Help or hindrance? Channel Islanders divided on whether mobile phones should be banned in schools
ITV Channel reporter Katya Fowler reflects on the different opinions across the Channel Islands about the use of mobile phones in schools
With around 200 schools in France trialing a new initiative to ban phones for all pupils under 15 during the day, many are wondering whether something similar could be done across the Channel Islands.
At Guernsey's Ladies College it is already in force and they have not looked back.
Principal Daniele Harford-Fox says: "France just published a 140-page report, demonstrating the significant harms of mobile phone technology, the Surgeon General in America and the UK's Education Committee has done the same.
"All of the research overwhelmingly shows that this technology is having profound impact on the health and wellbeing of our young people and so it just remains surprising to me that we aren't acting faster if I'm honest."
In Kent, one school has given students a pouch to put their phones in so they can be locked away during lessons.
This means the devices do not distract from learning but can be accessed in an emergency and at the end of the school day.
Headteacher Damien McBeath from The John Wallis Academy says the change was brought in at the start of the year and has been transformational.
He explains: "It has changed the whole culture, we've had a significant reduction in the number of detentions and disruption inside lessons, so in terms of behaviour it's shifted massively.
"We've seen a real reduction in truency inside school so children are in lessons more than they were. In terms of reports of online abuse, bullying and misuse of social medi,a it's at the lowest it's been in five years."
In response to questions around an island-wide phone ban in Jersey schools, Education Minister Rob Ward is not convinced.
He says: "Yes they can be a distraction but they can also be a useful learning tool and we do have to educate our young people on the appropriate and sensible use of that mobile technology as they grow older, so there is a balance to be had here. I think the majority of our schools do it well and that's something we will support them in as we go forward."
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