Ashford school welcomes new government mobile phone guidance

KentOnline / KMTV

In January, The John Wallis Academy started using pouches that the pupils phones would be locked in until the end of the day.

Transcript

00:00 So, as students arrive, they put their phone in a pouch and they lock the pouch and it

00:04 will stay locked until the end of the day. As they're leaving to go home, they can unlock

00:08 the pouch as they leave the school site. And then they've got their phone for their journey

00:13 home and for, you know, contacting friends after school. But through the school hours,

00:19 the phone will be locked and remain inside the pouch throughout the day.

00:22 There must have been some pushback from this because phones are such a key aspect of children's

00:28 lives now and everyone's lives. Is there not a way that it could have been used, I guess,

00:32 for their education while ensuring that they're staying safe and it's not a distraction?

00:39 I think the arguments around the benefits of phones inside schools now has been going

00:45 on for years and years. But we're just seeing more incidents of harm, of the dangers of

00:52 phones and also the impact of constant distraction from multiple notifications through the day,

01:00 through messages, through people trying to stay in touch. And even for staying to be

01:06 kept in pockets, there is that constant distraction throughout the day. There is that constant

01:11 feeling of wanting to check and see what the notification is you've just received. So,

01:17 I feel that the new guidance gives schools that greater autonomy to really make a stance

01:23 and make sure that their school truly is phone free.

01:26 Was there no way of sort of looking at how it could be used to, I guess, enhance their

01:31 education whilst making sure that they're not being distracted by the sort of the fun

01:36 aspects of having a phone? Was there no way of kind of having it work in alignment with

01:41 education?

01:43 I think there's, yeah, the benefits for having a phone are by far, by far outseeded by the

01:49 potential risks. I would like to see a stronger approach where phones are banned outright

01:56 from schools. But I accept that schools should have the autonomy as to how they implement

02:01 this guidance. And I think it is guidance. So, schools get to make the decisions themselves.

02:06 What sort of positive effects have you seen from implementing a similar system in your

02:10 school? What are the kind of positives of implementing a kind of restriction around

02:16 mobile phones?

02:18 We've been doing this for a term now. So, we've had six weeks and we've seen much greater

02:24 engagement in lessons, far fewer distractions. The number of sanctions that have been given

02:29 out for students for disruption and for disrupting lessons is down 40%. So, we've seen a massive

02:35 reduction in the number of sanctions. We've seen more students in class, so less truancy,

02:41 less students out. We've had the lowest number of child on child reported abuse and things

02:46 such as bullying, online harassment or abuse. That's the lowest numbers that we've had since

02:52 pre-COVID times. And perhaps the biggest change is the social interaction between students

02:59 themselves. The children are talking to each other more.

03:01 It seems like it's worked quite well in your school. Are you concerned at all in other

03:05 schools there could be certain issues of children trying to hide their phones or bring their

03:10 phones in without teachers knowing? Are you concerned at all that perhaps in other schools

03:14 that could be a reality?

03:18 I think the reality is that any rules that schools bring in, students are really bright

03:24 and really switched on. They will try to find ways around it. And I think when we implemented

03:29 our system here, we were aware that students might hide their phone or bring in a burner

03:34 phone that they could put in their pouch and they'd have another phone. But when you create

03:39 a culture in a school such as we've done to create a truly phone-free school, then even

03:44 if they were to get access to a phone, then they can't call their friends because none

03:49 of their friends have access to one.

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