Campaigners call for schools to go beyond ‘not seen, not heard’ policies
Mobile phones are set to be effectively banned in schools, as the government looks to make existing guidance statutory.
Speaking in the House of Lords, education minister Baroness Jacqui Smith announced that the government would table an amendment to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill which would create ‘a clear legal requirement for schools’. She added that this would ‘reduce unnecessary burdens on head teachers and send a strong message to parents, giving head teachers clear backing to create and maintain the mobile phone-free school environments that our revised guidance makes clear should exist.’
The current guidance, published in February this year, says that ‘All schools should be mobile phone-free environments by default; anything other than this should be by exception only’, and that ‘schools should develop a mobile phone policy that prohibits the use of mobile phones and other smart technology with similar functionality…..throughout the school day, including during lessons, the time between lessons, breaktimes and lunchtime.’
The government’s latest move comes after the Lords’ tabled an amendment to the bill that would have required all schools in England to develop a policy ‘that prohibits the use and possession of smartphones by pupils during the school day’ within 12 months of the bill being enacted. The NASUWT teaching union had also launched a campaign calling for a mobile phone ban, saying that the current guidance left schools ‘exposed to inconsistency, parental challenge and escalating workload’.
Research last year by the children’s commissioner, Rachel de Souza, found that 90 per cent of secondary schools and 99.8 per cent of primary schools already have policies in place that stop the use of mobile phones during the school day. Many secondaries follow a ‘not seen, not heard’ policy, where phones must be turned off and stored out of sight during the school day. However Charlotte Ashton, from school phone-free campaign group Generation Focus, said such an approach was ineffective: ‘It doesn’t work to allow children to keep possession of their smartphones, because they are the world’s most powerful distraction devices, and they are using them under the desks and in the toilets and in places where teachers can’t have eyes on them’. It is unclear whether a ‘not seen, not heard’ approach would be sufficient to comply with the guidance once it becomes statutory.
Responding to the news of the statutory guidance, NASUWT General Secretary Matt Wrack said: ‘This is a significant victory for the NASUWT’s long‑running campaign to give schools stronger national backing to restrict mobile phone use. Teachers, pupils and parents have been calling for clarity for years, and we are pleased that ministers have finally listened.’ However he added: ‘The current non‑statutory guidance was never designed to be implemented on a statutory basis and was not subject to public consultation. It is essential that any new statutory guidance is developed with unions and other legitimate stakeholders from the outset.’
Meanwhile Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, commented: ‘A statutory ban on mobile phones in schools doesn’t really change very much. Most schools already have policies in place under which pupils are not permitted to use mobile phones. The most common approach is to require them to keep devices ‘off and away’ during the school day – with the challenge then being to ensure that these rules are followed. What would really be helpful is for the government to make funding available to schools for the safe and secure storage of mobile phones, such as storage lockers or locked pouches.’
A Department for Education spokesperson said: ‘We have been consistently clear that mobile phones have no place in schools, and the majority already prohibit them. This amendment makes existing guidance statutory, giving legal force to what schools are already doing in practice.’