School Time Apple Watch Is Not Just for Kids
It’s good that I didn’t have a lot of outlandish gear when I was in school. I would absolutely fail every tutorial because I would spend them all on my smartphone and / or smartwatch. (The TI-83 calculator can only play Drug Wars.)
To counteract this, Apple introduced a new “Schooltime” mode in watchOS 7. In theory, it should make it easier for any teacher to see your child is on mode by turning their watch face bright yellow. Clock. At the same time, the specified student also loses the ability to access applications, view notifications, and otherwise be distracted by anything other than checking the time.
“But wait,” you say. “That sounds good”.
It does. And kudos to Apple for opening the school to more than just family fun. Luckily, you can enable this setting on your Apple Watch if you want – without the lunchbox or .edu email. I think this is a great solution if you are looking for something more limited than Do Not Disturb. You will still receive emergency notifications and be able to check the time, but it will be much more difficult for you to be distracted by apps.
How to enable school time in watchOS 7
It is easy to include school time. Just swipe up on your Apple Watch to open Control Center . Scroll down and tap Edit , and then scroll down until you see the icon of a person raising his hand – it’s in the More section. Click on the green plus sign to add it to the Control Center, and then click Finish.
To start School Mode, simply click on this new icon and then click on the yellow School Time box that appears. You will now enter School Mode, which turns your Apple Watch into the following:
Even with the bright yellow dial turned on, your Apple Watch still goes to sleep as usual, but tapping the screen or moving your wrist will only tell you the time. The only way to get rid of it and get back to your regular Apple Watch is to rotate the digital crown. When you do, you will be notified of how long you have been using Schooltime.
Setting up school time is a little tricky if you’re a parent looking to put it on your child’s Apple Watch – at least if you want to be able to force a school timetable for your child and / or see when they’ve turned off school time.