A school without phones

When I became head teacher of a secondary school in the north of England, I noticed something strange about lunchtime. The canteen was full, but you could have heard a pin drop. Hundreds of teenagers were sitting together, and nearly all of them were staring at their phones.

So, at the start of the new school year, we tried an experiment. Students could still bring their phones to school, but they had to lock them in a special bag from the first bell until the last. Not surprisingly, many students were up in arms. Some parents complained as well, because they wanted to be able to reach their children during the day.

The first few weeks were an uphill battle. Little by little, though, things began to change. The canteen got louder. Students started playing cards and football again, and the library was busier than before. Teachers noticed that fewer students were tired in morning lessons. On top of that, there were fewer arguments that started online and continued in the classroom.

Admittedly, the ban did not solve every problem. A few students found ways to break the rules, and some still stayed up late online at home. Besides, phones are not only bad. They can be useful for tasks such as looking up a word or filming a science experiment. So now teachers allow phones in some lessons, but only when there is a clear purpose.

Two years later, I asked a group of older students if they wanted the old rules back. To my surprise, most of them said no. One girl told me, "At first I hated it. But now I actually talk to people at lunch. I didn't realise how much I was missing out on."