Education, Ringwood | Posted on March 26th, 2025 | return to news
Ringwood School to restrict smartphone use for new students
In response to health risks from smartphones, a Ringwood secondary school is implementing a new policy for Year 7 students.
From September, new students entering Year 7 of Ringwood School will be restricted to non-smartphone mobile devices while on school grounds during their first year.
Ringwood School is implementing this new mobile policy in response to health risks from smartphones. The decision follows concerns raised through the latest research as well as a Channel 4 documentary from 2024 called ‘Swiped’, which challenged Year 8 students in an Essex School to give up their phones and highlighted the negative impact of smartphones on young people’s mental health.
According to the research, including the findings from ‘Swiped’, smartphone use among children is linked to rising mental health issues, which have increased by 50 per cent in the last three years.
Leanne Symonds, headteacher at Ringwood School, said: “We recognise the important role that technology, including smartphones, plays in today’s world, but our priority is the health and wellbeing of our students. By limiting smartphone use for Year 7s, we aim to create a healthier, more focused learning environment that supports their mental health and academic success.”
The school adds that while it recognises many students are given smartphones upon entering secondary school, it believes that early exposure to smartphones can have detrimental effects on young people’s mental health, sleep, and focus. By introducing this change, the school hopes to foster a healthier environment for Year 7 students as they transition into secondary school.
The school’s Operations Manager Sam Coombes said: “The school has shared lots of research with parents on potential harms of giving young children a smartphone and/or access to social media as documented in Jonathan Haidt’s book ‘The Anxious Generation’ and through programmes such as Channel 4’s ‘Swiped’. We have also shared information from other parent groups such as the Smartphone Free Childhood group and the Mumsnet campaign ‘Rage against the Screens’ in order to help parents be as informed as possible when making a decision about when to give their children a smartphone.”
According to the school, restricting when a child is given a smartphone will help to reduce time spent looking at screens which will help improve sleep and academic performance. The school also advises against students accessing social media before the age of 13, as social media can expose young people to harmful content.
The school states that its new policy aligns with the growing national conversation around children’s smartphone use, as reflected in the proposed Safer Phones Bill currently under discussion in Parliament. The bill aims to address these issues by promoting safer and more regulated smartphone use among young people.
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