There is no place for mobile phones in Scotland’s classrooms and demands for a nationwide ban are growing by the day.
The Daily Record’s Our Kids…Our Future campaign has highlighted how phones are being used to film attacks on terrified kids by school bullies. But there is also a growing fear that the phones are distracting pupils from their lessons and leading to lower grades.
Head teacher Bruce Robertson certainly agrees – and he explains why in today’s Daily Record. He has seen pupil behaviour transformed at Berwickshire High School since it became one of the first state schools in the country to ban mobiles in the classroom.
Robertson believes that banishing phones entirely from the school building has set a new social norm – contributing to rising attainment and a vast improvement in behaviour. His success proves it’s time for the Scottish Government to listen to parents and pupils and do more to help teachers ban mobiles from classrooms for good.
Education secretary Jenny Gilruth faced new calls at Holyrood yesterday to enforce a national ban and was accused of hiding behind new guidance to pass the buck to head teachers. She was warned that leaving the decision to schools is “failing” pupils.
But the education secretary appears to be sticking to her position and leaving the choice to head teachers. The Scottish Government needs a stronger line on this problem. If a nationwide ban is required to help our kids achieve their potential that is what must happen.
Get the job Don
Keir Starmer has been in face-to-face talks with Donald Trump for the first time since he returned to the White House.
We don’t envy the Prime Minister in having to do business with a man who appears to lack any redeeming human features. But Starmer must try to mend the strained relationship between the US and Britain.
Trump has only been in office for five weeks, and already he has been making some crazy decisions. He has pledged to turn Gaza into a Middle Eastern Riviera under American rule, chucking out all those who live there.
He called Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky a dictator and accused him of starting the war with Russia. He has also threatened tariffs on countries around the globe, threatening to destabilise world trade and leave us all poorer. Hopefully the Labour PM and other European leaders can drag Trump back to reality.