England schools told to be phone-free for the full school day

Revised Department for Education guidance updated on 19 February 2026 tells England’s schools to keep mobile phones out of use for the whole school day from April 2026. The rules cover lessons, breaktimes, lunchtime and the time between lessons.

The guidance is non-statutory in Department for Education materials, but the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026 added a new legal hook by requiring the appropriate person for a school in England to have regard to the mobile-phone guidance. Ofsted backs school bans on mobile phones, and its inspection message is that leaders should think carefully about their approach. It says all schools should be mobile phone-free environments by default.

The Children’s Commissioner for England’s school and college survey covered about 19,000 schools and colleges, representing nearly 90% of schools and colleges in England, and found that 99.8% of primary schools and 90.0% of secondary schools already had policies limiting or restricting phone use during the school day. The National Education Union said many schools already had comprehensive policies but needed more support. The Association of School and College Leaders said making the guidance statutory would not change very much because most schools already prevent phone use in school. NASUWT has called for statutory restrictions, saying unrestricted phone use is a growing source of classroom disruption, distraction and safeguarding risk.

Dame Rachel de Souza has warned that online safety remains a major concern and that banning phones during school hours does not solve the wider problem of online harms once children leave school. A January 2026 consultation on improving children’s relationship with mobile phones and social media was also held.