Minister to review school phones ban as pressure grows over online harm

Bridget Phillipson is to scrutinise smartphone bans in schools in England as pressure grows from MPs to act on the dangers of social media.

- Jessica Elgot Rachel Keenan Rachel Hall

The education secretary will start monitoring a group of schools to understand the effectiveness of guidance telling teachers to "prohibit the use of mobile phones throughout the school day - not only during lessons but break and lunchtimes as well". The guidance does not say how the rules should be policed.

The Department for Education will also, for the first time, carry out an in-depth analysis of the national behaviour survey to look at the difficulties schools face and the most successful ways to enforce bans.

Phillipson is understood to be frustrated that there are no checks on whether the guidance is being followed or is even useful. There are no plans for the government to legislate to ban phones in schools.

The monitoring exercise will examine how many schools have bans in place, how they implement them and what impact they are having on pupil behaviour.