Former Oxfordshire teacher calls for phones to be banned in schools, after "deeply troubling" report

A former teacher in Oxfordshire is calling for smart phones to be banned in schools, saying "it's not only children who are harmed" by smartphones.

It’s as a report highlighting the "deeply troubling" impact of smartphones in schools has today been published.

Will Orr-Ewing is a former teacher living in South Oxfordshire and is part of Smartphone Free Child Oxfordshire, which is an organisation group made up of parents supporting each other in the decision to hold off on buying their children smartphones.

Mr Orr-Ewing said: “If you think about what it's like when you're trying to have a conversation with a friend, a relative or a spouse, and they are looking at their phone, or they know that their phone is ringing. You don't have their full attention, and that is basically what it's like for a teacher.”

He added: “At minimum, in a children's life, the place of learning should be a seven or eight hour window where they are not subject to the distraction and the impact of the smartphone.

“They are full of explicit content and lots of ways for children to act in unsafe ways. There are plenty of ways to get to and from school, which are safe and do not require a smartphone. So, I want them to be as marginalised from the school day as possible.”

"Deeply troubling" report:

Smartphones and social media are increasingly "being weaponised" against schools and teachers, according to headteachers' union leader.

Manny Botwe, president of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), says technology has a "darker side" and leaves a "trail of harm".

His comments come as a survey for ASCL found that 71% of teachers said pupils were using social media below the minimum age requirement.

A poll by the Teacher Tapp app asked 6,409 teachers and leaders in schools in England in February what social media-related issues they had noticed since September.

The study finds more than two in five (43%) teachers - in primary and secondary schools - said parents had made negative comments about their school or staff online.

Three in 10 (30%) of secondary school teachers noticed signs of students having accessed pornographic or violent content, while 18% noticed signs of students accessing extremist content.

Almost half (46%) of secondary school teachers said students had recorded teachers or other pupils without their permission.

More than one in 10 (11%) of secondary school teachers said deepfake imagery or audio had been used maliciously against staff or students.

Nearly three in four (73%) secondary school teachers reported that students had been bullied by peers on social media.

The president of the ASCL has called the survey findings "deeply troubling".

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