No mobile phones in UK schools under Williamson's consultation

MOBILE phones may no longer be allowed inside UK schools, as part of a government clampdown on poor discipline in classrooms across the country.

Launching a consultation on pupil behaviour and discipline in schools, UK education secretary Gavin Williamson on Tuesday (29) said he wants to make school day “mobile-free” to help ensure that classrooms remain calm and pupils can overcome the impact of the pandemic.

“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,” the education secretary said. “I want to put an end to this, making the school day mobile-free.”

Under a recently-launched public consultation, Williamson is asking teachers, parents and other school staff for their views and policies on managing good behaviour in classrooms, ahead of planned updates to government guidance later this year on behaviour, discipline, suspensions and permanent exclusions. 

The six-week consultation seeks views on how schools maintain calm classrooms, the use of removal rooms and creating mobile phone-free school days, among other measures. 

Williamson’s latest call for evidence comes after a £10 million investment in “behaviour hubs”, which will see leaders from high-performing multi-academy trusts working with schools where behaviour and discipline are poorer.

Apart from mobile phones, the government is also looking at the use of “removal rooms” in schools and so-called managed moves where a pupil is transferred to another school, often as a way of avoiding a formal expulsion.

“No parent wants to send their child to a school where poor behaviour is rife. Every school should be a safe place that allows young people to thrive and teachers to excel,” Williamson said.  

The move for banning mobile phones in schools is drawing a mixed response as majority of the UK schools already have policies in place limiting the use of phones in classrooms, and about half of secondary schools and most primary schools do not allow phones to be used at break or lunchtime either.

Headteachers and teaching unions have hit back, insisting that mobile phone policies are a matter for schools.

General secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, Geoff Barton, accused the education secretary of being “obsessed” with mobile phones in schools saying that in reality, every school already has “a robust policy on the use of mobile phones”.

“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,” The Guardian quoted Barton in a report.