Meet the headteacher whipping Gen Z into shape after 'damage of lockdown': How ... trends now
Headteacher Andrew O'Neill is waging a war on Gen Z's apathy, poor attendance and addiction to smartphones by introducing a 12-hour school day.
From basketball training to drama production, home cooking to public speaking, children at All Saints Catholic College will enjoy a whole host of activities when their regular classes finish at 3.15pm.
The pilot project, introduced at the Notting Hill school, will see students arrive for breakfast at 7.15am and finish their day with an evening meal and games at around 6.30pm.
A total of 120 Year 7 and Year 8 pupils are taking part in the non-compulsory scheme, which is currently running from Monday to Thursday.
Headteacher Mr O'Neill insisted that an extended day will give pupils 'buckets full of endorphins' and aim to break the cycle of smartphone 'addiction'.
The 42-year-old said a number of pupils were falling victim to online crime, including cyberbullying, sexting and blackmail. He also found 'increasing challenges' for students when trying to complete homework due to the distractions created by smartphones and social media.
He noticed the issues soon after children returned to the school following the Covid-19 lockdown, telling the Telegraph: 'Really quickly we noticed that there were some real issues with young people.
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The pilot project will see students arrive for breakfast at 7.15am and finish their day with an evening meal and games at around 6.30pm
Mr O'Neill said that his pupils at All Saints (pictured) were growing worse at making eye contact and holding conversations
Andrew O'Neill (pictured), head teacher at All Saints Catholic College in Notting Hill, west London, has introduced a 12-hour school day in a bid to reverse a '100 per cent phone addiction' among his pupils
'Quite a lot of children were a bit apathetic and wanted to be isolated from others. If you asked students if they wanted to sign up for an extracurricular activity, for instance, "they'd be like nah, I'm just going to go home".
'[They were] wanting to be real homebirds. Because of course, we had habitually made children into homebirds in lockdown. We realised we need to break this and change something here.'
Mr O'Neill, who was crowned' Head Teacher of the Year' in the 2022 Pearson National Teaching Awards, also believed his pupils were getting worse at making eye contact and holding conversations, due a fatal combination of lockdown and smartphone addiction that has become uncontrollable.
He said: 'What we've done is we've completely legitimised smartphones for children as a society, and we've completely legitimised education being delivered through them.
'Now, there are so many apps
