Two Cheshire East councillors have called for a ban on mobile phones in all the authority’s maintained schools – a move a local headteacher has described as an “eminently sensible way forward”.
Independent councillors David Jefferay (Wilmslow) and Emma Gilman (Macclesfield) presented a motion to December’s full meeting of Cheshire East Council urging the authority to support a phone free environment throughout the school day.
Such bans are backed by Cheshire’s police and crime commissioner, Dan Price, who has launched an initiative for mobile phones to be locked away during the school day in every state high school in Cheshire. Mr Price wants Cheshire to become the first county in the UK where all state high schools use lockable phone pouches.
In their motion, Couns Jefferay and Gilman said: “Schools with lockable pouches are seeing immediate, widespread, positive results in well being and a dramatic reduction in online safeguarding incidents, one quoting an 80% reduction.”
They called on the council to prohibit pupils’ access to smartphones and similar personal electronic devices during the school day in all local authority maintained schools in Cheshire East, with reasonable exemptions for documented medical or special educational needs.
They also want the director of education to work with headteachers and governing bodies to develop and implement a “consistent, enforceable policy” across all maintained schools, in line with the phone free schools model of a “first bell to last bell” ban.
The councillors said it would be necessary to ensure alternative communication systems were in place so parents could contact schools during the day and pupils could access support in emergencies without relying on personal devices.
Meanwhile, Ed O’Neill, headteacher at Eaton Bank Academy in Congleton, wrote to parents backing the idea.
He said two members of staff had visited Birchwood High in Warrington, a school that has introduced a complete ban on mobile phone usage during the school day by implementing secure pouches. Pupils place their phones in signal blocking pouches and cannot access them until the end of the school day.
He wrote: “The impact has been remarkable: improved learning, enhanced well being and students fully concentrating without worrying about pings, rings and missed messages.”
Mr O’Neill said he had invited Mr Price to speak to all Cheshire East headteachers in January to support his vision for phone free schools throughout Cheshire and Warrington.
He added: “It’s something we are actively exploring at Eaton Bank Academy. It actually feels like we have a moral duty to do something to change the overwhelmingly toxic influence of social media and phone dependency for our children.
“With only a very few medical exceptions, for the vast majority of pupils, phones are simply not needed at all during the school day. For those of us who went to school in the 1980s and 1990s, it’s a reminder that we managed perfectly well without phones.”
Australia has recently banned social media for under 16s, and Mr O’Neill said it would be “interesting to monitor the impact of this decision”.
Under 16s in Australia are now banned from using major social media services including TikTok, X, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat and Threads.
A study commissioned by the Australian Government earlier in 2025 found that 96% of children aged 10–15 used social media, and that seven out of 10 had been exposed to harmful content. This included misogynistic and violent material, as well as content promoting eating disorders and suicide.
One in seven reported experiencing grooming type behaviour from adults or older children, and more than half said they had been victims of cyberbullying.
YouTube Kids, Google Classroom and WhatsApp are not covered by the ban.
(ITALICS Local democracy reporter Belinda Ryan contributed to this report.)
(Photo: Mirko Vitali / Dreamstime).
