Pepe Di’Iasio, General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, responds to the announcement that strengthened government guidance will state that mobile phones must be out of use and inaccessible throughout the school day.
“Successive governments and administrations have spent considerable time creating and revising guidance on this issue, despite the fact that schools already have robust and effective policies in place on the use of mobile phones.
“This latest effort does at least provide some clarity, but if this government is determined for schools to go further then they have to provide them with the means to do so. School leaders cannot simply make mobile phones disappear. They are a fact of life and something nearly all young people will possess by the time they arrive at secondary school, if not earlier. Schools will need time to develop a new policy that works in their setting. If all schools are going to be expected to have lockable pouches or other secure storage facilities for every pupil, the cost involved will be very significant indeed. This is not feasible unless the government puts in the funding required to meet these costs.”