Headteacher calls for 7am to 7pm school days in Britain

Andrew O’Neill, headteacher at All Saints Catholic College in Notting Hill, west London, believes children are "addicted" to their phones.

O’Neill said smartphones were creating an apathetic and anxious generation of children and claimed he had found "some of the most shocking things I have ever seen" on confiscated devices.

This includes pupils blackmailing and catfishing others online, to humiliate another, as well as sexting and cyberbullying.

Headmaster Andrew O’Neill bringing in a 12-hour school day from 7am-7pm in a bid to break pupils phone addictions.👍

Phones are already banned at All Saints Catholic College in Notting Hill, London & activities like dodgeball, basketball, art, drama, cookery classes will be… pic.twitter.com/fn0KHsYbyn

— Mr Pål Christiansen (@TheNorskaPaul) April 22, 2024

The school originally banned all students from carrying phones in 2016, but they are now allowed to keep their devices in lockers.

O’Neill has also expressed his concern for the children’s social skills, and said he was worried about their ability to make friends in real life, as many were playing online games until the early hours of the morning.

He said he had noticed the impact this had on his pupils, as they are growing worse at making eye contact and holding conversations.

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"We have a long-term issue we need to solve," he told the Times.

"Some children are so apathetic. They don’t care about anything.

"They are buried in their phones."

Mr O’Neill's own three children have "brick phones" and smartphones without social media so their locations can be tracked.

'Special pouches' lead to 40% drop in after-school detentions

John Wallis School in Ashford, Kent saw a huge improvement in student behaviour after introducing a special pouch to lock devices away in.

The pouches are unlocked using a magnet at the end of the day when the children leave school.

Since the introduction of this scheme in January, the school has reported a 40 per cent decrease in after-school detentions and a 25 per cent drop in truancy.