Education Secretary, Gavin Williamson wants to make schools a mobile-free zone. It’s one of the options he is considering to improve school behaviour, boost pupil attainment and mental health through a calmer environment.

A 6-week consultation is seeking the views of teachers, parents and other staff on how to promote good behaviour. This is part of a government review on behaviour, discipline, suspensions and permanent exclusions in England’s schools. The group will be asked how the policies and approaches of schools have changed during the COVID-19 pandemic and what successful measures they intend to keep. An update on the guidance is expected later this year.

Previously ministers have spoken out against children using their phones in schools, but to date the decision has been left to individual headteachers.

However, Mr Williamson signalled that the Government was ready to take a hard-line approach to ban them. "No parent wants to send their child to a school where poor behaviour is rife," Mr Williamson said. "Every school should be a safe place that allows young people to thrive and teachers to excel.

“Mobile phones are not just distracting, but when misused or overused, they can have a damaging effect on a pupil’s mental health and wellbeing,” he said. “I want to put an end to this, making the school day mobile-free.”

"In order for us to help pupils overcome the challenges from the pandemic and level up opportunity for all young people, we need to ensure they can benefit from calm classrooms which support them to thrive."

Mobile phone bans have been pioneered by some of the Government’s favourite state schools. At Michaela Community School in Wembley, north London, pupils are allowed to have a switched-off device on their person, but if it is seen or heard it is immediately confiscated.

The school also offers a “digital detox” programme where students can hand in their phones for months at a time.

At the Outwood Grange chain of academy schools, a line is painted on the floor outside the school gates, beyond which phones cannot be seen.

Ministers believe that removing phones from schools would increase pupil attainment and help address issues such as pupils engaging in sexting. 

The education secretary has previously said that mobile phones can act as a “breeding ground” for cyberbullying, and earlier this month the head of Ofsted highlighted their use in the sexual harassment and abuse of schoolgirls. The review by Ofsted on sexual harassment in schools earlier in June found that teachers had severely underestimated the scale of abuse. It revealed a culture of harassment at schools and found that some girls are contacted by up to 11 boys a night asking for nude images. 

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said he wants to make the school day mobile-free, describing the devices as "distracting" and "damaging".

Teaching unions and headteachers have hit back at the education secretary’s suggestion accusing him of playing to backbenchers" with the move. "The education secretary appears to be obsessed with the subject of mobile phones in schools. In reality, every school will already have a robust policy on the use of mobile phones; it isn't some sort of digital free-for-all," Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), general secretary Geoff Barton said.

"Approaches will vary between settings and contexts, but this is an operational decision for schools, not something that can be micromanaged from Westminster.

"Frankly, school and college leaders would prefer the education secretary to be delivering an ambitious post-pandemic recovery plan and setting out how he intends to minimise educational disruption next term, rather than playing to backbenchers on the subject of behaviour."

Sarah Hannafin, senior policy advisor for school leaders' union NAHT, warned that while a phone ban would work for some schools "there isn't one policy that will work for all schools".

She added: "Outright banning mobile phones can cause more problems than it solves, driving phone use 'underground' and making problems less visible and obvious for schools to tackle."

The Department for Education has already announced a £10m "behaviour hub" programme.

As part of this, headteachers and behaviour specialists from 22 "lead schools" and two academy chains with reputations for maintaining good behaviour are mentoring and supporting schools that struggle with poor discipline. The schools also provide advice in a range of areas, including eradicating low-level disruption in classrooms and banning the use of phones and maintaining quiet corridors.

Kevin Courtney, co-leader of the biggest teaching union the National Education Union (NEU) called on Mr Williamson to instead focus on improving student wellbeing, branding his suggestion “a distraction.”

“Gavin Williamson is out of step with the scale of the challenge faced by education staff in terms of the number of young people with mental health difficulties and gaps in areas such as speech and language skills,” NEU joint general secretary Kevin Courtney said.

“The Secretary of State talks about ‘discipline’ and ‘order’ when he should talk about mental health, wellbeing and what teachers need to cope with learning gaps,” said Mr Courtney.