Latest news with #PortobelloHighSchool
The National
13-05-2025
- General
- The National
Moray Council to ban mobile phones in schools: All to know
The local authority is the second one to approve a blanket ban on mobile phones in school classrooms after Perth and Kinross in April. The new approach will take effect from August 2025, as will the policy across Perth and Kinross, and follows a consultation involving parents, carers, pupils and school staff. The result of the survey, that received 3283 responses, was 73% of respondents in favour of the ban. In primary schools, mobiles and personal devices will not be allowed in school, unless needed for medical reasons. READ MORE: Almost 50 homes could be built on ex-festival site near BBC HQ in Glasgow In Moray's secondary schools, students will need to keep phones switched off and out of sight during the school day, except when needed for health purposes. It comes as two schools in Edinburgh are piloting a phone-free policy in what is said to be a Scottish first in an effort to improve focus and mental health among pupils. Portobello High School and Queensferry High School in Edinburgh have introduced magnetic, lockable pouches for the devices in an attempt to curb distractions in class. Chair of Moray Council's education, communities and leisure services committee, councillor Kathleen Robertson, said: 'We recognise that mobile devices are a part of everyday life and can enhance learning and teaching. But we also recognise the risks associated with young people bringing their devices into school. Namely bullying and harassment with inappropriate use detracting from learning. 'We aspire for our schools to be places where pupils can focus, learn, and feel supported and guidance is being provided to Head Teachers to assist them to introduce this new approach while promoting positive relationships and behaviour.' A breakdown of the survey data shows that 1659 parents/carers agreed with the ban terms, while 353 disagreed. 334 pupils agreed and 448 disagreed with 402 staff for the move and 87 against it. Key themes from the open comment section included strong support for the guidance due to issues like mobile phone distractions, concerns about enforcement practicality, and the need for exceptions for medical reasons. Respondents expressed mixed opinions on whether a complete ban was necessary, suggesting phones should be allowed during breaks and for safety, walking to and from school. Overall, the feedback highlighted the importance of clear enforcement guidelines, alternative technology provision, and safety considerations for pupils. Head Teachers will now develop local policies, aligned to their positive relationship policies, with more information being provided to parents and carers, pupils and staff before the start of the autumn term in August.
Scotsman
12-05-2025
- General
- Scotsman
No more snapping up bargains on Vinted during Modern Studies
Portobello High School will be first in Scotland to introduce a zero-phone policy for pupils. Pupils will place their devices into magnet-locked Yondr pouches for the duration of the school day. Pictured are S3 pupils Julia and Carly (Picture: Lisa Ferguson) Well done everyone involved in the decision to pilot phone-free classes in two Edinburgh schools. Sign up to our daily newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Edinburgh News, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... The city's education chief, Councillor Joan Griffiths, the teachers of Portobello and Queensferry High Schools and, of course, the students and their parents deserve a huge round of applause for having the courage to go phone-free. As a fellow smartphone addict, I know how difficult it is to contemplate even half-an-hour without my iPhone within easy reach. I can't begin to contemplate how I would cope from 9am to 3.30pm. The students won't have to part with their precious phones. They have to store them in Yondr pouches which are locked and unlocked magnetically, but they will be able to carry them from class to class. I am sure there will be the odd student who works out a hack to access their precious phone when they are not supposed to, but the majority will comply with the new rules. And what a difference it will make. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad There will be no more WhatsApp notifications pinging during French class. No sneaky Signal chats to distract from algebra. No surreptitious Instagram stories, no Snapchat, and definitely no snapping up a bargain on Vinted while the Modern Studies teacher has her back turned. It will be just like the old days. Or maybe not. I fervently hope that Edinburgh's pilot proves to be a huge success and every school in the city locks up phones during the school day, but no-one can pretend that schools can ignore the digital revolution that has only started. The Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) revealed last week that there were 31 instances of pupils caught cheating using artificial intelligence (AI) last year, compared to none in 2023. That may seem far too few to get hot and bothered about, but AI is developing very quickly and many schoolkids are already well versed at using chatbots such as ChatGPT. My granddaughter uses it to create crochet patterns, and I am sure that many, many students now turn to the app on their phone for help with their homework. But it is AI's potential to change how and what our children learn that education chiefs need to be thinking about, rather than how many second-year pupils asked Grok to write an essay on human rights. Two years ago, I wrote here about Dr Geoffrey Hinton, the former Edinburgh University student known as the 'Godfather" of AI. He had just stood down from his role at Google, warning that AI systems like ChatGPT were quite scary. 'Right now, they're not more intelligent than us, as far as I can tell. But I think they soon may be,' he said. If that happens, then traditional education – even when done on an iPad – will be of little use in the future. As AI develops, so the world of work will change. Legal firms, for example, will not need a team of young lawyers to check contracts and other legal documents if a chatbot can do it in seconds. We need to teach our youngsters how to use AI, not so they can cheat, but so they can succeed.
The Herald Scotland
09-05-2025
- General
- The Herald Scotland
Scottish school mobile phone ban could be life-changing for children
Adults, needless to say, behave just the same. Regardless of age, anyone with a phone has effectively shackled themselves to a device as needy as a newborn child: constantly demanding attention, eroding your concentration, destroying your social life and disturbing your sleep. Read more about phone ban It's bad enough when you're an adult, but for children it can be life-changing, for all the wrong reasons. Not surprisingly, teachers have long been complaining about the corrosive effect of mobile phones during lessons, causing continuous interruptions, and ruining everyone's concentration. In England over 90% of schools already ban phones during class, and for some the result has been transformational. The head teacher of Excelsior Academy in Hackney has been stunned by the change he's seen in the space of a year. With the average grade at A level going from a C to a B, and pupils 'chattier, nicer, more engaged,' he describes the impact as 'a game changer'. Only recently, however, has the Scottish education system embraced this idea. Scottish Government guidance, published last year, allowed headteachers to decide how to regulate phone use. I'd have thought a mandatory ban would have been more effective, but things seem to be moving in that direction as it is. Moray Council has now instituted a zero phone policy in primary schools (unless required for health reasons), whilst in secondaries they must be switched off and kept out of sight for the duration of the school day. Going further, two Edinburgh schools are running a pilot scheme aimed at creating phone-free classrooms. Portobello High School - to be followed next week by Queensferry High School – has begun a system in which students lock their phones into magnetic pouches when they arrive. Only at the end of the day can the pouches be unlocked, by a wall-mounted device similar to the contraptions in supermarkets that remove the tags from booze. Why not simply rely on pupils keeping their phones on silent in their bags? Well, would you trust yourself not to glance at your phone for hours at a time? As the head teacher at Portobello High says, a 'physical barrier' was needed between students and their phones, to remove any temptation. I can't imagine what it's like being a teacher, let alone a student, in a room where phones are a perpetual source of disturbance. Back in the middle ages, when I was in school, the only distraction was the weirdo in Latin who liked jabbing girls' legs with his geometry compass, or girls passing bitchy notes under their desks. Plus the occasional magazine drooled over by boys at the back - Suzuki and Yamaha catalogues were their favourites. How innocent it all now seems. Today, the potential for disruption by phones is epidemic, a fact many pupils tacitly acknowledge. Asked what they think of the new policy, several Portobello pupils were enthusiastic, despite admitting it would probably be difficult to adjust initially. 'Muzzling phones allows teachers and students space to focus and think clearly' (Image: free) Yet even if this pilot scheme encounters a few problems, it's safe to predict that it represents the beginning of the end of phones during teaching time in our state schools. This can only be a good thing, and the sooner it becomes universal the better. Muzzling these devices for several hours allows both teachers and students space to focus and think clearly. But the benefits will go further than improving concentration and academic outcomes, important though that is. The connection between excessive mobile phone use and poor mental health among the young is widely acknowledged. As well as the ceaseless clamour of social media, there is also the danger of coming under the influence of malign individuals and ideas, not to mention the tsunami of hardcore pornography flooding boys' screens. The consequences of such contact and material can do untold damage to self-esteem, or encourage misogyny, aggression and intolerance, all of which are hard to disengage from when young and vulnerable. By diminishing the power phones wield over youngsters, this ban will also encourage them to interact more among themselves and with others. If, as a result, they grow more socially confident and outgoing, that will be every bit as important as getting better grades. None of this is to suggest that phones are a bad thing. Teachers know we can't turn back the clock, even if we wanted to. Mobiles are now as essential to our daily existence as electricity and running water, and likely to become more so as they grow increasingly sophisticated and ubiquitous. Indeed, not having a phone these days is like being Amish, living in a prelapsarian world of horse and cart, and cut off from the way the world works. Read more by Rosemary Goring Just this week, for instance, when opening a savings account, I discovered how necessary mine was. Instead of being helped by a member of staff in the bank, I was ushered into an empty room and put on a Teams call to one of their colleagues in London. For the next half hour I had to navigate my banking app and a dodgy wifi connection while managing not to cut the banker off: child's play for a six-year-old, tricky for a luddite like me who uses, and comprehends, about 5% of my phone's capability. Thanks to the banker's patience, everything went smoothly, but how vintage and inept I felt - and I'm told there are some even more clueless than me. So while phone-free schoolrooms are a great idea, mobiles are now an integral part of our lives. With this in mind, schools must also teach students how to get the best out of them, as well as how to protect themselves from harm. For that lesson alone I'd be prepared to go back into the classroom. Rosemary Goring is a columnist and author. Her most recent book is Homecoming: The Scottish Years of Mary, Queen of Scots. Its sequel, Exile: The Captive Years of Mary, Queen of Scots, is published in July.
Scotsman
07-05-2025
- General
- Scotsman
Edinburgh's Portobello High School phone ban: Parents happy to 'give it a bash'
Watch more of our videos on and on Freeview 262 or Freely 565 Visit Shots! now Parents and carers at Portobello High School have reacted positively to the new pilot scheme that keeps students off mobile phones while they're at school. Sign up to our daily newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Edinburgh News, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... The school is the first in Scotland to have pupils lock their phones in magnetic pouches for the duration of the school day. Edinburgh Council hopes that it will see students focus more on their schoolwork, avoiding the distractions phones can cause in the classroom. Rank for Edinburgh: 11th. Overall rank for Scotland: 91st Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad David Fraser, the parent of a S4 pupil at the school, says he has no issue with trying it out – but wants to see how well it works before passing judgement. The 51-year-old Scottish Government worker told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: 'I'm of the opinion that better behaviour comes from better parents and kids. There's a lot of common sense that can be applied to this stuff. 'I personally have no issue with trying this. I'd hate to be a teacher these days, and anything we can do to help teachers, help quiet the classroom down is good. 'If it's disruptive kids and it's caused by phones and all, go for it. Let's try it. We'll give it a bash. I'm a firm believer that it needs to be given a trial, at least to see if it works or not. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'I'll see what the proof in the pudding is first before we make any decisions. It took the kids by surprise, it took all of us by surprise.' The magnetic pouches were distributed to families the week before the bank holiday weekend, with all pupils carrying mobiles required to use them. Parents could make a voluntary payment towards the scheme, but the pouches were distributed to families whether they contributed financially towards it or not. Fraser said his daughter, who is in S3, said some students were having trouble using the pouches, which he compared to the magnetic locks on alcohol bottles in supermarkets. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Another parent, Sirin, said she was supportive of the scheme. The mother of an S4 pupil said: 'I think it's a good idea. It'll help them focus, it'll help them learn, be more social. They won't be tapping away at their phones all the time.' And, some parents and carers hope that the scheme can help reduce some other harms from social media. Jackie, the grandmother of an S3 pupil, said: 'It'll take the kids a while to get used to it, but once they're used to it it'll be good. 'There's too much bullying on social media with the kids nowadays. In the context of everything that's going on, they're all snapchatting one another. That'll stop that. I think it'll take a while to kick in with the kids, but I think it'll work.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Queensferry High School will join Portobello in introducing the pouches next week. The scheme will run as a trial for two years, with officials watching feedback from parents and pupils and monitoring attendance figures and other data points to understand its impact. Education convener Joan Griffiths said: 'I'm pleased to see Edinburgh schools leading the way in introducing a mobile-phone free school environment. 'Mobile phones in classroom settings are increasingly competing with the teachers for learners' attention and limiting access to mobile phones during the school day is only a positive thing for our young people. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'I know that schools across Edinburgh, and indeed the country, are exploring ways to manage mobile phone use, including restricting phone use during the school day. 'The new pouches provide an innovative way for our young people to have distance from their devices while having the reassurance that they are still in their possession. 'We hope that this new policy will increase focus on learning, reduce classroom distractions and help improve wellbeing.'
Edinburgh Reporter
07-05-2025
- General
- Edinburgh Reporter
Portobello parents react positively over mobile phone pilot scheme
Parents and carers at Portobello High School have said they are optimistic about a new pilot scheme that keeps students off mobile phones during the school day. The school is the first in Scotland to have pupils lock their phones in magnetic pouches for the duration of the school day. Edinburgh Council hopes that it will see students focus more on their schoolwork, avoiding the distractions phones can cause in the classroom. David Fraser, the parent of a S4 pupil at the school, says he has no issue with trying it out – but wants to see how well it works before passing judgement. The 51-year-old Scottish Government worker told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: 'I'm of the opinion that better behaviour comes from better parents and kids. There's a lot of common sense that can be applied to this stuff. 'I personally have no issue with trying this. I'd hate to be a teacher these days, and anything we can do to help teachers, help quiet the classroom down is good. 'If it's disruptive kids and it's caused by phones and all, go for it. Let's try it. We'll give it a bash. 'I'm a firm believer that it needs to be given a trial, at least to see if it works or not. 'I'm not supportive of it, I'm not non supportive of it. I'll see what the proof in the pudding is first before we make any decisions. 'It took the kids by surprise, it took all of us by surprise.' The magnetic pouches were distributed to families the week before the bank holiday weekend, with all pupils carrying mobiles required to use them. Parents could make a voluntary payment towards the scheme, but the pouches were distributed to families whether they contributed financially towards it or not. Fraser said his daughter, who is in S3, said some students were having trouble using the pouches, which he compared to the magnetic locks on alcohol bottles in supermarkets. Another parent, Sirin, said she was supportive of the scheme. The mother of an S4 pupil said: 'I think it's a good idea. It'll help them focus, it'll help them learn, be more social. 'They won't be tapping away at their phones all the time.' And, some parents and carers hope that the scheme can help reduce some other harms from social media. Jackie, the grandmother of an S3 pupil, said: 'It'll take the kids a while to get used to it, but once they're used to it it'll be good. 'There's too much bullying on social media with the kids nowadays. In the context of everything that's going on, they're all snapchatting one another. That'll stop that. 'I think it'll take a while to kick in with the kids, but I think it'll work.' Queensferry High School will join Portobello in introducing the pouches on Wednesday, 14 May. The scheme will run as a trial for two years, with officials watching feedback from parents and pupils and monitoring attendance figures and other data points to understand its impact. Labour councillor Joan Griffiths, convener of the Education, Children and Families committee, said: 'I'm pleased to see Edinburgh schools leading the way in introducing a mobile-phone free school environment. 'Mobile phones in classroom settings are increasingly competing with the teachers for learners' attention and limiting access to mobile phones during the school day is only a positive thing for our young people. 'I know that schools across Edinburgh, and indeed the country, are exploring ways to manage mobile phone use, including restricting phone use during the school day. 'The new pouches provide an innovative way for our young people to have distance from their devices while having the reassurance that they are still in their possession. 'We hope that this new policy will increase focus on learning, reduce classroom distractions and help improve wellbeing.' By Joseph Sullivan Local Democracy Reporter Like this: Like Related
