Two Cheshire East councillors are calling for a ban on mobile phones in all the authority’s maintained schools, writes Belinda Ryan.
Independent councillors David Jefferay (Wilmslow) and Emma Gilman (Macclesfield) will be presenting a motion to full council today (December 10th) calling for the authority to back a phone-free environment throughout the school day.
Such bans are supported by Cheshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner Dan Price who has launched an initiative for mobile phones to be locked away during the school day in every state high school in Cheshire.
The PCC wants Cheshire to be the first county in the UK where all state high schools have lockable phone pouches.
In the motion, councillors Jefferay and Gilman say: “The PCC reports that schools with lockable pouches are seeing immediate, widespread, positive results in wellbeing and a dramatic reduction in online safeguarding incidents; one quoting an 80 per cent reduction in these.”
They are calling on the council to prohibit pupils’ access to smartphones and similar personal electronic devices during the school day in all local authority maintained schools in Cheshire East, with reasonable exemptions for documented medical or special educational needs.
They also want the director of education to work with head teachers and governing bodies to develop and implement a consistent, enforceable policy across all maintained schools, in line with the phone-free schools model of a ‘first bell to last bell’ ban.
The two councillors say it will be necessary to ensure that alternative communication systems are in place so that parents can contact schools during the day and pupils can access support in emergencies without recourse to personal devices.
Cheshire East’s full council meeting takes place today (Wednesday, December 10) at Tatton Park at 11am.
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