responses indicate that parents are largely satisfied with the initiative and the many channels available to parents in Term 1 to give feedback may account for a low uptake of parents completing the Time 2 survey.
Literature used in question design In the Time 2 survey, questions about internet usage and safety were added to give insight into the broader context of these areas. We modelled questions in this section on those used in the Australian Government’s
eSafety Commissioner report, Mind the Gap: Parental awareness of children’s exposure to risks online (2022). This report collected data in 2021 from a nationwide sample of over 3,500 young people aged 8 to 17 and their parents. The survey was conducted as part of the eSafety Commissioner’s work with Global Kids Online, an international project which creates cross-national evidence about children’s online risks and opportunities.
The Global Kids Online (2025) questionnaire asked what digital skills children had, if they had access to the internet, perceptions of harms and benefits from going online, and what skills they developed and used in the online realm. It placed these results in context of the country the
young person was in, as well as their social context within that country, and the degree to which the young person’s identity would be seen as resilient or vulnerable.
The questions we used came from three key areas reported in the Mind the Gap report (2022), specifically; beneficial activities online, risky online behaviours, and upsetting online experiences and what children did about it. By using similar questions to these used in a large research study, we can compare the behaviour of Pymble students against national statistics. The results, similar to the goals of the eSafety Commission, can help schools develop age-appropriate resources and messaging for parents, carers and teacher to use with children.
RESULTS AND ANALYSIS – ONLINE SURVEY DATA
RESEARCH QUESTION 1
Has the usage of phones changed? Have students switched between the Pymble Wise Phone and smartphones, and do students maintain two phones?
The time between the Time 1 survey (February) and Time 2 survey (June) was four months. We wanted to understand whether students’ habits and usage had changed over this period. Had the novelty of the new phone worn off? Had students gone back to using their smartphone? Of particularly interest was what happened the dual phone user group.
FINDING 1
Pymble Wise Phone users are still largest group across Years 4 to 7 in Time 2
Pymble Wise Phone users still represent the largest user group across Years 4 to 7, compared to smartphone users. The Year 8 cohort did not have a big take up of the Pymble Wise Phones since the launch and their usage data
remained largely unchanged in Time 2. For Years 4 to 7 in Time 2, however, students exclusively using the Pymble Wise Phone are still the dominant group. If we include the dual phone group – those who use the Pymble Wise Phone and a smartphone - the Pymble Wise Phone usage numbers are very high across Years 4 to 7: Year 4 (75%), Year 5 (70%), Year 6 (70%), Year 7 (67%), Year 8 (20%), as seen in Table 3. Statistical testing confirms this pattern of phone usage across the year groups.
Since the Time 1 data collection, a music streaming app has been added to Year 6 students’ Pymble Wise Phones, along with the College Portal and school email apps. Feedback amongst Year 6 indicates this has been a very positive change.
FINDING 2
The move to smartphones in Time 2 for Year 7 students Statistical analysis shows that Year 7 students who currently use smartphones were more likely than other year groups to report having changed their phone type since the last survey in February. Specifically,
26% of current Year 7 students who participated in the survey and used a smartphone reported this change. All the other year groups (Years 4, 5, 6 and 8) showed more stable patterns, with fewer reporting a change in phone type use during the same period regardless of their phone type usage.
This move may indicate that students tried the College-managed device but, by mid-year, had returned to or starting using smartphones. This finding suggests a key age period within which to focus parent and student education around alternative phones. Some explained their switch to smartphones for practical reasons such as wanting their devices to connect to others in the family. Others made the switch because they wanted to access the internet and other apps not available on the Pymble Wise Phone;
“I used the smartphone more often because it is easier to use in general and there are apps I need for some activities outside of school that are not accessible on the wise phone.” (Year 7 student, survey response, June 2025)
Table 3: Year 4 to 8 students’ phone usage by type, Time 1 vs Time 2
Table 4: Time spent on phone on school days by Pymble Wise Phone vs Smartphone users
Year 4-6 students who spend more than 1 hour on phone a day on school days
Year 7-8 students who spend more than 1 hour on phone a day on school days
Table 5: Devices used by students as reported by Year 5 student researchers
Student A
Student B
Student C
FINDING 3
Smartphone users spend more time on their phones than Pymble Wise Phone users
For both Junior School and Middle School respondents, those with smartphones are likely to spend more time on their phones on school days than Pymble Wise Phone users (see Table 4). Within the Junior School smartphone users group of 147 students, 40% spend more than one hour on their smartphones a day compared to 15% of Pymble Wise Phone users. For Middle School smartphone users, 74% spend more than one hour on their smartphones per day, compared to 43% of Pymble Wise Phone users.
Using chi-square test of independence, among students using the Pymble Wise Phone exclusively, time allocation patterns varied significantly between Junior (Years
4–6) and Middle School (Years 7–8) students. Junior School students were significantly more likely to report spending more time with family and reading, while middle years students more often reported less time in both domains. Similarly, younger students were more likely to report increased time spent on hobbies, playing outdoors, and with friends, whereas Middle School students typically indicated no change or a decrease in these areas. In contrast, time spent on social media and online gaming did not differ significantly between groups, with most students reporting no change or less time spent. Notably, older students were more likely to report spending increased time on other devices, while younger students were more likely to report decreased use. In terms of sleep, younger students were significantly more likely to report sleeping more since receiving their College-managed phone, whereas older students
were more likely to report sleeping less. These findings should be interpreted with caution due to small counts in some response categories, particularly among Middle School students reporting decreased time.
FINDING 4
Pymble Wise Phone users spend more time away from devices
A key finding of the first report was that Pymble Wise Phone users spent less time on phones, social media, online gaming and other devices than smartphone users. In Time 2, Pymble Wise Phone users again reported spending more time away from phones and other devices and more time on hobbies, with friends, playing outdoors, reading and sleeping.
FINDING 5
Junior School students use the iPad to access social media
While focusing on limiting access to social media on phones, we cannot
Devices used Pymble Wise Phone Laptop
Pymble Wise Phone iPad
Pymble Wise Phone iPad Smartwatch Smartphone
Figure 1: Devices students used to access social media by rank 1-2-3 during Time 2
Year 4, 5 and 6
Smartphone
or desktop)
Smart
Year 7 and 8
ignore students’ usage on other devices, including iPads, which are the preferred device to access social media for Year 4 to 6 students (see Figure 1). Parents confirmed this trend by reporting in the parent survey that their daughters’ preferred devices through which to access social media was the iPad for Years 4 to 6, and the smartphone for Years 7 to 8.
The Year 5 students involved in the social lab sessions also identified how pivotal the iPad is for students to watch videos, play games and contact friends. One Year 5 student research group explained how many devices students in their grade may use, which can be up to four devices, depending on whether they are at school, home, or on the move (see Table 5).
In conclusion, have students changed their phone usage from Time 1 to Time 2, and what phones (and other devices) are students now using?
The data reveal that students in Years 4 to 7 are still predominantly following the Pymble Wise Phone Initiative. There has been little change in Year 8 where students had a low take-up and mostly use smartphones. There has been transition from the Pymble Wise Phone to a smartphone, coming primarily from the dual phone user group and mainly in the Year 7 cohort.
RESEARCH QUESTION 2
Have there been changes to student behaviours and wellbeing as a result of the Pymble Wise Phone Initiative?
FINDING 6
Significant difference in students’ ability to manage schoolwork, and give focus and attention, according to phone type
Analyses reveal statistically significant differences in students’ (Years 4-8) reported capacity to manage their schoolwork and in their reported attention in the classroom. Students who report using only a smartphone report significantly greater difficulty in their reported capacity to manage their schoolwork in comparison to those students who report not using a phone or who report using a Pymble Wise Phone. There were no significant differences between students who were using both a smartphone and the Pymble Wise Phone in their perceived capacity to manage their schoolwork compared to students who did not use a phone, a Pymble Wise Phone or a smartphone. Students with no phone report significantly better attention that all other phone use types
Table 6: Students who got adequate sleep per night by phone type
2 Students with a Pymble Wise Phone only (n = 268)
Table 7: Students who got at least sixty minutes of physical activity per day by phone type
Table 8: Comparison of Mind the Gap national data and Pymble Ladies’ College survey participants (students) Mind the Gap survey (Australian, national)
Age 8 - 17 9 - 14
Gender
Location Metropolitan and rural Metropolitan, with 42 boarders (majority of whom are from regional and rural areas)
Socioeconomic
High, medium and low
High
Pymble’s ICSEA (Index of Community Socio-educational Advantage) from myschools.edu.au is in the 99% percentile
(Pymble Wise Phone, smartphone, and both) and Pymble Wise Phone users report significantly better attention than smartphone users. No significant differences between students who were using both phones (smartphone and Pymble Wise Phone) were found in terms of their attention compared to Pymble Wise Phone and smartphone users only. Analysis indicates no significant differences across phone use types when analysing Junior and Middle School students separately. This may be partly due to a significant loss in statistical power when analysing separately.
FINDING 7
Pymble Wise Phone Initiative helps students get more sleep
A significant association was found between phone use type and the likelihood of achieving the recommended amount of sleep. According to the 24 Hour Movement Guidelines (Australian Government Department of Health, 2017, 2019a), children between the ages of five and thirteen need between nine and eleven hours of uninterrupted sleep per night. Table 6 shows the percentage of students by phone type who met the Department of Health’s guidelines for adequate sleep per night. On average, students who reported using only a Pymble Wise Phone were more likely to get the recommended nine or more hours of sleep (43.3%) compared to those who used a smartphone (26.2%) or both types of phones (36.0%). Conversely, smartphone-only users were the most likely to get less than nine hours of sleep (73.8%), followed by dual-phone users (64.0%) and Pymble Wise Phone users (56.7%).
FINDING 8
No significant difference in the rate of exercise by phone type
Statistical tests confirm there is no significant difference in exercise activity between students using the Pymble Wise Phone and smartphones, as seen in Table 7. The Australian recommendation is that children and young people have at least sixty minutes of moderate to vigorous activity every day (Department of Health 2017, 2019a). According to national data, 23% of Australian children aged 5 to 14 undertook the recommended sixty minutes of physical activity every day.
In conclusion, have there been changes to student behaviours and wellbeing as a result of the Pymble Wise Phone Initiative?
In an important finding, positive changes are occurring with students’ attention to school work and their ability to focus showing benefits for Pymble Wise Phone and no phone users who rate their skills significantly higher on these measures than peers with smartphones. These areas are vital for effective learning and emotional regulation and we look forward to undertaking further research in these domains. The data continues to show positive impacts on students’ sleep habits. In other areas, including friendships and physical health, changes have not been observed. In addition to the short period of time between Times 1 and 2, there are other variables that impact friendships and exercise and more specific investigation of these areas may occur at a later time.
Research Question 3
How does the internet usage and online behaviour of Pymble students compare with nationwide statistics, based on the Mind the Gap: Parental awareness of children’s exposure to risks online (2022) report?
This research question sought to compare Pymble students’ online behaviours against similar Australian data, through comparison with data in the Australian Government’s eSafety Commissioner’s report, Mind the Gap: Parental awareness of children’s exposure to risks online (2022). This report collected data in 2021 from a nationwide sample of over 3,500 young people aged 8 to 17 and their parents.
The findings should be viewed with a caveat that we are unable to compare like for like because the statistics from Mind the Gap are from a much larger sample size, including both males and females, from a broader age group and including students from low, middle and high socio-economic backgrounds (see Table 8). These variables impact on reported behaviours and, as such, we are unable to make a direct comparison of Pymble Ladies’ College statistics with national figures. Rather, we look to a ‘pattern of responding’ and discuss whether our own results reflect the national pattern. Some questions are directly based on the Mind the Gap questionnaire but others have been adjusted for the Time 2 survey, as indicated in Tables 9 and 10.
The questions in this section analyse the key areas of:
• Beneficial activities online
• Risky online behaviours
• Upsetting online experiences and what children did about it
What device are students using to go online?
Figure 2 reveals the devices students use ‘daily or almost daily’, ‘several times a day’ and ‘almost all the time’. For all Pymble students across Years 4 to 8 who responded to the
Figure
2:
Devices Year 4-8 students use to access the internet
Smartphone
Computer (laptop or desktop)
Tablet (iPad)
Smart watch
Table 9: What young people do on the internet
Table 10: Risky online behaviour
Engaging in risky online behaviours weekly or more often
Sent a photo or video of myself to someone I have never met face-to-face
Sent personal information to someone I have never met
Sent personal information or photo to someone I have never met face-to-face *
Added people to my friends or contacts I have never met faceto-face
Mind the Gap Australia wide 3500 respondents Age 8-17
Mind the Gap Australia wide 3500 respondents Age 8-17
Pymble Ladies’ College 766 respondents Age 9-14
Pymble survey combined the two MTG statements into one: sent personal information or photo
survey, the devices most used to access the internet were a computer (desktop or laptop), followed by a smartphone, then a tablet (iPad) and, lastly, a smart watch.
Breaking down the devices by year group, the results show a shift from the iPad in Years 4 to 6 to the computer in Years 7 to 8. These results can be explained by the College’s device policy where students in Junior School use iPads and switch to a laptop in the Middle School. Noting the high use of the smartphone, which is not a device on which students can generally complete schoolwork, it is likely that students use it for internet access beyond doing schoolwork.
Smartwatches are the fourth most used device for internet access with usage the highest amongst Year 4 to 6 students. From the social labs data generated by Year 5 students, as many as 50% of the class have a smartwatch (see Table 15). A notable
finding by the students was the similarity in smartwatch and Pymble Wise Phone functionality which both help students communicate with their parents but without high levels of internet and social media access.
Children can engage in beneficial activities online
Children are going online to learn, play and socialise. According to the Mind the Gap report (2022), the majority of children use the internet to watch video clips, learn new information, including about mental and physical health, to play games and access social media. Table 9 compares national statistics on internet usage with what Pymble students self-report about what they do on the internet.
Observing the patterns of reporting, Pymble students largely mirror national statistics in areas of internet usage during a typical week. Both data sets indicate the same top three reasons for going online being to watch video clips, complete
schoolwork, and to search for and learn something new.
Children can engage in risky online behaviours
According to the Mind the Gap report (2022), significant numbers of Australian children have participated in risky online behaviours (see Table 10). Results indicate, concerningly, that 55% have communicated with strangers online and 11% have sent a photo or video of themselves to someone they have never met face to face. That number increases for girls compared to boys, with 14% of girls indicating they have sent a photo or video of themselves to someone they have never met face to face, weekly or more often. Compared to the national statistics, only 2% of Pymble respondents reported sending a photo or information of themselves to someone they have never met face to face. However, in both cohorts, the likelihood of meeting strangers online increased with age, and the pattern
Table 11: Frequency of seeing something negative online in the past year
Experience of being bothered by something that happened online weekly or more often
Table 12: Strategies children use to deal with negative online content
Table 13: Strategies children use to deal with negative online content
Figure 3: Where do Pymble students see online, mean-on-purpose (bullying) behaviour?
Year 4
By mobile phone calls
By messages sent to their phone
On a media sharing platform
On a social media networking site
In a group chat In an online game
By mobile phone calls
By messages sent to their phone
On a media sharing platform
On a social media networking site In a group chat In an online game
Year 5
By mobile phone calls
By messages sent to their phone
On a media sharing platform
On a social media networking site
In a group chat In an online game
Year 6
was evident in Pymble’s results. Behaviours such as, ‘looking for new friends on the internet’ and ‘adding people to my friends or contacts I have never met face-to-face’, increase in the Year 6 to Year 8 age range.
Children can have negative experiences online
According to the Mind the Gap report (2022), many children have had negative experiences online. The Pymble data reveal that almost
50% of respondents have seen something online that made them feel uncomfortable or scared in the past year. However, the majority (54%) have ‘never’ seen something upsetting and for those who have, the frequency is lower than the national percentage (see Table 11).
When children have a bad experience online, who do they turn to for help? What strategies do they employ?
The Mind the Gap report (2022) indicates that many children take actions to respond to a negative online experience. The most common step is to tell a parent of an occurrence, with 67% of respondents saying they would take this action but only 42% of Pymble respondents saying they would do the same (see Table 12). This finding highlights the importance of parental awareness that bad online experiences can happen and that strategies of how
Figure 3: Where do Pymble students see online, mean-on-purpose (bullying) behaviour?
Year 7
Year 8
to proactively support their child and be available when help is needed are important. The Pymble cohort may be less proactive in dealing with negative online content or, conversely, they may approach situations with skills and knowledge of what to do themselves. Pymble students are much more likely, however, to report a negative online experience to a teacher than the national average. This positive action and reflects a high level of cybersafety education and trust. The Pymble Ladies’ College data in Table 13 drills further into this question to reveal that ‘ignoring the problem’ was a strategy most frequently employed by students in Year 6. This highlights a need for the College and parents to provide more guidance and education to remind students they have a range of strategies to deal with negative online content. Year 4 and 5 students are most likely to report to parents or teachers and Year 7 and 8 students are most likely to respond by ‘blocking the person’. This may be immediate, direct and assertive but could lead to other conflicts if not resolved.
Where do Pymble students experience online, mean-onpurpose (bullying) behaviour?
According to the Mind the Gap eSafety report (2022), just under half of surveyed children (45%) reported being treated in a hurtful or nasty way online – in other words, they were victims of cyberbullying. The data reveal that 26% have treated someone else in a hurtful way, meaning they could be cyberbullying perpetrators. In the Pymble data, just over fifty percent of Pymble respondents (Year 4 to 8) report ‘seeing someone being treated in a harmful, mean-on-purpose way online in the past year’. This figure
rose to 60% in Years 7 and 8. Online games for Years 4 to 6 represent the platform where students see and experience ‘mean on purpose’ or cyberbullying behaviour. Figure 3 explains this increase, with 39% of Year 4 respondents seeing it in online games, increasing to 52% of Year 5 and 50% of Year 6 respondents. For Junior School students, online games are the main platform for seeing hurtful behaviour, according to the Time 2 survey.
Amongst Year 7 and 8 Pymble students, online bullying is more prevalent on social media platforms than online games (see Figure 4). For Year 7 students, 49% of respondents report seeing cyberbullying in group chats, followed by 40% who report messages being sent directly to their phones by text messages. This suggests the negative behaviour comes from someone they know. For Year 8 students, the most likely occurrence of cyberbullying occurs on media sharing platforms such as Youtube, Instagram and Tiktok, and may come in the form of comments from people students don’t know at all, as well as those they know.
How does the internet usage and online behaviour of Pymble students compare with nationwide statistics?
In some areas, Pymble students’ online behaviour compares favourably with national data, including in beneficial usage and some areas of online safety. There are some areas which reflect a need for greater education and awareness, including further ways to handle negative online experiences, including cyberbullying.
RESULTS
AND ANALYSIS –INTERVIEWS AND FOCUS GROUPS
Insights from College staff
The second form of data collection comes from focus groups and interviews held with members of the College’s wellbeing team with responsibility for the year groups studied. The insights analysed in this section come from eight staff who shared their perspectives in two focus groups and two individual interviews. The themes that emerged in the analysis build a picture of two areas most prevalent for staff; namely, changes in student behaviour relating to phone usage and consideration of how the College can support parents in their children’s phone use and online behaviour.
Theme
1 – Changes in students’ phone usage habits and behaviours
The Pymble Wise Phone Initiative involves educating students about phone usage with the aim of empowering them to change their habits. A Junior School teacher commented on the education her students have been experiencing in Wellbeing lessons (the Compass program) and how it has been building a consistent message;
“I know the girls got that messaging through the Compass programs and through the Digital Learning Leaders. They’ve also had more general cyber safety talks but I think that the messaging has been clear about the importance of not too much screen time, the importance of sleep, true outdoors movement, all of those things. So, they’re quite aware of it”.
A change of habits since introducing the Pymble Wise Phone Initiative is noted by Boarding staff who reflected on a change in intensity within the Year 7 students since the
launch of the initiative. Of the current mood in the Year 7 Boarding House, a staff member reflected on the morning routine:
“The girls ... were obsessed with getting their phones last year at the earliest possible time. We would have girls who would intentionally wake up early ... to have everything done immaculately so that they could get on the phone from 7am. It was intense and the girls were obsessed with getting the staff to do a room check so that they could then have their phone. And then they would go and sit ... and just be on their phone. Some of them might have been texting. Some of them might have been chatting to their parents, but for a lot of the time, they were just scrolling through their phone. So, this year, we haven’t had that intensity ... So that’s been a big change and just far less tension in the house”.
The College’s outdoor education program for Year 9 students at the Vision Valley campus sees all students experience a technology detox while they participate in a month-long, residential program. A College Counsellor drew a connection between what the students’ experience at this program and the inherent value of the College designing tech-free and less-tech experiences for the girls. The team has students reflecting on what it’s like to participate in the Vision Valley program, noting that students, ‘didn’t realise the hold that my phone or that technology had over me’, and that, ‘I didn’t realise I could go without [my phone] and actually feel really good’. The counsellor points out the importance of expanding technology-free opportunities as a way of altering the current status quo,
highlighting the value of, ‘anything that creates more agency for the girls themselves, for the family’.
The Middle School team support efforts to delay social media usage and identify the value when they see more connections being made within students in the year group.
One of the staff noted the ‘transfer throughout the year group’ as the Pymble Wise Phone Initiative was implemented. Although there is a policy of all phones remaining in students’ school bags during the day, the Middle School team can still face phone-related issues in the playground so changes in behaviour and new habit-forming needs to be ongoing. One team member reflected,
“I think [phone issues during the day have] reduced this year ... I would say we’ve had less overt usage because the College has made a stand. [Students know] it is not an acceptable thing”.
Theme 2 – Support for parents from the College
A key goal of the Pymble Wise Phone Initiative is to assist parents to manage phone use in an easier way. A Junior School teacher described a typical escalation which can see both students and parents in a difficult situation. The Pymble Wise Phone Initiative is assisting in managing such incidents:
“[Situations] get worse because the girls don’t understand the concept of text messaging and tone and body language ... They’re not yet equipped, socially and emotionally, to be able to manage those things. ...Hearing from parents that they find it really difficult to put in place boundaries and manage their daughters’ screen
time ... it’s given parents a tool to be able to do this”.
A Junior School Wellbeing leader shared that parents feel relieved with the support available and that her ‘parent conversations have been really positive’:
“The number of parents I spoke to who said that they were excited to almost have the school be the bad guy, to take away the pressure from them ... I know that parents are worried about technology and the impact on their children. So, we’re giving them a tool, a strategy, that they can use. They said if everyone’s on board then we can help each other out”.
A Middle School leader gives an example which reflects similar sentiment;
“In Year 7, one of the things we have to deal with is actually giving parents parameters and ideas on how they can enforce phone restrictions. A lot of it is educating parents such as, ‘you can tell your daughter it has to be put away when we’re at the dinner table’. So, you have to establish boundaries and be confident to maintain them”.
The Counselling team are aware of how different the world is for parents who did not grow up with phones, compared to the world their children are navigating. One counsellor observes this is a relatively ‘rapid and dramatic shift’:
“We get a lot of parents who are feeling really disempowered at the moment and, when they’re disempowered, that’s when they tend to reach towards unhelpful strategies, either stepping way back
and saying, ‘I can’t. I don’t feel like I know what to do, so I’ll do nothing’ or perhaps going towards more punitive methods”.
A member of the College Counselling team shared the benefits they observe through the initiative when working through issues with parents:
“In the past, we’ve talked about the principles of healthy tech use and sometimes we direct [parents] towards a website or give them an information flyer which might have recommendations about what tech is appropriate, or not appropriate, at certain ages for young people. The initiative has meant there’s something practical we can give to parents: “Have you considered the Wise Phone? Is your child part of the Wise Phone program?” And it’s nice to be able to give parents something really practical, not just a principle”.
What do these themes tell us about the Pymble Wise Phone Initiative? Overall, insights into student phone usage behaviours and support for
parents are beginning to show promising change in the first six months of the initiative, especially in the Junior School. The Junior School team report the biggest benefits to student behaviour changes which are also having a positive impact on staff workload in relation to managing incidents of online mean-on-purpose behaviour and issues relating to social media use. This is likely to be largely due to higher adoption rates of the Pymble Wise Phone in the younger age groups and higher levels of parent oversight and involvement in their daughters’ routines.
We also identify tangential impacts across other parts of the College, including counselling and the outdoor education program where behaviour and knowledge shifts in students, staff and parents may lead to the formation of new approaches to connection, relationships and activities. In the Middle School and Boarding School, College Wellbeing teams still support students and parents with a range of issues impacting adolescent students. Technology and phones are at the
heart of some issues, and not others. The presence of alternative devices (school laptops, iPads), social media accounts and other wellbeing challenges (including mental health and family concerns) mean phone use can be a significant part of an issue or it can be on the fringes or not involved at all.
The Pymble Wise Phone Initiative’s support for parents, wellbeing leaders, boarding staff and school counsellors, however, remains an important theme across the research. The program offers an alternative which supports parents and College staff in their efforts to build effective home and school connections.
RESULTS AND ANALYSIS – SOCIAL LABS WITH A YEAR 5 CLASS
Hearing student voice through a social labs methodology
Social labs are a participatory research method used to explore issues, challenges and opportunities relating to a social condition or activity (Swist et al., 2022). Using social labs in this research
Pymble Institute presentation on Time 1 results to the Year 5 class
Input and ideas generation amongst students and teacher
Refining the research question for each group
Pymble Institute support and observation
Collection
Pymble Institute support and observation
Presentation of results to Pymble Institute staff and reflections with the Year 5 class
Student journalling occurs throughout, including changes of direction with research question, data collection difficulties, results and analysis.
Table 14: Social Labs/Mathematics Association of NSW sessions
recognises our commitment to involving students in both research and practice by creating formal channels through which we listen to students’ ideas and learn from students’ experiences. Additionally, as researchers in a school, we have a goal of showcasing youth participatory research methods and sought this opportunity to explore the potential of social labs through a pilot project.
Due to limited time and the challenges of conducting research alongside class time, we identified the value in working with only one year group, Year 5, for this pilot phase of a new methodology. We began communicating with the Year 5 teachers about the research and identified one teacher who was running a student-lead mathematics competition organised by the Mathematical Association of NSW (MANSW). The competition allows students from Kindergarten to Year 12 in New South Wales to enter a mathematics project on a topic of their choosing (Mathematical Association of NSW, n.d). The investigation must explore a reallife problem, collect data, analyse results and present the findings. We decided to fuse the social labs methodology with the mathematics competition to enable students to design and research their own mathematical inquiries around the topic of phones. We recognise the support of the class teacher and the commitment of her students in making the social lab research possible.
The MANSW/Social Lab workshops
The first session involved Pymble Institute researchers sharing findings from the Time 1 results with the class. This generated discussion and
helped students brainstorm ideas for their MANSW project. We explained different data collection methods and demonstrated functions including tables and graphs. The students worked on their research once a week for five weeks and recorded their progress, questions and challenges in a journal; a requirement of the MANSW investigation. Table 14 shows the design of the five sessions held in Term 2 and 3, 2025 with the Year 5 class.
In Sessions 1 and 2, the teacher and Pymble Institute staff worked together to provide background about the Pymble Wise Phone Initiative to students, as well as give a lesson on research skills to support the mathematics inquiry process. By using data from Year 5 students and parents who responded to the Time 1 questionnaire, the results were more meaningful to the students and gave them reason to dig deeper. The skills students developed in relation to the research process included defining key words, strategies for brainstorming, turning thoughts into critical questions, considering ethics and permission to ask research questions, and telling a story with data.
The Pymble Institute team attended the classes to both support the students and teacher and collect observational data on the students’ inquiry process. The data collected include field notes and photographs which the team discussed with each other and the teacher, and student learning journals, which showed students questions, inquiry processes and data relating to their own inquiry (see Figure 5). In the final session, students presented their inquiry question, methods and results to the Pymble Institute team and
classmates using PowerPoint style presentation techniques.
Student-selected phone research topics
The information in Table 15 is compiled from student research journals, reflecting the research questions, choice of methods and summary of results for some of the groups. It is powerful to read the questions and results expressed in students’ own words, as they are often in plainer and more direct language than adults use. Students asked if their peers would prefer a different brand of phone, whether phones lead to peers talking behind their backs, and who is using what device for what purpose. The questions reflect a high level of awareness of the ecosystem of phones from a child’s perspective and the space between the independence phones bring and the role of parents to make decisions for the child about phone usage. It should be noted that not all students in the class owned a phone and there was no consensus in this class, that for Year 5 students, phones were essential.
What was the teacher’s perspective on the phone investigation?
The Year 5 teacher, a highly experienced teacher and team leader, described the combination of the Mathematics competition and the social labs research program as, ‘a valuable opportunity within my classroom to embed inquiry based learning within a mathematics context’. She found the sessions to be opportunities for ‘collaborative discussion and guided inquiry dialogue’, which allowed for ‘the explicit teaching of data collection techniques and student reflection through research journals, which
Table 15: Examples of student designed research projects
Student research question
If the Pymble Wise Phone was another brand, would you want it?
How long do students play games on weekend versus on school days, and on what device?
Are phones affecting friendships and excluding other students?
Methodology
Results
Online survey Apple phones were most popular, with a small number voting for Huawei, Xiaomi, Samsung.
Online survey
How many hours do you spend doing unproductive things on your device?
Online survey
Tracking our own devices
Most people do not play games on their phones. They usually play games like Roblox, Minecraft and free online games on their iPads or laptops.
Students in Class A tend to feel a little left out in the aspects of conversations on phones without them. Class B students usually feel excluded, but not to a worrying extent. Class C report ‘sometimes’ or ‘occasionally’ on all aspects, except for the statement about being worried about friends talking about them behind their back, where it tends to range from ‘sometimes’ to ‘always’. In Class D responses are very varied.
We found that the most unproductive time we spend on our devices is on our home iPad. We found that spending time doing unproductive things is based on the conditions and what you must do that day and how many hours of free time you get and are your friends playing it. So, it is based on different variables for everybody.
How much time our parents think we are spending on our devices versus how much time we are actually spending on our devices.
Which phone do you use more, the Pymble Wise Phone or smartphone?
Who uses smartphones and what do they use it for?
How many devices do we have to access the internet and how often do we use them?
What are the views of a parent whose daughter does not have a Pymble Wise Phone compared to the views of a parent whose daughter does have a Pymble Wise Phone?
Tracking by selfreport on paper (parent and child version)
We found out that my mum thinks I spend more time on my device than I actually do. For example, on the 11 June mum thought that I spent 2 hours on my iPad but I actually spent 1 hour and 12 minutes. Another example, on the 9 June, [student 2’s] mum thought she spent 3 hours! She had only spent 28 minutes. There was a significant difference.
Online survey Smartphone which is 55.6% (20 students) out of the 36 students who had answered this question.
Online survey 51% of Year 5 students have a smartwatch (47 out of 93). Interesting results as functionality cross over with Pymble Wise Phone such as texting, calling, and alarm.
Tally chart
Interview
We found out that all three of us used each device longer on weekends than on weekdays. Devices: smartphone, iPad, smartwatch, laptop.
Both believe Pymble Wise Phones are a good school initiative. We discovered that parents have different opinions on Wise Phones.
supported metacognitive awareness’. The teacher found the collaborative, student-focused, research element of social labs to be a worthwhile addition to her students’ learning and she identified the following areas of improvement;
“Some students experienced difficulty with refining broad ideas into focused, investigable questions and selecting appropriate methodologies, which highlighted the need for further scaffolding and modelling of research design. In future projects, I would differentiate the level of teacher support provided in the early stages, integrate more guided practice before independent inquiry, and allow extended time for students to consolidate skills. This would enhance my students’ confidence with understanding their data, improve the rigour of their investigations, and to allow my students to gain the most from this approach”. (Year 5 teacher reflection)
Social labs and engaging students in research skills can benefit student learning
Running the student-led social labs alongside a curriculum unit offered several benefits. The students demonstrated very high ownership of their inquiry questions, genuine interest in being researchers and enthusiasm towards doing and presenting their research. This was evident in the research journals kept by the students which indicated they worked on their projects at home, as well as at school, and that many groups collected data from, and thus engaged, their families in their questions.
Combining social labs with the mathematical project allowed for many research projects to emerge,
instead of just one, which widened the number of questions that surfaced. In five weeks, students generated eleven projects and collected data on many more questions and areas than could have been pursued by the Pymble Institute team. The students also generated questions that teachers or researchers may not have considered, such as ‘unproductive’ device behaviour, and ‘effect of phones on friendship dynamics’. Additionally, student researchers gained access to family members and other students for data collection that researchers could not access, especially in a tight timeframe. The labs were also effective in building research and critical thinking skills and in helping students to develop a passion for conducting research. This aligns with the value of school-based research having educational outcomes.
Social labs as a research methodology in schools
As an emerging pilot, the social labs methodology was only used to a minimal extent to enable the research team to gain experience with the approach. The most exciting element was allowing students to move beyond being research subjects and the researchers taking students’ ideas to use as data. The cycle of labs allowed students to move through layers of evidence-based and curiosity-driven understanding which provided more nuanced discussions and understanding within the research team.
The following aspects were recognised as challenges which can be improved in subsequent labs. As in most research projects and school activities, additional time would be highly beneficial. Students require
assistance to develop their research skills, particularly in drafting research questions and having ideas of how to collect data. Their questions were initially very broad including, ‘why did the creators of the Pymble Wise Phone make a phone?’ and ‘why do more students in Year 4 have a phone than students in Year 5?’ Teachers needed to guide the students into more researchable questions without taking over and giving them ‘an answer’.
It would also be valuable to have more teacher-researchers (teachers and Pymble Institute staff who are all both teachers and researchers) in the classroom to hear and share more of the students’ thought processes. An important addition would be to add more time for the teacher-researchers to debrief after each lab and share, cluster and discuss their observations. We look forward to exploring ways that social labs can affiliate with curriculum, as this approach allowed the teacher to accomplish two things at once; the maths projects and the phones research.
An external audience on the students’ work provided impetus for students to complete their projects. They are aware their work will have a place in this research report and are looking forward to seeing the result. However, it is important to explore whether the requirements of the competition and the research project impacted negatively on one another in any way. Comments by the teacher indicate the association was positive but further experiences with social labs in class contexts are needed to understand more of the intersectional dynamic. We also believe the open-ended and participatory nature of social labs
were not fully explored in this project, primarily owing to time limits and curriculum goals.
LIMITATIONS
This report is limited in the insights it gives the perspectives of parents. It is possible that parents who are more interested in and conscious of the phones initiative may have answered the survey over those less interested, leading to bias towards approving the program. To address this, the third phase of the study will include parent interviews in modes which work for a range of parents.
We also recognise the limitation of not being able to control for the consistency of usage of the phone type, potential social desirability bias or selection bias. It is possible that the family context or views and preferences of the individual, and/ or her family, may shape phone and internet usage independently of phone type. For example, Finding 6 discusses student attention to schoolwork which reflects a benefit in using the Pymble Wise Phone. It is beyond the scope of this study to ascertain the type of study routine, behaviour in lessons and learning profile of students noting this improvement. All responses are anonymous and, hence, are unable to be linked to one another across Time 1 and 2.
Acknowledging these limitations, it is our intention that this study contributes primarily to the phones initiative at Pymble Ladies’ College but that it also shares our learning with others interested in this topic. Academics with other resources and focus areas will ideally gain insights which can inform the development of more extensive research.
CONCLUSION
The second research report on the Pymble Wise Phone Initiative provides further insights into its implementation and impact. The College-managed phone remains the primary device used by students in Years 4 to 7, whether exclusively or in combination with a smartphone. A significant and consistent finding from the first report is that students who use the Pymble Wise Phone get more sleep each night than those who use a smartphone. Additionally, significant differences are now evident in students’ focus and attention to school work with those using the Pymble Wise Phones or no phones seeing benefits not enjoyed by smartphone users. These findings are significant as the importance of adequate sleep and the ability to concentrate on school work in the childhood and adolescent years cannot be understated. The range of non-technology, recreation activities undertaken by Pymble Wise Phone users also remains strong and suggests the College phones program is playing a role in freeing up time for recreation. However, the data indicate students are utilising alternative devices, such as laptops in Middle School and iPads in Junior School which warrants further exploration to understand how the Pymble Wise Phone Initiative can make more of difference.
In understanding Pymble students’ cyber awareness and safety skills, it is pleasing to report our students report a lower incidence of sharing personal information and photos with strangers, compared to national data. However, many students have observed cyberbullying behaviour, identified as prevalent in online games for younger students and in group chats and media sharing
platforms for older students. A notable concern is that many students would not inform their parent about a negative online experience, with some opting to tell no one or to ignore the problem. This highlights the benefits of the Pymble Wise Phone Initiative which reduces access to online gaming, group chats and social media access, and thus the likelihood of exposure to negative content, but also the need for continued education on digital safety as students access the online world in various ways.
Overall, the Pymble Wise Phone Initiative demonstrates high value in supporting parents, students and teachers in navigating complex digital environments. Parents continue to express their support for the initiative, as it assists them in setting boundaries and managing online risks, thereby supporting them with practical ways of managing technology in the home. The impact on Junior School staff is promising with significant benefits in student behaviour and staff workload related to managing online incidents. While these benefits are less evident in the Middle School and Boarding School due to the prevalence of alternative devices and other wellbeing and mental health challenges, the support for parents remains a crucial aspect of the program. The pilot social labs methodology also proved effective in fostering student engagement and generating unique insights into phone usage from multiple student perspectives.
As the initiative moves forward, continued development of the College’s approach is shaping plans for 2026. The data in this report show how important it is to maintain the emphasis on educating students
and parents about online safety, especially regarding alternative devices and platforms where cyberbullying and other risks may arise. The alternative of a Collegemanaged, limited function mobile
phone, however, remains extremely important in the Australian education landscape and Pymble’s continuing commitment to the outcomes of changing phone usage habits for students is proving revolutionary.
References
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