Is it time for Edinburgh schools to go smartphone-free?

An Edinburgh teacher shares her perspective on smartphones in schools, why a meaningful citywide policy is needed, and how you can help shape what’s next.  

By Emily Borrill

In September 2025, Edinburgh Council announced it was looking into ways to implement a meaningful, citywide ban on smartphones in schools. The Council is now asking parents, teachers, and pupils to share their views (consultation can be found here) and help shape a policy that is both effective and enforceable across every school in the city.

As a teacher who has seen first-hand the serious harm that widespread smartphone use is causing in schools, I believe this could be the single most impactful policy the Council makes for children’s education and wellbeing in my lifetime.

Smartphone use in schools is an issue that the city’s 3000 teachers face daily. Despite the fact that most of those reading this will have regular contact with schools and care deeply about education, lessons largely happen behind closed doors, and the general public isn’t always aware of just how serious and widespread the problem has become.

What follows is an insight into what teachers and pupils are experiencing every day — and why many of us believe decisive action is urgently needed.

“Off and Away” Policies Aren’t Working

At present, decisions on phone use in schools are left to individual headteachers. While most schools have some form of an “off and away” policy during class time, these rules are difficult to enforce in practice, and the extent to which they are followed varies greatly from school to school. This has created a postcode lottery for pupils who should all have access to a safe and supportive learning environment.

When I began my teacher training and was placed in various secondary schools in Edinburgh, I was shocked to see the ubiquity of mobile phones — both inside and outside the classroom. During breaks and lunchtime, when they could have been socialising or playing outdoors, most of the young people sat in huddles, absorbed on their phones, looking up only now and then to share something on their screens. Pupils are on their phones when they’re walking through the corridors, and film each other and take photos (often without consent). They take their phones to the toilet, to the library, to assembly, to P.E. They’re never without them. As a teacher, you are constantly competing with their phone for their attention.

While I was teaching, I was all too aware that almost every pupil had a phone in their bag or their pocket that could vibrate at any moment. Pupils message each other in class, scroll on Instagram or TikTok behind a textbook, watch YouTube, take photos, and play games.

By nature, these devices are addictive. Every pupil has to fight against a neurological compulsion to check their phone and receive that hit of dopamine. The result? I had to tell students to put their phones away 10, 20, sometimes 30 times a lesson.

I once had to break up a fight between S1 pupils that had been sparked by rumours shared on their phones. It erupted in front of my class, and when I stepped in, I was struck in the head. I was pregnant at the time.

Despite an ‘off and away’ policy or a teacher asking a pupil to put their phone away, many students flat out refuse to do so. This often leads to conflict and relationship breakdown, but ultimately no sanction due to an overwhelmed senior leadership team being unable to follow up on every case.

This problem is rife across our city, in state and private schools, in affluent and deprived areas, in top, middle and bottom sets, and from young primary children up to the end of high school. Many pupils themselves know it is a problem, and they need us to step up and do something about it.

When Phones Become a Safeguarding Issue

In addition to the daily disruption teachers face and the addictive pull of smartphones, this is now a serious safeguarding issue. This perspective of one Edinburgh secondary pupil speaks for itself:

“The policy at our school is that phones are supposed to be off and away in the classroom. What actually happens is they are out all the time. Kids hide them behind their iPads or books and watch TikTok or just take them out really quickly to send a Snap before the teacher notices. The teachers constantly tell them to put them away, but it doesn’t work.

My friends also show each other inappropriate photos and videos all the time, at lunch or when we’re walking to class. I’ve seen pornography at school many times, probably 10 times in the first couple of months of S1. I’ve also been shown a lot of violent videos – people being stabbed or shot, kidnappings, things like that. It can be really hard to get those pictures out of your head once you see them, but it’s also hard to look away when someone puts their phone right up to your face.

The headteacher doesn’t have a clue how bad it is. Some kids won’t even go to the bathroom during the school day because they’re scared they’ll be filmed. Fights get filmed all the time and shared around.”

A Practical Path Forward

Off-and-away policies clearly aren’t enough. They rely on minors to resist a device they’re neurologically wired to crave, create daily conflict between pupils and teachers, and leave huge safeguarding gaps.

For secondary schools, a lockable pouch-based system is emerging as the most workable way to impose a truly smartphone-free school day. Lockable pouches are being used at more than 250 schools in the UK and represent a viable option for the here and now, when the vast majority of high schoolers own a smartphone. These pouches provide a practical solution, ensuring students can still use their phone for the commute to and from school, a concern of many parents.

Portobello High School and Queensferry High School introduced a pouch-based system in May 2025, joining more than 250 schools across the UK that have adopted similar measures.

Early results reflect the wider national picture:

• Improved focus in lessons, with far fewer interruptions

  
  

• Calmer corridors, as pupils are less distracted and unable to film, post, or message between classes

  
  

• Better social interaction at break times — more play, conversation, and connection

  
  

• Reduced safeguarding incidents, particularly around bullying, filming, sharing explicit content, and escalating fights

  
  

• Greater consistency for teachers, who no longer need to spend large parts of lessons policing smartphone use

Taken together, these changes show why many in Edinburgh’s education community believe a consistent, citywide approach is necessary to create safe, equitable learning environments for every pupil.

To provide your views as a parent, teacher, or student, to Edinburgh’s phone-free schools initiative: click here