Question
The Stanway school in Colchester gained national attention through a Channel 4 documentary called “Swiped: The School That Banned Smartphones”, in which phone-free experiments saw pupils who took part reporting lower anxiety, improved concentration and an extra hour of sleep each night. Does the Minister agree that the experience of students in Colchester demonstrates the benefits of smartphone-free schools? What support will be in place to help more schools adopt those policies?
Answer
I went to the screening of “Swiped” when it came out and met some of the staff who were involved in the project and some of the researchers. The project showed the impact on children over a period of weeks when they had that time freed back up. If I remember rightly, part of the experiment involved children putting their phones in a perspex box on the way into school, and it was left there for a number of weeks. I do wonder what the impact on this House would be if we were to do the same as an experiment.
Verdict: RED (20/100)
The reply describes the Stanway-linked 'Swiped' project and its findings about children's experience when phone-free time was freed up, but it never clearly states whether the Minister agrees that this shows the benefits, so that part is only partly answered. The second part, about how more schools could be helped to adopt smartphone-free policies, is not addressed at all: nothing in the reply covers support, guidance, or funding. A member of the public would likely need to ask again for a clear position and for the specific help being offered to other schools.
How we got there
| Question item | Coverage | Specificity | Rationale |
|---|---|---|---|
| Whether the Minister agrees that the experience of pupils at Stanway school in Colchester demonstrates the benefits of smartphone-free schools | Partially Addressed | Direct | The reply engages with the Stanway-linked "Swiped" project and describes its findings (impact on children when phone-free time was freed up over several weeks), which implicitly supports the benefits claim. However, it never explicitly states whether the Minister agrees that the experience demonstrates the benefits, so the answer is only partly responsive. |
| What support will be in place to help more schools adopt smartphone-free policies | Not Addressed | Generic | None of the answer statements mention support, guidance, funding, or any other mechanism for helping more schools adopt smartphone-free policies; statement 4 is a hypothetical about the House and is unrelated to the item. |