Derby school urges parents to put down phones and talk to children

Teachers said the signs were to encourage communication between parents at children after school

A school has asked parents to put down their phones and communicate with their children at the end of the day.

The signs placed at the entrances to Redwood Primary School in Sinfin, Derby, urge adults to to "greet your child with a smile, not a mobile".

They have had a mostly positive response from parents, with many agreeing with the sentiment.

The school said it wanted parents and children talking and listening more to each other at home.

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Teachers Rachel Kirk and Sarah Chaffe produced signs for each of the school's three gates.

"What we've been trying to do is put together lots of ideas for our parents to help them be more effective when they're chatting with their children at home," said Ms Kirk.

"The signs are really just to remind parents how important it is to greet their children and encourage them to get into a conversation about all the fun things they have done that day."

'Too distracted'

Kerri Hilton, who has two children at the school, said: "Parents shouldn't need to be told to pay attention to their children.

"I always ask how their day was and what their favourite part of the day was.

"If you stood in the playground at home time and looked around - the amount of people on phones is shocking. It's sad to see that a phone becomes a priority over a child."

Another mother agreed with the signs, and said often parents were too distracted to keep an eye on their child.

"They don't know what's going off so I totally agree with it," said Cora Doherty.