Phones to be banned from pupils’ bags or pockets under new rules

Pupils will not be allowed to have their phones on them at all during the school day under stricter government guidance in England.

Statutory guidance came into force in June, making schools and trusts legally responsible for being phone-free throughout the day.

Ministers now say changes to that guidance will go beyond the current “no see, no hear” policies in place in some schools – where phones can remain in pupils’ bags if they are not seen or heard – when it comes into force from September 2027.

But head teachers’ unions said schools would struggle to implement stricter new policies without additional funding from government.

Education Secretary Lucy Powell said the government’s “clear message” to parents and pupils was that “school is for learning and friendship, not scrolling”.

Access to phones “risks pulling children away from their learning and from each other”, the government said.

Schools will be able to decide how to follow the guidance. Some schools have invested in sealed pouches or secure lockers. Others collect phones at the start of the day, or have prohibited them from sites altogether.

Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Powell said such policies could achieve a “whole-school culture change” – and that was “what we want to see happening everywhere”.

Karl Harrison, head teacher at Burnage Academy for Boys in Manchester, told the programme the school had spent £20,000 to bring in a system of metal detectors and phone pouches to prevent pupils from accessing their phones.

While some felt their freedom had gone, locking phones away had increased how much pupils socialised at school, he said.

“People now can talk to each other, instead of scrolling on a device,” he said.

“It’s also increased levels of focus in lessons because now there’s less distraction, and people are achieving higher grades.”