Trial resource - not yet verified for classroom use. This is a starting point to help you build your own lesson, not a finished or approved plan. Cyber Safe with Monkleton is new, and we are shaping this with teachers - please adapt it freely, use what works, and tell us what doesn't so we can improve it. Once it has been shaped and checked with teachers, we will mark it verified. Feedback: cybersafe-feedback@monkleton.io.
Screen time and finding balance
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This is a starting point, not a script - take what is useful, change what is not, and shape it around your class. It brings a Cyber Safe with Monkleton lesson into the classroom: the behaviour, not just the rule.
The big idea
Screens are brilliant. This is not about using them less for its own sake - it is about balance, and choosing when to switch gears. Apps are designed to keep you on them, so a few habits put you back in charge.
Learning intentions (adapt to your class)
- I can explain that apps are designed to hold my attention.
- I can name ways to take charge: notifications, autoplay, screen-free moments.
- I understand this is about balance, not banning screens.
A suggested shape
Starter (about 5 minutes)
"You meant to check one thing, and an hour vanished." Ask: why is it so hard to stop? Draw out that it is design, not weak willpower.
Explore (about 15 minutes)
Look at autoplay and notifications and how they remove the natural stopping points. Frame balance as screens alongside sleep, play, and people - and note that a screen is sometimes exactly the right tool.
Practise (about 10 minutes)
Pupils choose their own "time to switch gears" cues, and one setting they could change tonight.
Safe Check plenary (about 10 minutes)
Pupils state the rule: you decide when it is enough, not the app - the point is the choosing.
Ready-to-use resources
- Background for you: our guide How can I take back control of my screen time? and the parents' page, The safety tools you already have.
- Teacher note: keep the tone free of guilt. For some pupils, including many neurodivergent children, a screen is a genuine way to settle and regulate - this lesson is about balance and choice, never about less.
In the app
This lesson pairs with an in-app quest in Cyber Safe with Monkleton, so classroom time and screen time reinforce the same habits. The app is in its first previews now, and supporting media is coming soon. Until then, the discussion and activities here stand on their own.
Tell us how it went
This is a trial, and your classroom experience is exactly what will make it better. If you use it, we would love to know what worked and what you changed - email cybersafe-feedback@monkleton.io.
Trial guidance, shared early for teacher feedback - please adapt it before any classroom use, and let us know how it went. Product names are used only to describe their features; Monkleton Labs is not affiliated with, or endorsed by, them. No ads, no affiliate links.