Edinburgh's mobile phone ban in schools: First lockable pouches due to arrive next week.
The ban officially came into effect on the first day of term, August 12
The first of the pouches needed for Edinburgh's ban on mobile phones in schools will be given out to pupils next week.
And by early next month, all 24,000 high school pupils in the city should have received the lockable pouches.
The ban officially came into effect on the first day of term, August 12, but the procurement process meant the pouches were not available in time.
But education convener James Dalgleish said he was pleased that the first pouches were now about to arrive.
The roll-out is happening in three phases, with Craigmount High, Leith Academy and Westfield Secondary School in Gorgie the first three schools due to get their pouches.
Under the city-wide ban, pupils will have to lock their phones away in the pouches when they arrive at school and cannot access them until they are leaving at the end of the day. There are exemptions for those with medical or other needs.
In approving the ban, the education committee agreed head teachers should also have discretion to allow S5 and S6 pupils to use their phones at lunchtime and during private study time.
But Cllr Dalgleish said in many cases heads were deciding not to give older pupils any extra freedom over their phone use and preferred a blanket ban.
He said: "From the feedback we've had from a fair few of our headteachers, they're actually quite comfortable with having all pupils sticking to roughly the same rules - it just creates that parity in their schools and it's probably a bit easier to manage."
But he acknowledged some pupils might feel they needed to use their phones for research purposes during private study periods. "That may be something we need to work through with schools. If they do prefer a blanket ban or maybe not allow the older pupils to have their phones in the lunch break, there is that impact that it might affect private study time. We're there to work with the schools and solve any issues if there are any."
Cllr Dalgleish said the mobile phone ban had worked “fairly well” during the five weeks since the beginning of term, despite the absence of pouches.
He said: “A huge amount of credit for that goes to the teachers and senior leadership teams in our schools. Teachers have been asking pupils to keep their phones away during learning times and, in some schools, breaks too. That speaks of the good relationships young people generally have with their teachers.
“Some young people may just ignore that ask, but once they have the pouches the onus is on the young people to manage their pouch and that removes the potential tension between teachers and young people if teachers are having to tell young people to put their phones away.
“It’s only a small minority of young people that do not put their phone away when asked. But it’s not sustainable to have teachers having to constantly tell young people to put their phones away. That’s why I think we're getting pouches into schools as quickly as possible.”
Cllr Dalgleish said the phone ban was about the welfare of young people. “We have seen instances of cyber bullying or bullying by social media, young people seeing really harmful content, which have a real impact on their life, and just the day to day general distraction of mobile phones in our schools. That's why it's important to have smartphone-free schools, so that young people can learn without distraction and teachers are able to do their jobs without distraction.”
Pupils at Portobello and Queensferry High Schools already have pouches because they were trialling the scheme.