Ministers have confirmed plans to ban the use of mobile phones in English schools, releasing guidance for headteachers which some unions said included practices that had already been widely adopted.
However, one headteacher welcomed the Department for Education (DfE) plan, saying it would help give schools the confidence to make a change which would benefit pupils but could meet resistance from parents.
Ghey has also argued for phone manufacturers to make specific products for under-16s which prevent them from accessing harmful content, after it emerged that the killers of her daughter viewed violent material before the murder.
Writing in a foreword to the guidance, Keegan said it was “about achieving clarity and consistency in practice, backing headteachers and leaders and giving staff confidence to act”, and argued that there was currently much variation in how schools managed the use of phones.
Geoff Barton, the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said that while the amount of time some children spend on phones was a worry, the new guidance was “a non-policy for a non-problem”.
Tom Bennett, an adviser to the DfE on school behaviour, said: “Mobile phones may be ubiquitous, but we have a strong and growing understanding of how damaging they can be for a child’s social and educational development.”
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