Smartphone-free - including at secondary school
Loek started as an evening hack on the kitchen table. Now it is a calm little screen that shows the schedule, homework and tests - without the phone.
We - Jelle and Jochem, both fathers of a daughter in her first year of secondary school - watched our children start this school year at Barlaeus Gymnasium in Amsterdam. A school that deliberately teaches analogue: pen, paper and books. No laptop as the default, no phones in class. Exactly the kind of school environment we were glad to find as parents.
And yet our daughters were on their phones for school every day.
The timetable lives in Somtoday, and Somtoday opens on a phone
Not because they particularly wanted to, but because they had to. The timetable, the homework and the test material all lived in Somtoday. And both Somtoday and the market leader Magister only open on a phone or a laptop.
What started as "just checking my timetable" quickly became something else. A few minutes became ten. Sometimes twenty. And before we knew it we were having the same conversation at home again about screen time, distraction and phone use.
That felt wrong. We wanted our children to grow up as smartphone-free as possible. But once the class register and the paper planner had moved into a digital system, that same phone suddenly became indispensable. Not officially, perhaps - but in practice, yes.
A parent in the class app, and an old e-ink screen
It started when a mother posted a familiar question in the klas 1A parent app: her son could not switch well between phone and homework, because the homework lived on that phone, in the Somtoday app.
Tips followed. Open Somtoday on the laptop (which has plenty of distraction of its own). Copy the homework onto paper and hand in the phone ("nothing has come of my tip here, unfortunately"). Try a paper planner ("no success").
Jelle still had an old e-ink screen lying around and thought: there has to be a better way. One evening of tinkering later, the homework and the timetable were simply on a little screen, updating automatically - and it could do nothing else.
He posted a photo in the group. Within minutes: "So cool!", "Genius!", and the question that really got things moving - from Jochem, father of a classmate: "Have you hooked it up to SOM, or do you or your daughter write the important things down yourselves?" Followed by: "Nice. Add a Magister connection and you can serve every secondary-school student?"
That was not a joke. Eight months of evenings, nights and weekends later, that evening project became Loek: a phone-free screen for home.
"Where is Loek?"
Loek is a calm e-ink screen for the desk or the wall. At a glance you see what matters that day, straight from Somtoday. No app. No notifications. No endless menu. Just: this is what you have today.
We made Loek boring on purpose. In the good way. It does not ask for attention; it gives calm and overview. The battery lasts about three months, thanks to the e-ink display.
The most honest verdict came from our own children. Jochem's daughter was far from enthusiastic at first. "Why does my dad have to start with this?" was roughly the mood at home. She was not waiting for something that felt like a disguised limit on her screen time.
But it changed faster than we expected. After a few days she came home, wanted to start her homework, and suddenly asked: "Where is Loek?"
That was when we knew: there is something here.
Not against technology - against the wrong reflex
We are not against technology. On the contrary. Digital learning tools have a valuable place in education. But we do believe technology should play the right role at the right moment. A child should not be forced to pick up a phone to see what the homework is. Especially not when a calmer alternative exists.
That is the alternative we wanted to build. First for our own families. Now also for other parents and schools wrestling with the same question.
With Loek, a school can give students the overview they need without the smartphone being the only route. It is not a grand ideological statement, and it is not a miracle cure. It is a concrete step: technology that helps you plan and learn, instead of technology that distracts.
From kitchen table to a product that works
Loek could not have happened without Barlaeus Gymnasium. Particular thanks to Margriet Bosman and Bas Dijkstra, who saw Loek's potential and let us test it at school - that is how Loek grew from an idea into a product that works. Thanks also to Fenna Huisin't Veld-Bergefurt and Marco Muller at Topicus, who supported this and gave us access to Somtoday.
We are still at the beginning. Checking off homework and messages sit at the top of our wishlist. And a Magister connection is needed to reach the other 70 percent of students. Until then Loek works with Somtoday, through a one-off connection the school switches on.
Want your child to have an overview of school without picking up a phone?
Discover Loek - School info without a smartphone.
Do you work at a school that uses Somtoday? The page for schools explains how to enable the connection: no cost, no app, no admin.
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Based on the LinkedIn article by Jelle Niemantsverdriet and Jochem Baud, July 2026. Loek helps students focus on learning by showing school information without the distraction of a smartphone.