Children up and down England are being told to leave their phones at home or the school gate in a ban called on in new government guidance.
Education officials have told schools in new advice published today that phones should even be banned on the playgrounds during breaks.
Headteachers, the 13-page guidance says, ‘can and should identify mobile phones … as something that may be searched for’.
Though schools aren’t legally obligated to introduce a phone ban – the guidance is non-statutory, leaving it up to administrators to decide to go ahead with one.
As much as the Department for Education has long pushed for such a prohibition, one union said the ban is already in place at most schools.
It’s a ‘non-policy for a non-problem’, the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders Geoff Barton said.
‘We have lost count of the number of times that ministers have now announced a crackdown on mobile phones in schools.’
A near-identical clampdown on phones in English schools was announced by former education secretary Gavin Williamson three years ago.
Nearly all schoolchildren aged 12 own a phone, according to a survey by watchdog Ofcom.
This poses a problem for teachers, education officials say, as ‘unfiltered internet access’ means students struggle to pay attention in class.
‘The use of mobile phones in schools leads to distraction and disruption and can exacerbate misbehaviour and bullying,’ the department says in a follow-up guide on how to create a ‘phone-free school environment’.
‘Many schools that have successfully implemented policies prohibiting the use of mobile phones report that their pupils feel safer and happier.’
All schools should develop such a policy, officials added, and enforce it during and between lessons on top of breaktimes and lunchtimes.
Phones and other smart devices should be handed to staff as students enter the premises and kept in a secure, inaccessible location.
‘Mobile phones are never used, seen or heard whilst at school,’ the document adds, with strict consequences to braches.
There are some exceptions, however. Officials admit that some students do need a mobile at school, such as those with diabetes who need to use an app to track glucose.
Even educators themselves should follow the ban – no staff should be seen using their phones except when necessary for work.
Parents should also be involved in the ban, the guidance adds. About 59% of parents and guardians don’t think children should be able to have phones in school, with safety while travelling to and from schools being among their top concerns.
Education secretary Gillian Keegan said a phone ban is needed to help teachers fight the ‘daily battle’ of student behaviour and help them ‘do what they do best – teach’.
Schools, Keegan added, are ‘places for children to learn and mobile phones are, at a minimum, an unwanted distraction in the classroom’.
Current policies on phone usage in schools are patchy at best, so universal guidance is ‘about achieving clarity and consistency in practice, backing headteachers and leaders and giving staff confidence to act’.
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