School goes from partial to full mobile phone ban

THE headteacher of a secondary school in Cardiff has said he is going to ban mobile phones after a trial showed pupils at his school without their phones talked to each other more.

- ABBIE WIGHTWICK Education editor [e-mail]

When pupils return to Mary Immaculate High next week after the half-term break they will return to a school free of mobile phones, headteacher Huw Powell has told the Western Mail.

All pupils will have to leave their devices in locked-up pouches at the start of the day and will then be able to have them back at the end of the day, he said.

The move follows bans in some other schools and one county is even advising restrictions on smart watches and other digital devices.

Mr Powell said after trialling the initiative on Year Seven and Eight students, it was agreed it should be imposed across the whole school.

He said that during the trial before half-term staff noticed some of the younger pupils who were without their phones conversed with each other more, especially at break and lunch times.

Mr Powell explained that up to now the school has allowed pupils to go on their phones at break and lunch times but that isn’t going to happen any more.