School smartphone ban lets 'children be children'

A headteacher at a secondary school which has banned mobile phones says the move allows "children to be children".

Astrea Academy, in Woodfields, Doncaster became a "smartphone-free school" at the start of the academic year.

School's principal, David Scales, said he was "absolutely delighted" with the results and urged more schools to follow the growing trend.

Pupils have also welcomed the change, with one, Sonum, saying: "It's a very positive thing getting rid of these unnecessary stress-inducers."

The youngster added: "If you look at your phone and there are 200 messages and notifications you feel stressed out that you are missing out on something.

"Academic life can be so much easier."

Under the scheme, pupils hand their phones over to a member of staff at the start of the day, with their devices returned to them at home time.

"We banned mobile phones because we wanted children to be children, to make that friendship at break and lunch and not to be distracted in lessons," said Mr Scales.

"We are also really concerned about what these smartphones are doing to young minds. We did this for their benefit."

A study published earlier this year found that banning phones in schools was not linked to pupils getting higher grades or having better mental wellbeing.

Students' sleep, classroom behaviour, exercise or how long they spend on their phones overall also seems to be no different for schools with phone bans and those without.

However, the study did conclude that spending longer on smartphones and social media in general was linked with worse results for all of the above measures.

Discussing his school's experience, Mr Scales said: "We are finding that children are calmer, they are learning better, they are less distracted.

"They are happier and making better friendships as well."

Another pupil at the school, Nenyasha, said the change had "gave us more social time and more interaction".

Sonum added: "It's a really interesting thing to see more people around and more people actually speaking to each other and having fun with smiles on their faces, not glued to their phones."

Nenyasha said she would also "most definitely" welcome a social media ban for under-16s in the UK after Australia introduced the move earlier this month.

"Social media has created that severe barrier of human-to-human interactions," she said.

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