Glyn, Rosebery and Meridian High are trialling an app that blocks other social media and messaging apps.
About 2,300 students are participating in the pilot to try and improve their well-being.
Julian Drinkall, CEO, GLF Schools said: “Every parent and carer knows that smartphones are essential in everyday life as a means of keeping in touch with family and finding useful information. We are also now much more aware of the downsides; the distracting notifications and messages, dangerous content online and excessive screen time.
“We understand the policy of blanket mobile phone bans, but in an increasingly connected world this may be hard to sustain indefinitely. A technologically advanced system like Blackout allows us to explore a more nuanced policy and experiment with what works best for our pupils.
“As one of the country’s largest multi-academy trusts, we want to lead by example and test innovative technology to see if we can find a better balance for our pupils, staff and families. We will study the results of this pilot and decide whether we want to roll out the technology to other schools and we also intend to share our findings with other school leaders, councils and policymakers.”
Amy Anderson, Headteacher at Meridian High School, commented: “Our pupils and families have been supportive of our existing policy on phone use in school hours, but we also see technology as providing potential solutions in the search for easy-to-use controls on phone use. We see this as an intelligent use of technology – to deal with technology – and this pilot will be closely monitored to see if we can enhance the benefits of phone-free time in school. We see installing an app as a more refined and effective solution to help students enjoy a better learning environment and we expect the monitoring to show multiple benefits for all pupils and the school.”
Tom Stevenson, Managing Director, Education at Blackout Technologies said: “We’re very excited about teaming up with GLF Schools to pilot our pioneering technology with a pioneering multi-academy trust. Parents value staying connected with their children throughout the day, especially for emergencies or coordinating after-school plans. Blackout offers a smart solution—restricting access to apps and social media while still allowing traditional calls and SMS messaging.
“Whilst other solutions champion locking the technology away, we believe moderating the use of technology during the hours of the school day helps students develop positive digital habits and recognise themselves the positive benefits of time spent shielded from social media and games.”
Enforcing a phone ban also comes with challenges. Confiscations can lead to conflict and drain valuable staff time. With Blackout, schools eliminate this burden by fostering cooperation rather than confrontation.”
