Academy trust enforces ban on mobile phones for 35,000 students
30 September 2024
In September 2024, The Ormiston Academies Trust became the first in England to enforce a ‘no phones’ policy for students to reduce the ‘catastrophic’ impact of phones on learning and mental health.
The Trust operates 44 state schools including 32 secondary schools, serving 35,000 pupils throughout the country.
Ormiston’s chief executive Tom Rees said the status quo in most schools was an ‘inadequate response’ to the disruption to pupil learning and wellbeing caused by mobile phones. Commenting on the current epidemic of declining mental health in adolescents and young people he said, “We’re seeing a clear correlation between that and mobile phone and social media use. Not all mobile phone use is equal and the relationship between that and adolescent mental health, we think, is overwhelming.
“There is a responsibility for society to respond and a responsibility for schools to make it harder for children to access inappropriate content through the school day and restrict the draw of social media.”
He added, “There’s evidence that tells us that even if your phone is in the same room, it could be in your bag or pocket, your brain is leaking attention, still thinking about it and being drawn to it, wondering if there has been a notification on it and what it might be.
“That is impacting young people’s ability to learn, to retain information, to concentrate, to focus.”
School leaders and policymakers across the world are beginning to consider tighter restrictions on mobile phone usage and accessibility for minors.
The French government recently produced a report recommending a ban on internet-enables phones for children under the age of 13 and only allowing access to social media for those aged 16 and over.
In Australia, a social media ban has already put into place for under-16s.
Department for Education advisor on behaviour policy Tom Bennett told The Guardian Newspaper, “Culture has now finally caught up with technology and the evidence base has now confirmed what many people suspected for a long time – that mobile phones are a serious detriment to children’s learning and probably their mental health and wellbeing, and even their safety when they are unsupervised.
“The school environment is very much about focus, motivation and thinking hard about things. Mobile phones promote the opposite: grazing, superficial thinking and novelty and entertainment, which is why we now know the negative effect that mobile phones can have.”
Contact us for minibus leasing
We at Marshall Minibus are proud to serve schools and charities throughout the UK.
Our minibus leasing contracts are flexible, with tailored payment plans to suit your budget and you can choose from a range of vehicles from 8-seater and 9-seater minibuses all the way through to 17-seater minibuses.
To find out more, please contact us by calling 01480 220444 or emailing info@marshall-minibus.co.uk.
Back to Blog listings