Why Every School Is Going Phone Free
In the last two years, something has shifted in UK education.
From small primary schools to the country’s largest Multi Academy Trusts, leaders are reaching the same conclusion: smartphones do not belong in the school day. The Department for Education tightened its guidance in January 2026 to say that all schools should be mobile phone free environments by default, with any exceptions clearly justified and limited. In April 2026 the government confirmed it would put that guidance on a statutory footing. The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026 received Royal Assent on 29 April 2026, and Section 36, which gives the DfE’s mobile phone guidance statutory weight, comes into force on 29 June 2026.
Phone free is no longer a matter of best practice. From 29 June 2026 it is a statutory duty.
So why now, and what does the new law actually say?
What the law actually says
Section 36 of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026 inserts a new section 550C into the Education Act 1996. It does not ban phones outright. What it does is create a statutory duty on the “appropriate person” for a school, the headteacher in maintained schools and the proprietor in academies and independents, to have regard to the Secretary of State’s guidance on pupils having and using mobile phones and other personal interactive communication devices:
- during school hours, and
- on school premises.
“School hours” is defined as any time between the start of the first school session on a school day and the end of the last school session that day. That covers lessons, the time between lessons, breaks and lunchtime. It does not extend to before or after school.
Devices provided by the school for pupil use, such as school issued tablets, are explicitly excluded. The rule is about pupils’ own phones and personal devices.
“Have regard to” is the standard statutory formula used across education law. It does not mean blanket compliance with every line, but it does mean schools must follow the guidance in the normal course of events and have clear, documented reasons for any departure. Combined with Ofsted’s confirmation in January 2026 that it will assess phone policies as part of every inspection, the practical effect is that departing from the guidance casually is no longer an option.
A New Generation of Safeguarding Risks
Pastoral teams across the UK are dealing with safeguarding challenges that simply did not exist a decade ago.
Smartphones in pockets, bags and lockers have become the entry point for some of the most damaging issues schools have ever faced:
- Cyberbullying that follows students from classroom to bedroom
- Sextortion targeting teenagers, often within minutes of first contact
- Non consensual sharing of intimate images between peers
- AI generated deepfakes used to harass or humiliate
- Constant exposure to social media pressure during lessons
These are not rare incidents. Pastoral leads describe them as everyday work. And the speed at which new threats emerge, particularly AI driven harm, has outpaced the ability of schools to respond case by case.
Restricting access during the school day is one of the few interventions that genuinely reduces exposure. It is preventative rather than reactive, which is exactly the framing the DfE’s January 2026 guidance leaned into.
Lost Learning, Lost Focus
Beyond safeguarding, the academic argument is becoming harder to ignore.
A 2021 meta analysis by Hamilton and Hattie, drawing on 39 studies, found a clear negative effect of mobile phones in the classroom on learning, with an effect size of d = -0.34. A widely cited study by Ward and colleagues, published in the Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, showed that the mere presence of a smartphone, even face down and switched off, measurably reduces available cognitive capacity. Notifications, group chats and the pull of social media compete for attention every minute of every lesson.
Teachers report that removing phones changes the texture of the school day: quieter corridors, more eye contact at break time, more conversation in the canteen. This is not nostalgia. It is what classrooms are designed to feel like, and the evidence base now backs up what staff have been describing in their day to day.
From Policy to Practice
The shift towards phone free schools has moved from individual headteacher decisions to system wide policy at remarkable speed.
- The DfE’s January 2026 guidance set the expectation that all schools should be phone free for the entire school day, including breaks and lunchtimes
- Ofsted confirmed on 23 January 2026 that it will assess schools’ mobile phone policies and how they are enforced as part of every inspection
- The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026 received Royal Assent on 29 April 2026, with Section 36 placing a statutory duty on schools to have regard to the DfE guidance from 29 June 2026
- Magnetic phone wallets and lockable pouches are now in widespread use across the secondary sector
- Multi Academy Trusts are rolling out unified phone free policies across all sites
Schools that move early have an advantage. They set the tone with parents, embed expectations with students, and avoid the messy mid policy retrofits that come with delay.
Why This Matters for School Leaders
The case for phone free is now well established, and from 29 June 2026 it is statutory. The harder question is how to implement it well.
A successful phone free policy is not just about removal. It is about creating a school environment where students do not need a phone to feel safe, supported, or in touch with home.
Without that piece of the puzzle, leaders find themselves managing a different kind of pressure: parental anxiety, reception bottlenecks, and staff time absorbed by everyday communication that phones used to handle quietly in the background.
That is the next chapter of phone free schools, and it is the one that separates a policy that works on paper from a policy that works in the corridor.
Where My Home Call Fits
My Home Call is a biometric safety platform. Any registered account holder on a free or paid plan can reach their saved contacts from any borrowed device, anywhere, without needing their own phone.
That makes it a natural fit for phone free schools. Students can contact a parent or trusted adult during the school day from a school kiosk or a borrowed device, with no apps, no memorised numbers, and no personal phone numbers on display.
It removes the most common reason students give for needing a phone at school and gives leaders a confident answer to the question every parent asks: “if my child needs me, how will they reach me?”
The benefit doesn’t stop at the school gates. The statutory duty under Section 36 covers school hours and school premises only, which means the moment a child leaves the gate they are back in the world of “what if my phone is flat, lost, forgotten, or stolen?”. My Home Call still works from any device they can borrow, anywhere. For families, that turns a school hours solution into a year round safety net.
The Direction of Travel
Phone free schools are not a passing trend. They are the legal and educational direction of travel, backed by the DfE’s January 2026 guidance, the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026, and Ofsted’s inspection framework.
The schools that lead this change well will be remembered for getting ahead of the curve. The infrastructure choices made now will shape the next decade of pastoral care.
The question is no longer whether to go phone free. It is how to do it properly.
About My Home Call
My Home Call is a UK built biometric safety platform. Any registered My Home Call account holder on a free or paid plan can reach their saved contacts from any borrowed device, without needing their own phone, without remembering numbers, and without exposing personal contact details.
Because it works from any device, anywhere, My Home Call lends itself naturally to phone free schools. But it is just as valuable outside the school gates: if a child’s phone is lost, flat, forgotten, or stolen at the bus stop, on a school trip, on a day out, or simply walking home, they can still reach a parent or trusted adult securely from any phone or tablet they can borrow.