Mobile phone ban having an impact on schools

Teachers and pupils say the ban on mobile phones in schools is having a noticeable impact.

It was introduced in June across all schools in England and Alsager School in Cheshire asks students to seal their phones in pouches until it is time to go home.

Headteacher Andrea O'Neill said the response had been "really good", and the school had become noisier with children talking to each other again.

One pupil, Rose, said: "Everyone's a bit more sociable, so straight away in the morning instead of sitting on your phone everyone's talking and getting ready for the day."

Rose added: "It's quite good because it means in lessons you can concentrate fully and you're not thinking about the notifications you're missing out on or anything like that."

Another pupil, Maddy, said: "When you know that you have no way of getting on to it, it's kind of out of sight out of mind, so you're not tempted to check your phone during lessons [which means] you can focus better."

Oscar said he had noticed pupils were not spending time with their phones in the toilets any more and were concentrating on their lessons more.

O'Neill said there had been "a few little niggles" with some pupils trying to get around the rules, but that had been sorted out.

She added that the pouches were "part and parcel of our school now".

The pouches have been introduced at schools across Cheshire and the roll out started earlier this year.

Schools elsewhere in the country ask their children to leave their phones in boxes or lockers at the start of the day, but the pouches allow pupils to keep their phones with them, because they are sealed away and can not be used.

The pouches are closed with a magnet at the start of the school day and then opened up again by a member of staff when the children go home.

The Cheshire Police and Crime Commissioner, Dan Price, has been helping schools pay for the pouches and said they were the easiest system to adopt.

He also said it was understandable the children wanted to keep their phones with them, even if they could not be used.

Price has been working with Esther Ghey, the mother of the murdered teenager Brianna Ghey, on the phone ban.

Ghey has been campaigning for social media and mobile phone restrictions for children, after her 16-year-old daughter was killed by two teenagers in a Warrington park in 2023.

One of the killers said she had become interested in "dark materials" including online videos of murder and torture.

She said she supported the ban in schools and believed it would "give children six to eight [hours] respite a day" from the internet.

Price said: "We know that this is going to make a massive difference to making our schools safer."

Like O'Neill, he also said schools had become noisier and that the ban was helping children focus in the classroom.

He said: "I've spoken to teachers who say they do get fed up of the fact you're having to stop the class again because an individual has got their phone out or is discretely using it under the table, taking inappropriate photos."

Phones had been "really disruptive to teaching" he said, and their absence had opened the door for more traditional forms of communication.

"Our young people are getting all those social skills that many of us benefited from from school, but that phones have somewhat restricted," he added.

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