Phone bans 9,000 class chat texts shock prompts schools' crackdown

CHILDREN look set to be banned from taking smartphones into two primary schools in Bristol from September after a teacher found the WhatsApp group for Year 6 pupils had 9,000 notifications in just one night.

- Tristan CORK

The discovery, along with emerging scientific evidence of the harm smartphones are doing to children, sparked a lengthy discussion and consultation with parents and staff at two primaries in Emersons Green, which has culminated in a decision to ban them outright from both schools.

Children at Blackhorse Primary School will not be allowed to bring smartphones to school with them, in a move that executive headteacher Simon Botten said had been backed by the majority of parents, albeit with reservations from some. A similar ban at Blackhorse's sister school Emersons Green will be decided in the coming weeks.

Writing on his blog, SouthGlosHead, Mr Botten explained how the teachers at both schools gradually came to the conclusion that smartphones were on balance not a good thing for primary school-age children, and they worked for more than a year with parents to research the issue and discuss what they could do.