Ofsted will check every school’s policy on mobile phones during inspections and ministers will issue “tougher guidance for schools” on restricting the devices, the government has announced.
Ministers will also consult on restrictions on “addictive features” in apps and on a potential ban on access to social media for children and better age checks.
The government has said schools will be “expected to be phone-free by default thanks to today’s announcement”. The guidance will be non-statutory, meaning schools will not have a legal duty to follow it.
However, the government’s consultation on the matter will consider whether leaders “should have a clear legal obligation to consider the guidance in setting and implementing mobile phone policies”, the DfE said.
Existing non-statutory guidance states schools should develop phone policies that prohibit the use of phones and similar devices “throughout the school day”.
This evening, the government said new guidance will “make it even clearer that schools need to be phone-free environments and that pupils should not have access to their devices during lessons, break times, lunch times, or between lessons”.
However, if the guidance is not statutory, schools will have no legal duty to follow it.
‘Immediate action’ from Ofsted
The Department for Education said this evening that “immediate action will include Ofsted checking school mobile phone policy on every inspection, with schools expected to be phone-free by default thanks to today’s announcement”.
But it has not said what it means by “immediate”, when asked by Schools Week if this meant the inspectorate would start these checks from tomorrow.
The watchdog will “examine both schools’ mobile phone policies and how effectively they are implemented when judging behaviour during inspections.
“Schools that are struggling will get one-to-one support from attendance and behaviour hub schools that are already effectively implementing phone bans.”
But Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT headteachers’ union, said: “The vast majority of schools already have restrictions on the use of mobile phones on school sites.
“The government’s suggestion that Ofsted should be ‘policing’ school policies is deeply unhelpful and misguided. School leaders need support from government, not the threat of heavy-handed inspection.”
The Department said its new guidance would be implemented “through behaviour management in schools, and by setting out clear expectations for teachers and school staff”.
This will include an expectation that staff “should not use their own mobile phones for personal reasons in front of pupils, setting an example that mobile phones are not necessary in the classroom”.
Schools will need to start following the new guidance from the start of the summer term, the DfE told Schools Week.
Most secondaries still allow phones out of sight
Research by the children’s commissioner, Rachel de Souza, found last year that 90 per cent of secondary schools and 99.8 per cent of primary schools already have policies in place that stop the use of mobile phones during the school day, in line with DfE non-statutory guidance.
But the majority (79 per cent) of secondaries allow pupils to bring phones to school if they keep them out of sight and do not use them.
Education secretary Bridget Phillipson said: “We have been clear that mobile phones have no place in our schools but now we’re going further through tougher guidance and stronger enforcement. Mobile phones have no place in schools. No ifs, no buts.”
Ofsted chief inspector Martyn Oliver said his “message to headteachers is you now have all the backing – and the backing of my inspectors – to ban mobile phones in schools immediately.
“They chip away at children’s attention span, distract from learning and can be detrimental to children’s wellbeing.”
Social media ban considered
The government said it would also produce “evidence-based screen time guidance for parents of children aged 5 to 16”.
A consultation on children’s use of technology and a “national conversation” will be launched, with a government response expected in the summer.
The consultation will “look at options including raising the digital age of consent, implementing phone curfews to avoid excessive use, and restricting potentially addictive design features such as ‘streaks’ and ‘infinite scrolling’”.
Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the ASCL headteachers’ union, said the consultation was “good news”, but “it does feel as though the government has been sluggish in its response to the risks posed by social media and online harms”.
He added that Ofsted’s involvement in policing these bans “is all well and good but it would be more helpful for the government to provide schools with resources to support the safe and secure storage of mobile phones.
“Most schools operate a policy in which students are asked to keep their phones in bags and out of sight – but this, of course, means that teachers constantly have to be alert to pupils breaking the rules.
“There are products on the market which can be used to safely store mobile phones so that they cannot be used. However, this costs money and many schools are, frankly, completely cash-strapped.”
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