Disruptive phones have no place in schools, Education Secretary says

The Education Secretary has said smartphones have “no place” in schools as she warned of the damage caused by social media and technology.

Bridget Phillipson told school and college leaders that they have the Government’s “full backing” on removing disruptive phones from classrooms.

Addressing the annual conference of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) in Liverpool, the Education Secretary said she had tasked officials to explore how to “more effectively monitor” what is happening in schools across England around the use of smartphones.

It comes after Manny Botwe, president of the ASCL, said smartphones and social media are increasingly “being weaponised” against schools.

The school leader in Macclesfield called for an end to the “chaos” caused by social media as he said it was time to bring social media platforms to “heel”.

In her speech to around 1,000 school and college leaders on Friday, the Education Secretary said: “You know, we all know, that phones are disruptive, distracting, bad for behaviour. They have no place in our schools.

“And the Government’s position is clear, you have our full backing in ridding our classrooms of the disruption of phones.

“I know that will be the case in the overwhelming majority of all classrooms, but I expect it to be true in all classrooms.

“So I tasked my officials to look at how we can more effectively monitor what’s happening on the ground.”

Schools in England were given non-statutory guidance under the former Conservative government in February last year intended to stop the use of mobile phones during the school day.

Speaking to the media at the conference in Liverpool, Ms Phillipson said phone use can be “a driver of poor behaviour” within classrooms and she called on school leaders to enforce existing guidance on phones.

She said: “The Conservatives brought in this policy, I think it was the right approach to take, what we need to ensure is that it’s being enforced right across the country, in every classroom.

“So we’ll be looking into what more data we need to gather in order to identify if it’s not happening, what more schools need to do to take action.”

When asked whether parents should be stricter on restricting phone use at home, the Education Secretary said: “I know lots of parents are worried about access to inappropriate material online and what children can be exposed to. That’s why we are taking action through the Online Safety Act.”

She added: “I think the evidence is increasingly clear that we shouldn’t be allowing children unrestricted access to harmful content.

“There’s a role for government in that, there is a role for parents in that, and as I said in my speech, schools have a role to play during the school day.”

During her speech to headteachers on Friday, Ms Phillipson also called for schools to “catch up fast” to improve pupil attendance and said she would not accept the “damage” caused by children missing school.

The Education Secretary said some schools were “not making enough progress” on absences as she called for “old-fashioned graft”.

During a Q&A session at the conference in Liverpool, Ms Phillipson said people will need to “think very differently” about the system to support children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send).

The Education Secretary said: “I think we need to take a step back from the system that we have right now – the system that came from the 2014 reforms – and start to think very differently about what that system will look like.

“And that’s a conversation that in the months to come we’ll be having with parents, but also with the profession, because this is complex.”

When asked by the media if the Government’s plans included making it harder for children to secure extra support through an education, health and care plan (EHCP), Ms Phillipson said: “I understand the anxiety that parents feel, not least because the system we’ve got at the moment is so adversarial, so pressured, where parents have to fight really hard.

“What I want to get to is a system where actually support is put in place far more quickly for children [with Send] who need additional support, much earlier identification of need, much more timely attention and support. That’s a world from where we are at the moment.”

During her speech, the Education Secretary announced that Tom Rees, who is leading the Government’s expert advisory group on inclusion, will launch a call for evidence on Saturday about effective inclusion in mainstream schools.