Mobile phone ban won't make students' lives worse, says Cambridge principal
New data shows nearly 40% of teachers find it hard to re-establish phone rules in the first few weeks of term than any other time
A Cambridge school believes getting pupils to readjust to life not using a mobile phone at school will bring benefits in the long run.
Research by EE found nearly 40% of teachers said re-establishing phone rules and expectations with pupils in the first few weeks of term is significantly harder than at any other point in the year.
The Netherhall School became one of the first schools in the UK to use pouches, where since November last year, pupils drop their phones into in the morning before collecting them at the end of the day.
"If students have been used to that (more screen time) over the holidays, to suddenly be without it, unless you have a system like a magnetic pouch, it's going to be very difficult for that child to exercise self-discipline," Chris Tooley, the school's principal, said.
"This (pouches) isn't making their life worse; what we are doing is giving the children back which they didn't really know they lost, and that is the ability to communicate and get involved in other activities."
Social media 'addiction'
Earlier this year, the Department for Education advised schools in England that they should be phone-free during school opening hours.
While EE's research found nearly 9 in 10 teachers have seen pupils' attention spans shorten in recent years.
Mr Tooley said it is challenging for pupils to readjust to school rules because "social media is designed to be addictive.
"There is a rationale behind social media platforms; they aren't charities, they are there with commercial purposes," he said.
"They are designing everything to be short, 20-second inputs, buttons to press, images to see, and the whole focus is this sort of immediate entertainment.
"In a normal lesson in school, there's a requirement to concentrate for longer periods of time, to wait for the teacher to explain the task at hand, to have a discussion where people have to wait."
Trial run highlights 'fear of missing out'
The school ran a trial where some children used the mobile phone pouches, before they were unlocked at the end of the school day.
Mr Tooley said one of these pupils received "1,280 notifications in addition to 22 missed calls" during a six-and-a-half hour period.
"We asked him if he would he go and read through those notifications and he said 'no, why would I? Most of it's rubbish'," he said.
"For him, that was a realisation about the impact that even when the phones were on silent and in somebody's bag, there was a pressure to always have a look and to see, you know, what the message was to keep up that fear of missing out."
A ban on social media platforms offering services to under 16s in the UK is due to come into force in spring 2027, which the Government claims will give "children back their childhoods".
More than a third of parents say the return to school adds extra pressure on them as children readjust to life after more screen time during the school holidays.
While the research showed more than half of parents say the pace of digital change is making it difficult to judge whether they are setting the right rules at home.
"I think it's a period of great challenge for parents," Mr Tooley added.
"I think we need education for parents to say that it's one thing being safe in school for six-and-a-half hours a day, but there's a whole 17-and-a-half hours of the day which they're spending at home."