Edinburgh school introduces Scotland’s first phone ban and makes pupils lock away their phones in pouches
7 May 2025, 19:28
Portobello High School pupils have become the first in the country to lock away their turned off devices as they arrive at school each day.
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They each have a pouch featuring a magnetic lock which can only be undone at stations by the front doors.
The school has introduced the policy in an attempt to address the distractions of having mobile phones in classrooms.
“We've just been looking for a solution to a problem that we feel, and I think lots of schools feel,” Deputy headteacher Luke McAllister told LBC.
“Having gone to a gig [where phones were locked in pouches], actually, and recognising that this is what people are doing, it felt like a really good solution. It felt it could work for schools.
“I think, crucially, the pouch system allows young people to retain their phone. There could be a lot of anxiety if we were taking it away from them. So they get to retain their phone, but crucially, for us as a school, we get to protect their learning from the distractions of that phone.”
Each student will carry their pouch with them throughout the day, so in an emergency situation they can go to an unlocking station and access their device.
The City of Edinburgh Council’s education convenor Joan Griffiths told LBC that’s down to concerns that some pupils have medical conditions and others are young carers.
LBC News explores school using pouches to block off smartphones
Parents, guardians and carers have been consulted for months about the introduction of the new phone-free pilot.
PTA chair Nancy Riach told LBC the policy isn’t a ‘ban’.
“This has been about seven or eight months of consultation from an initial set of parents and a head teacher raising concerns around the impacts of phones,” she said.
“Even though we have a mobile phone policy, but actually in class people are on their phones when they're not supposed to be. They're not supposed to be, but they are. The amount of teacher time and the impact on that, as well as much wider health and well-being and all sorts of other concerns.”
Pupils Alice and Ava say getting rid of phones will help but they aren’t sure the pouches are the best way to do that pic.twitter.com/0vwJqJKqU8
— LBC News Scotland (@LBCNewsScot) May 7, 2025
Other schools are already following Portobello’s lead. Queensferry High School - also in Edinburgh - will introduce a similar system on May 14th.
Teachers, parents and politicians in Portobello have told LBC they don’t support a blanket law-change mandating phone-free schools. Instead, they say it should be examined on a ‘case-by-case’ basis.
However, Cllr Griffiths believes the rest of the city will follow: “We’ll learn from any issues that arise and then start to roll it out. But each school will be unique because each school building is different and each school is different.”
