St Albans school heads call for under-14s smartphone ban

St Albans Primary Schools Consortium says smartphones can expose children "to a number of negative risks"

A city's head teachers have called on parents not to let their children have a smartphone before they are 14.

St Albans Primary Schools Consortium urged parents to wait until their children were in Year 9 at secondary school before they were given a device.

The letter to parents across the Hertfordshire district was signed by 20 of St Albans' 24 primary school head teachers.

It said phones could expose children "to a number of negative risks".

The letter said: "We understand the importance of being able to contact your child as they become more independent, walking to and from school, in order to give you peace of mind and for children to be able to call in emergencies.

"Children's phones do not need to have access to the internet in order for you to keep them safe, however.

"The use of smartphones is now a feature of daily life for most adults and over the last few years the age at which children are given their first smartphone has dropped significantly.

"We know that in our schools some children as young as Key Stage 1 have smartphones."

'Positive response'

Justine Elbourne-Cload, executive head teacher of Cunningham Hill Schools, said: "We understand this is not going to be an overnight success.

"But we think it's going to be something that grows over the next few years. There has been such a positive response that we think this is really starting to take hold around St Albans."

Ms Elbourne-Cload, co-chair of the St Albans Primary Schools Consortium, said: "There will always be parents who don't agree for whatever reasons. We're trying to change the culture and we're trying to change the expected norms."

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Teacher Tapp, which provides daily surveys of thousands of teachers, published data last January that suggested only about 1% of schools had no restrictions in place at all on phones in school.

There are currently no complete bans on mobile phones in schools in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, where decisions on education are devolved from the UK government.

In July last year, the United Nations warned phones were a source of distraction for pupils and could lead to cyber-bullying, adding that fewer than one in four countries worldwide had policies banning phones in schools.

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