MP group urges DfE to look at pupils mobile phone use

Along with a group of seven Tory MPs, Culture Secretary Matt Hancock has called for pupils to be banned from using their mobile phones at school.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Hancock said: “There are a number of schools across the country that simply don’t allow them”, and suggested that more headteachers should “follow their lead”.

“While it is up to individual schools to decide rather than government, I admire head teachers who do not allow mobiles to be used during the school day."

In a letter to the Telegraph, a group of Tory MPs including Harborough MP Neil O’Brien and Chichester MP Gillian Keegan, urged the Department for Education to give guidance to schools about the evidence on attainment.

The letter cited a 2015 study by the London School of Economics: “Where schools banned smartphones from the premises, or required them to be handed in at the start of the day, pupils’ chances of getting five good GCSEs increased by an average of 2%.”