Schools confiscate mobiles in new campaign against addiction

SCHOOLS are confiscating mobile phones for up to four months as they battle pupils’ addiction to social media. An analysis of 50 schools by The

Daily Telegraph found that Michaela School, a free school in north London, had the toughest policy in the UK, where any phone confiscated two weeks before the end of term would only be returned the following halfterm. It meant the pupil would be without their phone – and SIM card – for the entire summer holiday.

Other schools had introduced “two or three strikes and out” policies, where teachers enforce bans by confiscating phones for between 24 hours and 10 weeks for a second or third offence. The City of London Academy warned persistent offenders they “may find themselves subject to frequent searches” for phones if they repeatedly broke the ban on bringing devices into school.

Pupils at Bournemouth School were warned that staff may examine data on confiscated phones if they suspected they could be used to cause harm, disrupt teaching, break the school rules or contain material promoting pornography, bullying or violence.

It comes as part of a new hardline approach backed by Ofsted and government ministers to prevent smartphones from disrupting education. Earlier this year France introduced a nationwide ban on smartphones in schools.

The Telegraph found half of schools operated a ban on phones or required pupils to lock them away at the start of the day. Others operate “out of sight” policies, where phones were allowed in school but had to be switched off and kept in pupils’ pockets or bags outside designated break times or school areas.

Ofsted said it did not have a “preferred approach” on school phones policies but said it would always support heads who took a “tough stance on banning mobile phones” as “there’s no doubt it has made the challenge of lowlevel disruption in the classroom even worse”.

Katharine Birbalsingh, head of Michaela free school, said her no-nonsense phone policy, which included the warning that “if a pupil hesitates (even slightly) in handing over a confiscated item, they will receive a detention”, was appreciated by parents in helping them curb phone usage.

“When rules are so obvious, no one questions it,” she said. “I say to parents it is like giving your child an addictive substance; they won’t be able to put it down.

“What I am pushing are ‘brick’ phones [without an internet connection] where you can stay in contact with your child through text and calls.”