North Tyneside Council has said it will work with schools to make them “phone-free environments” throughout the school day.
The move comes following BBC reporting on Monday 27th stating Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has told schools across the country mobile phones are “not appropriate for phones to be used as calculators, or for researching during lessons”, and during break and lunchtimes.
Councillor Steven Phillips, North Tyneside Council Cabinet Member for Education, said: “Schools across North Tyneside have today received a letter from the Secretary of State for Education, Bridget Phillipson, regarding the use of mobile phones in school. The letter makes clear that ‘all schools should be phone‑free environments for the entire school day’.
”North Tyneside Council will continue to work closely with our schools to ensure they remain fully compliant with Department for Education policies.”
Last year, the Local Democracy Reporting Service covered a council debate on Tory proposals to ban mobile phones in North Tyneside schools. Conservative councillors tabled a motion in March 2025, which stated: “Distraction in the classroom, increased exposure to online harms, and the effects of social media on young people’s mental health are all significant concerns for parents, teachers, and school leaders.”
While the motion was voted down by the Labour majority, Deputy Mayor Carl Johnson stated the council would work with any school that sought to implement its own phone policy on a “case by case basis”.
The Deputy Mayor, a former teacher, stated he had previously been a “skeptic” of phones in the classroom and had “confiscated many phones” in his teaching career. However, coun Johnson also stated the phones can be used to enhance lessons and that there was still “room for debate” regarding phones in school.
A regional precedent on phone-control in schools was by Stockton’s Our Lady and St Bede Catholic Academy. The school required pupils to lock their phones away in special locking pouches during the school day.
