‘It Takes A Village’ is a community led positive well-being initiative borne out of concerns expressed by principals, teachers and parents of worrying levels of anxiety amongst children attending primary schools in Greystones and Delainy.  The advancement of social media further exacerbates their exposure and understanding of some of the current issues along with early exposure to adult material. 

 

This initiative, led by Rachel Harper, Principal of St. Patrick’s National School, seeks to build a community of services to assist children, families and teachers in need of help with issues around anxiety in young children in the eight primary schools in the catchment area.  The initiative is supported by the principals of all the primary schools in the area. 

 

The Parent Associations of all eight primary schools in both Greystones and Dlegany have come together to agree on the introduction of a ‘No Smart Device Voluntary Code’ where parents/guardians are given the option to collectively agree to delay purchasing a smart device for their child until the child begins secondary school.  This would include smart phones, smart pads and also access to age-appropriate apps such as Snapchat, Instagram, WhatsApp, TikTok and Discord to name but a few. 

 

As Principals form all eight schools, we believe this is a very important initiative to safeguard the children in each of our schools.  As part of the ‘It Takes A Village’ community wellbeing initiative, we would like to encourage parents and guardians to talk to their PTA’s school about the code and sign up to this voluntary code. 

 

Childhood seems to be getting shorter and shorter, and we feel a lot of children are not emotionally ready to maneuver a Smart device.  Therefore, as a collective we can help remove this obstacle at primary level.  The strength of having as many parents as possible signing up for this in the eight primary schools is that it will become the new norm in Greystones and Delany. 

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