Inside schools where phones are locked away

John Henderson,
Jonathan Morrisand
Briohny Williams,South West
News imageBBC The picture shows a close-up of a phone pouch being locked onto a magnetic or mechanical locking station. The pouch is grey with “XL” printed in green, and it appears to contain a mobile phone. A person’s hand is pressing the locking mechanism against a round metal fixture attached to a wall, which secures the pouch so the phone cannot be accessed during the school day.BBC
Phones are locked in a pouch for the day at Brannel School

Walk into Brannel School in the morning and you will see teenagers locking away their phones - each device slips into a special pouch that locks until the end of the day.

The phones stay with the pupils, but they are out of reach.

Brannel, near St Austell, Cornwall, is among a number of schools in the South West that are clamping down on phones due to the distractions they create.

Head teacher Tristan Muller-Forster said the system tackled what he called "mobile fatigue".

News imageThis picture shows a close-up of hands holding smartphones, with one phone prominently in the centre being used. The setting appears to be a casual indoor environment, possibly a school cafeteria or common area, as there is a water bottle and blurred colourful objects in the background.
Some pupils have welcomed the clampdown saying phones are distracting

He said: "If it's accessible in their pocket they just want to reach for it, they don't actually know why, so the beauty of our process here is that those mobile phones are still in their possession, but they are locked away."

The impact is clear - one pupil said: "None of our lessons are getting interrupted by the teachers saying put your phone away.

"It's very good so then people can focus on their learning."

Another added: "Also like anxiety or stress, because then you don't have to worry about loads of things. Students get to socialise more with each other at break time and lunch."

At Chulmleigh College in Devon, the rules are even tougher. Phones can be brought in, but they cannot be seen or heard. Break the rule and you risk losing your phone for weeks.

One pupil said: "If you get caught on your phone, you get detention and it gets confiscated. And then if you do it again, it kind of gets confiscated for longer.

Another added: "It's disrupting your learning and then it's distracting others as well."

Head teacher Neil Payne believes the policy drives success.

He said: "We know that mobile telephones are distracting for young people, and adults for that matter, so to achieve well and to do well and to make every lesson count, we need to make sure that children are focused."

Follow BBC Cornwall on X, Facebook and Instagram. Follow BBC Devon on X, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected].

Related internet links

More from the BBC