School hands out alarm clocks to assist phone ban

GIRLS at a £20,000-a-year school have been handed alarm clocks to wake them up in the morning so that parents can ban mobile phones from their daughters’ bedrooms.

Over 700 pupils at Lady Eleanor Holles (LEH), a private girls’ school in west London, were given alarm clocks by headmistress Heather Hanbury.

Writing in a blog on the school’s website, Ms Hanbury explained that it is vital that teenagers have around nine hours of uninterrupted sleep a night. But this is impossible when girls were constantly checking their social media throughout the evening, she said.

Ms Hanbury said she was aware that the most common excuse girls will use for having their mobile phone or ipad by their bedside is that they need to use its alarm function.

“I am sure you have all heard, at some time or other, ‘I need my phone to wake me up’” she said. “They now have no reason to say this, because they were presented with an LEH alarm clock as they left assembly.

“Please encourage your daughter to enjoy her little LEH alarm clock and sleep well, with no technology in her bedroom.”

She advised parents to also ban televisions, computers and other devices from their children’s bedroom, arguing that a good night’s sleep was integral to their academic success.

“The most important aspect of learning is adequate sleep. Without a proper amount of sleep nightly, it is very difficult to learn efficiently and effectively.”

She said the process of learning, sleeping, then reviewing the following day forges strong links in children’s brain, which means they are able to retrieve the information more easily.