At the Heartwood Learning Trust, the school day starts with a ritual that sounds like every teenager’s nightmare – their smartphones are taken away from them to be stored in lockable pouches until the end of the day.
Yet since the phone-free policy was introduced at the academy chain’s six secondary schools, teachers say pupils and concentrating better, disruptions to lessons are fewer and children seem happier.
The rules affect 5,000 students aged 11-16 at the trust, which has spent £75,000 on the Yondr pouches.
Heartwood’s decision comes as 250 school leaders signed a letter urging the government to ban smartphones in the classroom completely – and in February 2024, the Department for Education issued guidance allowing schools to prohibit phone use during lesson time to improve pupil behaviour.
At Vale of York Academy, the students are scanned with metal detectors to ensure they aren’t smuggling in a device, before they are given a pouch to keep in their bag or locker.
It is thought 500 schools across the UK are now using pouches to remove the distractions smartphones pose.
The secondary in the York suburb of Clifton only began using the pouches in November, but headteacher Gillian Mills says there has been an “immediate shift” in students’ focus.
“It’s given us an extra level of confidence that students aren’t having their learning interrupted. We’re not seeing phone confiscations now, which took up time, or the arguments about handing phones over – but also teachers are saying that they are able to teach.”
The teenagers themselves agree that the move has been a positive one. Charlie, who is in year 10, says that despite long queues at the start of the day, he and his peers are more “engaged” in the classroom and answering more questions from teachers rather than “zoning out”.
Daniel, who is in the same year group, admits he used to check notifications on his phone when it was supposed to be in his bag, but is now no longer distracted.
A younger pupil, Rosie, who is in her first year at the school, says her teachers are no longer having to “shout” at children using their phones in class, creating a less stressful environment.
According to Ofcom, 97% of 12-year-olds now own a mobile phone. A BBC survey found that half of teenagers aged 13-18 feel anxious when they do not have their smartphones with them and 74% wouldn’t consider swapping their smartphones for a more basic device that only allows phone calls and text messages.
Yet the price of a Yondr pouch – £15 – means the solution is not within the reach of all schools’ budgets.
At Kettlethorpe High School in Wakefield, the approach taken by staff remains to ask children to keep phones in their bags and confiscate them if the rule is broken.
Vice-principal Christian Bruce-Halliwell says these measures are “sufficient”.
“Phone pouches are extremely costly. It’s not as simple as saying we’ll introduce this to solve this problem.
“Schools will have to make some difficult financial trade-offs to purchase these phone pouches.”
The letter to Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson, signed by 250 headteachers, was composed by campaign group Generation Focus.
Its co-founder, Clare Fernyhough, says that a permanent outright ban would be more effective than the use of pouches.
“They may be a useful interim measure for getting phones out of schools and protecting the school day. But they do very little to preserve childhood beyond the school gate, and they’re prohibitively expensive for many schools. It shouldn’t be up to teachers to change this societal norm.”
The Department for Education has been contacted for comment.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: BBC
