Ofsted chief backs ban on mobile phones in school time

THE chief inspector of schools has backed calls for mobile phones to be banned in schools. Amanda Spielman will announce her support today for any head teachers who choose to introduce policies that forbid children from using their phones.

Speaking at the Festival of Education at Wellington College in Berkshire, the head of Ofsted will say: “There’s no doubt that technology has made the challenge of low level disruption even worse, which is why I also support recent calls to back heads who have decided that the way to improve behaviour is to ban mobile phones in their schools.

“I’m not the target audience, but nevertheless I am yet to be convinced of the educational benefits of all day access to Snapchat and the like; and the place of mobile phones in the classroom seems to me dubious at best.”

Dominic Raab, the housing minister, also backed a ban. “The use of mobile phones by children in school is damaging to them and disruptive to schools,” he said.

Their interventions come after Matt Hancock, the Culture Secretary, said that pupils should have mobile phones confiscated at the start of the school day. Writing in The Daily Telegraph this week, he suggested more head teachers should ban phones during school hours because the devices could have a “real impact” on academic achievement.

A group of Tory MPS have written a letter backing The Daily Telegraph’s Duty of Care campaign and calling for schools to ban phones because they can be a “disaster” in the classroom.