King Charles’s alma mater BANS mobile phones as Gordonstoun school principal slams ‘addictive’ devices
- Lisa Kerr says ‘dopamine mini-hits’ from scrolling on mobiles are detrimental to brain development
- Head hails ‘noisier’ atmosphere as children at Aberdeenshire boarding school speak to each other more after locking up phones
THE headteacher of King Charles’s former boarding school has banned pupils’ from using mobile phones, claiming it would be ‘irresponsible and dangerous’ not to control their use.
Lisa Kerr, principal of Gordonstoun, banned mobile phone use during the school day in 2017.
But she has now taken measures a step further, ordering pupils to leave their phones in their boarding houses during the day and hand them in overnight.
Principal of Gordonstoun, Lisa Kerr, has banned mobile phone use
The rules apply to all pupils apart from sixth-form students.
Ms Kerr told the Times newspaper: “Mobile phone apps are designed to be addictive, to create regular dopamine mini-hits.
“Asking children to have a phone in their pocket but not respond when it buzzes is like putting a bowl of M&Ms on their desk and asking them not to take one.”
Ms Kerr said the initial ban had positive effects as the school was ‘noisier’ and children ‘spoke to each other rather than scrolling through their phones’.
She said: ‘We don’t allow them unfettered access to other addictive substances, so why mobiles?”
‘I believe it is lazy, irresponsible and dangerous not to place controls on young people’s access to an online world which they, and we, simply do not fully understand and cannot control.’
The school also believes the mobile phone policy has been a contributing factor to improved exam results.
Only last week Jenny Gilruth, the Scottish education secretary, said she was “very interested” in a UN report that recommended banning the devices to reduce bullying and improve concentration.
Charles in 1967, his final year at Gordonstoun School
She said: ‘Life can be lived out on that device and equally [I think] that device can affect brain development, the way in which you process information. I think it can be detrimental to that.”
Gordonstoun is not the first school to implement a ban.
Pupils at Glasgow Gaelic School voted to ban the devices to cut down screen time and improve social skills, while Kilgraston School, an independent school in Perthshire, said the ban it implemented in 2018 reduced social media-induced anxiety and returned chatter to classrooms.
Parents of pupils at Dunbar Grammar School also petitioned for a ban to be introduced this year, amid concerns of cyberbullying and pupils filming their peers and teachers without consent.
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