Schools must completely ban phones all day and stop pupils using them as calculators, Bridget Phillipson has demanded.
In a letter to all heads in England, the Education Secretary said children must even abstain at break times to create a fully phone-free day.
She said Ofsted will assess schools on their ability to remain phone-free, and teachers should also not use them in front of pupils.
Similar guidance was issued under the Tories in 2024, but Mrs Phillipson said this ‘did not deliver the clarity or consistency that schools need’.
The letter said: ‘All schools should be phone-free environments for the entire school day. It is not appropriate for phones to be used as calculators or for research during lessons.
‘Schools should make sure those policies are applied consistently across classes and at all times and we want parents to back these policies too.’
However, Laura Trott, the shadow education secretary, said the letter was ‘yet more guidance’, which she said ‘doesn’t represent action, it’s just more delay’.
She said on X: ‘It’s clear that these changes to smartphone policy are nothing more than the status quo.’
Schools must completely ban phones all day and refuse to let pupils use them as calculators, Bridget Phillipson (pictured) has demanded
The Tories are currently pushing for a new law to make smartphones illegal in schools.
The new smartphone policy is contained in updated guidance sent to schools last week.
Ministers have also recently announced a three-month consultation on banning social media for all under-16s in the UK.
In November, a Government poll of heads revealed only nine per cent of secondary schools make pupils hand in phones for the school day, while only five per cent ban them completely.
The vast majority – 75 per cent – said pupils could keep their phones on them, but not use them.
Teachers have previously said such rules are hard to enforce because it is impossible to watch every child all the time.
Today, Tony McCabe, head teacher at St Joseph’s High School in Horwich, Greater Manchester, said he welcomed the guidance because phones can be ‘very destructive for young people during the school day’.
He told BBC Breakfast that he had already banned phones in his school because screen time for children was ‘incredibly excessive’.
Esther Ghey, whose daughter Brianna was killed by two teenagers who had viewed violent content online, said the guidance was ‘a step in the right direction’, but argued it did not go far enough.
Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union, said he was ‘in agreement with the Tories’ that a legal ban was needed.
He said: ‘Schools’ policies can end up meaning that they are in conflict with parents or young people about how to enforce things, so putting this on a statutory footing would be welcome.’
It comes amid a judicial review claim by campaigners against the Government’s decision not to make smartphones in schools illegal.
Among them is Flossie McShea, 17, who said she was exposed to phone videos of porn, beheadings and a child being killed while at school.
Sir Keir Starmer has previously claimed that a new law is unnecessary because ‘almost every school bans phones in school; they do it already’.
