Southwark (Parliament Politics Magazine) – Bermondsey, Southwark, headteacher calls smartphones a ‘bastion of all ills’, calling on parents to support and mitigate the impact on young students’ minds.
Mike Baxter, the headteacher at City of London Academy, is leading the push to ban smartphones from Southwark classrooms as evidence of their detrimental effects on youth grows.
Parents of incoming students are being advised to replace their iPhones with traditional “brick” phones, as Year 7 students at his school will no longer be permitted to enter the building with smartphones starting in September.
Every year after that, the restriction will be extended until, in three years, all age groups prior to Year 10 are smartphone-free.
It won’t be popular with pupils, he concedes:
“But that’s the role of adults. You’re meant to make decisions for younger people in their best interests. And I think they will look back and see it as a positive thing.”
Mobile phones are currently subject to a rigorous “not seen, not heard” regulation at the school, requiring them to be put in a pouch at the start of each day.
Without exception, students who use it during the school day are suspended for a week.
Although Baxter said some parents have marched into reception citing the European Convention on Human Rights when their child’s phone has been confiscated, the policy is typically well-supported by parents.
Baxter led a campaign last year to persuade 18 schools to forbid students from using smartphones before Year 10.
After consulting with parents, those schools all implemented varying smartphone bans that make a distinction between smartphones and brick phones.
“We know that smartphones are the bastions of all the ills we see with young people,”
Baxter says.
“Online bullying, attention fragmentation, sleep deprivation, poor socialisation. Whereas with brick phones there is no issue around mental health. They are communication devices.”
Nine out of ten kids will have a smartphone by the time they are eleven years old, according to a new research from the House of Commons Education Committee, which also found that children’s screen usage increased by 52% between 2020 and 2022.
Other research has connected smartphone use to poor self-esteem and shorter attention spans, with girls being especially vulnerable to physical appearance-related worries.
There have been numerous calls to limit smartphone use, ranging from UNESCO, which has advocated for a worldwide ban on smartphones in classrooms, to Barnet Council in north London, which plans to outlaw smartphones in all of its elementary and secondary schools starting in September.
With 200,000 members as of right now, the advocacy group Smartphone Free Childhood is working to address what its founders refer to as “one of the defining parenting challenges of our time,” namely that smartphones can serve as a conduit for violent and explicit pornography, a means for sexual predators to reach and groom young children, and a number of other unsettling problems.
The group cites studies that reveal the average 12- to 15-year-old now uses their smartphone for 35 hours a week, which is the equivalent of a full-time job.
Legislators in the UK have taken longer to act. A bill that would have prohibited smartphones in all English classrooms was debated by lawmakers last week but was ultimately weakened.
“One thing that’s changed in the last few years is there has been a shift in cultural awareness that smartphones now have as many, if not more, downsides compared to upsides”
says Baxter,
“and I think even two years ago, that debate wasn’t really happening.”
Baxter will shortly be writing to new parents to alert them about the City of London Academy’s smartphone policy, which was just announced along with the school’s offers for the upcoming year. In a year, he hopes to compare the performance and conduct of the Year 7 students who did not have phones to that of the previous year.
He acknowledged that attempting to modify behavior outside of school hours is the challenging part. A ban during school hours may only go so far without parental cooperation.
“My hope is that parents take the lead whereby they don’t buy their children smartphones – full stop,”
he says.
“For me, that’s the game changer that can stop young people having such a screen-based childhood.”
There are “big barriers,” the headteacher admits. It may be more difficult for parents who are single or don’t work regular hours to enforce a rigorous screen-time schedule.
The goal of the policy, he continues, is to “encourage more and more parents to be firm on this.”
Secondary schools are having a difficult time filling spots because of a combination of rising housing costs and a declining birth rate. In light of this, Baxter acknowledges that some people are afraid to take a strong stance on such a contentious topic for fear of upsetting parents.
The current condition of six Southwark primary schools that have been closed since 2022 was examined last week.
A number of them have been designated for the extension of special education services in order to accommodate the increasing demand, which has more than doubled over the past decade.
Baxter is certain that the amount of time kids spend online is responsible for at least some of this increased requirement. Although it is a contentious viewpoint, many educators share it.
There is no concrete evidence linking screen time to autism, ADHD, or any other learning difference or disability, but a complex combination of hereditary and environmental variables are thought to be responsible for the rising prevalence of exceptional educational needs as well as better diagnosis and support.
On the other hand, excessive screen usage has been connected to learning delays and behavioral issues, particularly in the development of speech and language.
“We know really clearly that young people are not meeting developmental milestones in the way they used to,”
Baxter argues.
“More kids are going to primary school not toilet trained or with poor socialisation skills. And it is becoming more conclusively linked to the time spent staring at screens.”
What specific measures will Southwark schools take to enforce the smartphone ban?
Lockable phone pouches or storage spaces can be used by schools to require students to put their devices away during the school day. This guarantees that phones are off-limits both during and outside of class periods.
Create explicit policies and let staff, parents, and students know about them. This entails outlining the regulations, the justifications for the prohibition, and the penalties for breaking them. Cooperation can be improved by involving parents and students in the creation of policies.
Permit instructors or administrators to make exceptions for emergencies, medical requirements, or educational objectives. This flexibility keeps the overarching ban in place while allowing students to use gadgets as needed.
Consistently enforce the regulation and keep an eye on compliance. Devices used during forbidden periods may be seized, and repeat offenders may face incarceration or parental participation as sanctions.