Teachers need the force of the law to make schools phone-free
(Prajuab Chaipimpa / Alamy)
4 min read
“Why on earth is the government so resistant to a phone ban in schools?” It’s the question I’ve been asked more than any other since taking on this job and, honestly, I still don’t have a sensible answer.
Somehow, Labour finds itself on the wrong side of an argument where teaching unions, parents, teachers and the children themselves are all crying out for us to do more.
The Prime Minister calls a phone ban “unnecessary”; the Education Secretary dismisses it as a “gimmick”. They could not be more mistaken. Their own department’s evidence shows that phones disrupt nearly half of GCSE classes every single day. Imagine the impact of that on a child’s future. The National Behaviour Survey spells it out in black and white.
Three-quarters of secondary school leaders say pupils may bring phones into school as long as they keep them “out of sight”. This is not a ban – we all know that leads to phones in toilets during lessons, at break-times, and children exposed to all manner of harmful content. Only nine per cent of pupils in years 7 to 13 say students follow the mobile phone policy all of the time. That figure is woeful. It’s also proof, if any were still needed, that the current approach is failing. Evidence from Policy Exchange shows that only 11 per cent of schools are genuinely smartphone-free. We need to go further and legislate to ban phones in schools.
School leaders can see the damage first-hand: smartphones are corroding attainment, behaviour and wellbeing. And the truth is stark we are allowing devices into schools that can access porn, illegal drugs, violent content. How have we normalised this?
Yes, some schools have bans already. But countless teachers face constant pushback from parents who want instant access to their children throughout the day. This isn’t about blaming parents, it’s about giving teachers the protection of law – the ability to say, “This isn’t my rule, it’s the law.”
This is not a theoretical debate. The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill is going through Parliament right now, and we, the Conservatives, have tabled an amendment to put the current guidance into law. That would mean a clear, enforceable ban on smartphones during the school day. Something that every other party apart from Labour have supported, and something I hope members of the House of Lords will back us on when the bill is back in January. Classrooms should be places of learning, not arenas for furtive scrolling under the desk.
Just picture the alternative: playgrounds full of laughter, actual conversations, children looking at each other rather than into the blue glow of a screen. Instead, we’ve sleepwalked into a world where pupils sit side by side, silent, communicating through TikTok, Snapchat, WhatsApp – anything but real speech. Technology designed to connect has, perversely, created a generation more isolated and anxious than ever.
A proper ban would mark the start of a much-needed societal shift. It would send a message that these devices have no place in the school day. And, crucially, it would help us reclaim a little of something precious – childhood.
There is still time to get this right. To most people, the solution seems obvious. I genuinely believe that in a few years’ time we will look back, incredulous, wondering why on earth we didn’t act sooner. The evidence is overwhelming: phones are disrupting education, harming outcomes and heightening the social media-fuelled anxiety and loneliness already plaguing our young people.
I hope MPs and peers will put politics aside and back our amendment. If we can give children relief from their phones during the school day, we can give them something far more valuable in return – real friendships, real concentration, better grades and a school experience rooted in the real world not the pixelated one. Which, frankly, sounds anything but an “unnecessary gimmick” to me.
Laura Trott is the Conservative MP for Sevenoaks and Shadow Education Secretary
