This Morning Glory

Ms Harper schools Dermot & Alison on It Takes A Village… THURS11APR24

t’s amazing just how far one simple, smart idea can travel once you send it out there into the world.

When a bunch of Greystones teachers thought it might be wise to think twice about letting kids have their phones at school, it didn’t take long for the good word to spread.

To the BBC in the UK to Fox News in the USA, to Germany, Australia, France and beyond, the idea of a smartphone ban during school hours found a ready audience. And plenty of parents also worried about their children’s mental health when it came to the bottomless pit of desperation that these weapons of mass distraction can become.

Flying the flag for the eight Greystones primary schools who offered up a blueprint for a classroom ban on smartphones, this week St Patrick’s Principal Rachel Harper found herself being invited onto ITV’s flagship breakfast show This Morning, getting on that famous couch with presenters Dermot O’Leary and Alison Hammond.

Whilst in that big London, Rachel kept a diary for GG of her 48 hours of living famously…

On Tuesday the 9th of April the Daily Mail newspaper in the UK featured an article about the It Takes a Village initiative that has been rolled out across the eight primary schools in Greystones and Delgany.

This front-page article focused on the smartphone voluntary code and the healthy wellbeing initiatives all primary schools have been involved with. The article had been shared across social media by a number of parent groups in the UK that are campaigning to ban mobile phones in schools. The British government has also announced plans to ban mobile phones for school children.

By mid-afternoon, the office at St. Patrick’s received a call from a producer from ITV’s This Morning show asking would I be available to come over to London and speak about our initiative here in Greystones and Delgany.

The producer had read all about It Takes A Village. I couldn’t believe it. Once I took it all in, I thought, I have to do this. What a privilege to represent our wonderful community in London and share with them how It Takes A Village came into being and how all eight schools along with the community have joined forces to promote positive wellbeing in our children – including the rollout of a voluntary smart phone code in each of Greystones’ schools.

The producer also asked if they could speak with some parents and children live on the show which turned into a camera crew arriving at our Greystones school the next morning!

On Wednesday, the This Morning producer booked my flight and accommodation near to the studio and I flew to London that evening.

The next morning, I was picked up very early from the hotel and driven to the ITV studios for the show that started at 10am. It was a mixture of excitement and nerves! Security let me into the studio where I was warmly welcomed from start to finish. Everyone was so complimentary of our community and the way we are leading change. I was brought into make-up and couldn’t believe that Kate Silverton, the former BBC newsreader and now a bestselling author of books on child mental health, was sitting in the chair next to me. She was so warm and friendly as she was eager to hear all about our initiative.

We discussed her new book, There’s Still No Such Thing As Naughty: Parenting The Primary Years, Kate kindly handing me a signed copy. Her message inside read, ‘Keep up the amazing work, united we can change the world!’. Kate then passed on her contact details to keep in touch, and said she’d really like to come to Greystones and do an ITAV parents talk!

Everyone in the studio, including other guests such as Tim Campbell from The Apprentice, were full of praise about the initiative, talking about their concerns about children and social media and thanking us for making a stand and leading the way.

Just before 10am I was brought down to the This Morning set where I was introduced to presenters Dermot O’Leary and Alison Hammond, both coming over to greet me straight away, full of praise about the initiative. Dermot said he was so proud of Ireland leading the way and explained to Alison that his parents’ hometown in Wexford was close to Greystones. He also said he’d come and visit us!

As we were setting up on the couch it was great to see the children and parents from Greystones coming up on the screen, ready and enthusiastic to share about their experience of the initiative. They were absolutely fantastic! Personally, I couldn’t have
been prouder!

Dermot and Alison were both very encouraging throughout the interview, which helped immensely. Once the interview was finished, messages from all over Ireland and across the world started to flood in on social media. Greystones and Delgany had gone international! We as a community should be incredibly proud.

The It Takes A Village initiative could not exist without the volunteering and constant support of our steering committee, who are energetically sharing and shaping this initiative. This really is a great example of the power of community and the influence it can have when we all work together!

Nice. You can find out more about It Takes A Village here agus here, and catch their latest workshop, Physical Literacy, on Thursday 18th right here.