Mobile Phone Policy

(updated September 2025)

Why do we need a mobile phone policy?

The impact of excessive mobile phone use and the amount of time pupils spend on a screen is a growing concern, due to its negative effects on learning and wellbeing.

We want to ensure that the following principles are upheld every day in school:

Learning without disruption from mobile phones;
Supporting learners’ mental health by providing time away from the pressures of digital dependence and social media platforms;
Safeguarding all members of the Bryn Tawe community from negative behaviours related to phone use.

Mobile phones distract learners during the school day. It is essential that pupils are able to focus fully on their learning during lessons, spend quality time socialising with each other, and feel safe from harm caused by inappropriate phone use.

Learners are allowed to:

Bring a mobile phone to school but it MUST be switched off (powered off) and kept in the bag from the moment they walk through any of the school entrances.
If a learner needs to use their mobile phone in an emergency they must ask a member of staff for permission firstly, and then switch it off immediately afterwards.(Learners are welcome to contact parents via the school office or from a classroom phone with teacher permission. Likewise, parents are welcome to contact their child through the office, as the phone will be switched off.)
Use their phone respectfully while travelling to/from school e.g. No taking photos/videos/social media messages about other pupils / no offensive messages / no online bullying / no loudspeaker use, etc.
Access the phone if there is a key medical reason requiring its use.

Learners are not allowed to:

Use their phone or take it out of their bag at any time on the school site without permission. A phone seen out of the bag and in a learner’s possession, will lead to the sanctions outlined below.
Leave their device switched on (powered) during the school day, as notifications can disrupt pupils’ learning and negatively impact their education and wellbeing.
Use earphones/headphones or loudspeakers during the school day.

Sixth Form Learners:

Sixth form learners are permitted to use their phones in school, but we kindly ask that they avoid doing so in public areas outside of the sixth form block.

Sanctions:

During or outside of lessons, if learners choose not to follow the expectations above, the following sanctions will be applied:

First misuse: The relevant member of staff will collect the phone and hand it to the office. The learner may collect it at the end of the day.
Second misuse: The staff member will collect the phone and take it to the office. A parent/guardian will be expected to collect it from the school office.
Persistent misuse (3+ times): We will work with the family to ensure the learner no longer brings their phone to school.

Any more serious misuse (e.g. taking photos or videos during the school day, online bullying or offensive messaging, etc.) will result in appropriate sanctions in line with our Relationships and Behaviour Policy.

Support

We understand that it is the responsibility of every parent/guardian to ensure their child travels safely to and from school. To support this, if a learner breaks the policy, the school will remain open until 5:00pm for parents to collect their child’s phone. Learners may also stay safely in the school library until collected (up to 5:00pm), if needed.

We encourage you to contact us directly if you have any concerns or wish to discuss this further. Please note this policy does not affect learners, or their parents, who already comply with the school’s expectations regarding mobile phones.

FAQs

We understand that parents may need to contact their child during the school day – we ask that parents follow our current policy by phoning the school office (01792 606000), and a message will be passed to your child immediately. This may include a message asking them to switch on their mobile phone to receive a message/call. Direct contact with your child poses a risk of disrupting their learning and that of others in the classroom.
The school has plenty of digital devices that teachers can request to support any learning
activities – e.g. tablets or laptops. This also ensures that learners without a smartphone or data aren’t excluded from valuable learning tasks.
We ask that any learner who needs to contact home requests permission from a member of staff before doing so. They are also free to use the ‘pupil phone’ available at the school reception – pupils can use this to contact parents/carers if needed. We store all parent/carer contact numbers in our database should a learner need access to that information.
Every pupil will be given a paper copy of their timetable at the start of the year – this should be glued into their contact book and kept safe. If a pupil needs a replacement, they can collect this from the school office.
All staff also have access to pupil timetables and can support as needed and necessary. Pupils should check/organise their homework before coming to school (ideally the night before) – there is no need for pupils to check/view homework during the school day.
Mobile phone dependency is an increasing concern for many of us, and there will be times when both young people and adults have to go without their mobile phones for various reasons. We believe it is better to educate and support learners and young people now, before it becomes a more serious issue.

Parental support with this is extremely important and deeply appreciated.

There are many studies into the negative effects of screen time in regards to young people’s mental health, wellbeing and cognitive development and we feel it is our duty to take these important steps in an effort to support the wellbeing and learning of all pupils.