{"id":1001962,"date":"2026-06-03T05:02:35","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T05:02:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1001962\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T05:02:35","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T05:02:35","slug":"edinburgh-to-introduce-new-school-mobile-phone-restrictions-from-august","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1001962\/","title":{"rendered":"Edinburgh to introduce new school mobile phone restrictions from August"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lockable cabinets are expected to be procured for all primary schools, and secure pouches<\/a> will be introduced in schools where stakeholders were broadly supportive of restrictions.<\/p>\n

The council undertook a major public engagement campaign, and almost 14,000 parents, teachers, and pupils were consulted on the plans, with most parents and teachers supportive of full-day restrictions.<\/p>\n

Almost none of the pupils, however, were supportive of similar restrictions, but the regulations are expected to pass anyway. An initial budget allocation of \u00a3400,000 has been outlined.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe decision will be taken at Edinburgh\u2019s City Chambers on 9 June \u00a9 2026 Martin McAdam<\/p>\n

The consultation also included discussions with those affected by pilot restrictions in Portobello and South Queensferry High Schools, where feedback was broadly positive.<\/p>\n

The council\u2019s education chiefs expect the restrictions to reduce device access and increase pupils\u2019 engagement with schoolwork.<\/p>\n

Council officers in Moray, where restrictions have also been introduced, told Edinburgh that they had found young people more willing to talk to each other after the introduction of restrictions.<\/p>\n

The council previously said that December this year was the earliest possible date for a full rollout of phone pouches and a comprehensive ban in Edinburgh secondary schools.<\/p>\n

Although the measures outlined do not constitute a comprehensive ban, the council appears to have accelerated its plans after \u201coverwhelming\u201d support emerged.<\/p>\n

Education, Children, and Families Convener James Dalgleish said: \u201cWe are being bold in our ambition when it comes to making our classrooms phone-free, and we want to be one of the first local authorities to introduce widespread restrictions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is important that we do this in the right way and a big part of this is making sure that we have heard and take on board feedback from our communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pupils are expected to be allowed limited access to their devices during lunchtimes and breaks, but not during learning time.<\/p>\n

However, schools which have already introduced more comprehensive restrictions will not be expected to change their approach.<\/p>\n

In their report, set to be debated by the Education, Children, and Families Committee on Thursday 9 June, council officers added:<\/p>\n

\u201cViews on how to implement restrictions in secondary schools are more varied, ranging from \u2018switched off and out of sight\u2019 to having phones locked in pouches.<\/p>\n

\u201cFeedback confirms that most pupils (40%) think they should be trusted to follow school rules. This view is not generally shared by staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are also differences across pupil age ranges, with senior pupils feeling they should be trusted as they move towards further education, training and work.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article is provided by the news agency Deadline News Limited and published here with permission.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lockable cabinets are expected to be procured for all primary schools, and secure pouches will be introduced in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":851032,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8816],"tags":[748,1102,37802,2266,4884,6112,277992,39305,39306,712,167653,16,15],"class_list":["post-1001962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edinburgh","tag-britain","tag-edinburgh","tag-edinburgh-council","tag-education","tag-great-britain","tag-mobile-phone-ban","tag-phone-ban","tag-portobello-high-school","tag-queensferry-high-school","tag-scotland","tag-secondary-schools","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116684427392966018","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1001962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1001962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1001962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/851032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1001962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1001962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1001962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}