Two more Pembrokeshire schools have announced that from September phones will be banned from the classroom.
Pembroke’s Henry Tudor School and Haverfordwest High have both announced that they will be changing their schools’ mobile phone policies after the summer holidays.
In a letter to parents Henry Tudor School said: “There is increasing evidence showing that mobile phones in school settings create distraction to learner’s education, but can negatively impact on safeguarding, mental health and wellbeing.”
The decision to become mobile free has been made following consultation with parents, staff, other Pembrokeshire schools the county council and the school’s Governing Body.
Pupils are being asked to ideally leave their phones at home. Those who do bring phones to school will have to leave them in a secure box on arrival and collect it at the end of the day.
Those who do not adhere to the policy will have their phone confiscated. At the end of the day it will be returned to a responsible adult but not the learner.
Parents have taken to social media and the new policy has been met with mixed response. While a lot of parents think that the ban is a positive thing, others feel their children should have access to their phones Some parents have expressed concern about children who are bullied being unable to reach out to someone at home; the safety of valuable phones being handed over on arrival and not knowing what was happening at school, stating that the school phone number was often left unanswered.
Haverfordwest High School has also told parents that it will implement a mobile phone ban when the new school year starts.
A letter from the school states: “In the light of overwhelming research that excessive mobile phone use is linked to reduced educational performance and has a negative effect on children’s emotional health hand wellbeing, the school has made the ban the use of mobile phones by pupils during the day.”
Like Henry Tudor school, pupils will be expected to place their phones in a secure box at the beginning of the day.
The school says that they are taking this measure to mitigate the ‘huge increase in the level of distraction’ phones are causing.
The letter says that during lessons pupils repeatedly check their messages and social media and at break times will text their friends from across the dining table rather than engage in face-to-face interaction.
Both schools are following the precedent of Ysgol Penrhyn Dewi in St Davids which introduced a phone ban last year.
A report from Pembrokeshire county councillors said that the phone check in system had resulted in a 75 per cent improvement in safeguarding, vastly improved behaviour and better communication.
Other Pembrokeshire secondary schools have yet to implement a check in scheme. Instead they are asking pupils to turn their phones off and put them out of sight in their bags at the start of the school day.
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