Teachers are weighing in after education secretary Bridget Phillipson said in a letter that all schools in England should be phone-free for the entire school day.Schools are advised to not let children use phones as calculators or for research in lessons, while teachers shouldn’t use phones in front of students, according to the letter seen by the BBC.Ofsted will also be inspecting schools on the implementation of their mobile phone policies.Previously, phone use was discouraged in schools but newer guidance restricts use even more, saying pupils should not have access to phones throughout the day including during lessons, the time between lessons, break and lunch.How do teachers feel about enforcing these bans?Teachers are facing a burnout crisis – 78% of education staff are stressed, and more than one in three have experienced a mental health issue in the past academic year, according to 2025′s Teacher Wellbeing Index. Staff retention is also a major issue. So, how easy it is to enforce a school-wide phone ban? Will it not then add more to the extremely full plates of teaching staff?Lucy Naughton, of Locker Space which provides phone lockers to schools, shared she spoke to a teacher who had confiscated 26 phones before lunchtime one Wednesday morning: “She told me she spends more time trying to pull pupils away from their screens than she does teaching them.”The tighter restrictions on phone use in schools have been largely welcomed by teachers, however some are concerned that it shouldn’t just be up to schools to enforce this – parents need to play their part, too.Jamie Lewis, headteacher at Wellfield Academy in Leyland in Lancashire, told HuffPost UK: “Schools being phone-free zones is achievable as long as expectations are incredibly clear for students and staff and [there is] clarity around consequences, like confiscation.“However schools alone can’t achieve this without the support of parents, both backing up the school’s decisions around phones and practically, such as not messaging their child in the school day.”Beena Sisodia, National Director of Inclusion at E-ACT, agrees that this needs to be a “shared responsibility” between schools and parents. “At home, parents have an equally important role to play by setting boundaries around screen time, monitoring app use, and using parental controls and content filters where appropriate,” she said. Phone bans can work when phones are locked awayFour E-ACT secondary schools have been trialling a ‘phones under control’ approach where mobiles are put in locked pouches throughout the school day. “In practice, once systems like locked pouches are in place, monitoring is straightforward and the benefits for pupils are clear – calmer classrooms, fewer behaviour incidents, and students telling us they feel relieved from constant online pressures,” said Sisodia, who noted parents had been “hugely supportive” of the system.Astrea Academy Netherwood in South Yorkshire has also already banned phones, which are collected in morning form time, put in secure mobile lockers and then locked away in a storage room during the school day. Principal Andy Downing said once students are reunited with their phones in afternoon form time, they are asked to put them in their bags until they have left the school premises.“We have found that, with this clear boundary in place, students are happier and are developing the art and pleasure of communicating face-to-face with their peers, free from the distraction of phones,” he said.Data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) found that, on average, two-thirds of 15-year-olds across OECD countries reported being distracted using digital devices in most or every maths class. Almost two in three (60% of) pupils got distracted by other pupils using digital devices.Not everyone agrees with a total ban on phones, however. Caroline Allams, former school senior leader and co-founder of the online safety platform Natterhub, said while a phone-free school day can be the foundation of a calmer learning environment, “it should go hand-in-hand with supervised digital access and early online-safety education”.“If phones are banned entirely, we also don’t get the chance to teach children how to navigate the virtual world safely,” she said. Ofsted to monitor school phone bansWhile staff are mostly positive about freeing children of the distractions associated with phones, teachers are concerned about how Ofsted might be involved.“It is helpful that Ofsted inspectors will play a role in recognising strong practice in schools, provided the focus remains on support rather than additional bureaucracy,” said Downing. Sisodia suggested using Ofsted to look at phone policies could help reinforce how “important” this is, “as long as it’s applied fairly and with a practical understanding of the realities schools face”.Sharing his thoughts, Lewis concluded he “doesn’t believe it’s right” for Ofsted to be checking up on a school’s policy, “but we all know how phone use can bleed into wider discussions around safeguarding and a school culture, so it’s something that should be considered in the context of each school”.Related…UK Social Media Ban For Under-16s: Parents And Experts Share Their ViewsI’m A Therapist. I Don’t Think Banning Social Media For Kids Is The Only AnswerI Track My Teens’ Phones And Discovered Something Unexpected About Myself HuffPost UK – Athena2 – All Entries (Public) Read More