7 Steps to becoming a Smartphone Free School
Despite having a ‘no-see, no hear’ phone policy in place, we recognised that phones were having a significant negative impact around the school. We wanted to improve behaviour, engagement and student safety.
These are some of the issues were seeing:
- Arguments and bullying that started on social media crossing over into the school day.
- Children watching inappropriate content in the toilets.
- Children filming themselves in the toilets and posting it on TikTok.
- Safeguarding issues related to videos being uploaded from lessons.
- An increase in physical fights, which were being captured on devices and shared online.
- Parents arriving at school in the middle of day, demanding to speak to a Senior Leader because their child was being bullied.
For us the main issues we wanted to address were
- Improving behaviour
- Improving engagement and attention in lessons
- Keeping children safe
So we started discussing and exploring the options.
During the first Autumn term (September to October) we took every opportunity to discuss the issues of mobile phones with parents and pupils. At the school gates, during events and in tutor time.
The arguments for phones included:
- Constant parental contact, a number of parents were concerned about not having round the clock contact with their child. ‘What if they have an issue with a peer?’ ‘What if they need to talk to me?’
- Timetables. “They need their phones to know what lessons they have’
- Needing to contact parents on the journey to and from school.
We pulled together the parent/pupil responses and took this to a Governors meeting with what I believed to be a fairly compelling case for banning phones from the school site completely.
After long discussions, we concluded that the case for children not accessing smart devices (of any kind) was extremely compelling. We also decided that we could provide paper timetables.
Throughout this process we developed greater clarity over what we were looking for and could therefore explore the viable options which could ensure children had no access to smart devices (phones, watches and ear pods) during the school day, but could access devices when travelling to and from school.
Our first option was to explore the option of lockers - but this raised lots of questions about how we could make them work. Lockers in tutor rooms seemed to be the only option. But this raised a number of issues around collection at the end of the school day. What if a pupil needed to leave for a medical appointment? This would interrupt lessons to retrieve their devices. There are lots of schools who use lockers but for us, it didn’t feel viable. Then we discovered Yondr pouches. We attended a school where Pouches were already being used, and observed how pouches were checked for all pupils as they entered the school building.
We returned with a new plan. A morning welcome routine in which we could check that all phones were locked away before children entered the school. Logistically this was tricky; we have over eight different points of entry so needed to think this through carefully with the Welcome teams. We came up with a plan, and set a date for implementation. (January 2024.) We then sat down with the leadership team and planned how we would make this successful.
As a leadership team, we fully subscribe to the writer Jim Collins’ concept of ‘productive paranoia.’ For this initiative to be successful we had to think about everything that could possibly go wrong, and how we would address each situation.
We created a long list of what ifs: (full list shared in the resources below)
- What if the children refuse to put their phone in their pouch?
- What happens if children forget their pouches?
- What happens if a child breaks their pouch?
- What happens if a child is seen on their phone around school?
- What happens if there is a family emergency and the parent needs to speak to their child?
- What about medical conditions which rely on access to phones?
- What about the cost?
We then set to work answering each of the questions. For the final few SLT meetings ahead of the launch this was all we did. We talked and planned through each of the What Ifs, and created a working plan.
Engaging the staff at an early stage was important. Once we had worked out the ‘what ifs’ we engaged in a series of faculty discussions, asking staff to review plans and come up with any potential issues. We provided a series of slides and important information for them to share with pupils. The key message was ‘this is not punitive; we are doing this because we want to improve our learning environment for everyone.’
Staff then shared these slides with pupils during tutor time. There was a bit of a buzz around school the day it was shared.There was quite a bit of posturing and a few comments such as, ‘I won’t be using a stupid pouch!’. But nothing that wasn’t manageable.
That evening, parents were informed by letter and by social media. The overall response was quiet. It didn’t seem to have gathered much attention or traction. A small but vocal group decided to start a mini campaign on Facebook to rubbish the idea. There were comments such as ‘this is against human rights; our pupils need to get in touch with us; my child is being bullied and needs his phone to tell me; what about children with SEND; what about anxious pupils?’
… as well as the standard…’We are taking this to Ofsted and the local press!’
It was at this point that we decided to own the story ourselves, so we contacted the local press. The news was well received within the local community, and if anything it took the wind out of those trying to create their own narrative on Facebook.
We discussed at length the importance of Day 1. We planned carefully how we would distribute the pouches and then how to ensure that pupils engaged with the new policy. The last thing we wanted was a public stand off. So we planned exactly how we would tackle any refusal to engage.
We decided that if we handed over the responsibility of giving out pouches and asking pupils to put their phones inside to tutors then we would be unlikely to get 100% take up. The vast majority would be fine but some would need assistance. For us, we decided that the SLT (myself as Principal, Vice Principals, Assistant Principals and Directors of Faculty) would hand out the pouches - ticking off who had received them. (We had made the choice of giving out the first pouch at cost to the school.)
In total we had 15 members of staff handing out around 1200 pouches.
Rather than ask pupils, ‘Will you put your phone inside please?’ - which would give them the opportunity to decline, we instead phrased it as:
‘This is yours, a present from us, you need to pop your phone inside and show me it has locked. Don’t forget to put your name on it. Do that now - the last thing you want is to lose your phone.’
This helped students to focus on not losing their phone, rather than rallying against having to put their phone in a pouch.
On launch day, our students arrived at their tutor time as normal; we had extended our tutor time from 8.30 - 9.00am. Tutors were going through slides showing the new systems and rules, and whilst they did so, the SLT team were going from tutor to tutor handing out pouches and ticking off a register of who had been given a pouch.
It went smoothly. The planning had been important and students didn’t really see it as a choice. Put your phone in here, don’t forget to write your name. A stash of pouches for late pupils were kept at student services.
We had left 1 member of SLT (Vice Principal) in the school Hall, ready to receive any refusers to the new policy. Their role was to remind the students why we were doing it, explain that it was now part of the school policy and rules and give them a second chance to comply. The students were also informed that the Principal would be returning from handing out phones to speak to them about following school rules.
Out of the approx. 1200 pupils, we had 5 refusers. Pupils whose parents had encouraged them not to engage or follow the rules. The three pupils spent the day in the Academy ‘engagement room’ as a consequence, the following day all 5 pupils put their phones in pouches and complied with the Academy expectations.
At around 11.00am, the SLT team conducted our first spot check.
When entering a classroom we said, “‘Please get your Yondr pouches out and put them on the table in front of you.”
Spot checks were to become a norm and from this day on we became a smartphone free school, and changed our culture for good.
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