What a Year 3 Classroom Taught Us About Life Beyond the Scroll
- Bee Christie
- May 11
- 3 min read
This week, Amelia and I swapped meetings, laptops and LinkedIn notifications for something far more intimidating: a room full of Year 3 children at Merlin School.
As part of Screen-Free Week, we’d been invited in to talk about Analogue April and why making space away from screens matters. Not in a doom-and-gloom “technology is bad” sort of way. More in a “remember how brilliant real life actually is?” sort of way.
Still, despite years of presenting to senior leaders and boardrooms, Amelia admitted beforehand that she was far more nervous about speaking to 7–8 year olds.
Honestly, fair enough.
Adults politely nod when you’re talking. Children stare directly into your soul while deciding whether you’re interesting enough to continue listening.
Thankfully, the children at Merlin were absolutely wonderful.
We began by asking them what they loved doing most. Before we’d even finished the question, hands were flying into the air. Netball. Reading. Drawing. Running. Football. Playing with friends.
Not one child shouted: “Watching TV!”
Which, frankly, felt reassuring for humanity.
One of the things we loved most about the session was how naturally the children understood the point we were trying to make. We weren’t there to tell them screens are terrible. Screens help us learn, communicate, do homework, navigate journeys and, for many adults, do our jobs. Modern life would be pretty difficult without them.
But we also talked about how important it is to protect time for other things too. The things that wake up your imagination. The things that make your body move. The things that happen when you’re fully in the room instead of half-scrolling through it.
So, we turned the classroom into a giant imagination gymnasium.
The children closed their eyes and imagined magical forests filled with treehouses, rope swings, rivers, marshmallows and secret hideouts. Moments later they were climbing invisible mountains, swimming through imaginary oceans and painting enormous pictures in the air with their arms.
The energy in the room was glorious. Loud, creative, slightly chaotic in the best possible way.
One of our favourite moments came during a conversation about holidays. Amelia brought along a giant paper map and introduced the idea of becoming the “Chief Navigator” on family trips rather than leaving all the directions to Google Maps. We spoke about collecting memories through postcards, tickets, shells, feathers and old-fashioned cameras instead of experiencing every moment through a phone screen.
Several children proudly told us they already have screen-free boundaries at home. Some don’t watch TV during the week. Others have device-free evenings or limits before bed. Hearing that from children so young was refreshing and hopeful. Small habits like these create space for something increasingly rare: boredom, creativity, conversation and proper play.
We also shared a physical copy of First News featuring Amelia’s boys, Indy and Rocco. Deliberately physical. No projected clips. No reels. No screens. Just a newspaper being passed around a classroom while children realised people their own age could write stories too.
And honestly? The paper itself became part of the magic. Turning pages still has a quiet sort of theatre to it.
At the end of the session, we left the children with one very simple challenge: Do one really fun thing this week with no screen. Then tell someone about it.
Because that’s really what Analogue April is about. Not rejecting technology, but creating more room for the moments that make us feel connected, creative and present.
The best bits don’t usually happen on a screen.
And judging by the ideas, energy and enthusiasm inside that Year 3 classroom, children already know that better than most adults do.
