Primary School urges parents to 'greet your child with a smile not a mobile'

Parents picking up their children from a primary school in Longlands, Middlesbrough have been urged to put away their mobile phones at the school gate.

Posters have been put up at three entrances at St Joseph's RC Primary School instructing parents to "greet you child with a smile not a mobile".

Headteacher Elizabeth King said the signs were not in response to a problem among parents but part of an idea to get families talking at the end of the school day.

She told the Teesside-based Gazette newspaper: "We are trying to develop our speaking and listening, and we thought it was a really simple way to get the message across."

Two parents welcomed the initiative.

Jade Collett, whose four-year-old son attends the nursery at St Joseph's, said: "The kids have been at school all day so the last thing they want is for their mum or dad to be glued to their phone."

Precious Dhladhla, whose four-year-old daughter Isabella also attends the nursery, agreed.

She said: "I think it's a good thing because sometimes people pay more attention to their phone than their kids.

"I think the other parents are following the rules because you don't see many people on their phones now."