At John Lyon, we recognise the valuable role that smartphones play in modern life, but we also believe it is essential to teach young people how to use them safely and responsibly. As pupils move through the School, we want them to develop a healthy relationship with technology. After careful research and consideration, we introduced the Yondr Programme this term to create a phone-free environment for our Year 7 and 8 pupils, which in turn will help foster and prioritise a focused learning environment and positive social interactions.

Yondr is the name of the organisation that creates the pouches which seal phones magnetically during the School day. The Yondr Programme is simple yet effective. Each pupil in Year 7 and 8 received a personally assigned Yondr pouch at the beginning of term. During morning registration, pupils are asked to place their phones in these secure pouches, locking them away for the day. Although they keep the pouch in their possession, the phones remain inaccessible until afternoon form time at the end of the day, after which they are unlocked using a special Yondr device. This ensures that pupils have their phones with them but are not distracted by them during the day.

Our experience, along with feedback from others using Yondr, show that reducing phone usage during the School day can significantly decrease anxiety, improve focus in lessons, and foster better communication among pupils during breaks and lunchtimes. We have also found that learning and social behaviour improve drastically when pupils are fully engaged with their teachers and classmates. During the School day, pupils can access all the digital learning tools they need to support their learning by using their School Managed Device (SMD).

• Yondr recently surveyed over 900 school partners to measure the effects of creating phone-free educational environments. These schools achieved notable progress in multiple areas:
  65% of schools saw an improvement in academic performance
• 72% of schools saw an improvement in pupil behaviour
• 84% of schools saw an improvement in pupil engagement in the classroom
• 86% of schools saw a positive impact on pupil safety and wellness

The response to Yondr has been overwhelmingly positive from pupils, parents and staff. Pupils are actively playing, chatting and attending the wealth of activities on offer during break and lunchtimes and staff have reported increased focus from pupils who are not distracted by notifications going off in their pockets that they feel compelled to answer. This initiative has been complimented by our Parental Enrichment Programme, a series of talks for parents of teenagers, the first of which focused on ‘Mobile Phones and Social Media’. The resources from this talk are available to John Lyon parents via the Parent Portal.

Parents have reported how “delighted” they are to have the Yondr system and “thoroughly support” the decision to implement it: “I feel much more rest assured of the safety of my daughter at school now. I thank the School for taking action,” was one very typical comment.

Parents of pupils in Year 9 and Year 10 have commented how they would like Yondr to be available for their children as well.

The system will gradually be rolled out across the year groups so that Years 7 to 11 will become phone-free during school hours. This should see a positive impact on pupils’ mental health and wellbeing, as well as their academic progress.

Research from Policy Exchange, the UK’s leading think tank, found that children at schools with effective smartphone bans achieve GCSEs one to two grades higher than those without such bans. Similarly, research from Sapien Labs found that the later a child acquires a smartphone, the better their mental health outcomes will be in the long term. As a School we take these findings seriously and want to support parents and pupils in the use of technology to help, rather than hinder, the development of healthy bodies and minds.