{"id":389761,"date":"2026-01-25T13:40:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T13:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/389761\/"},"modified":"2026-01-25T13:40:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T13:40:08","slug":"should-smartphones-be-locked-away-at-gigs-and-in-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/389761\/","title":{"rendered":"Should smartphones be locked away at gigs and in schools?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paul Nugent created Hush Pouch after working for 20 years installing lockers in schools. He says there’s a lot for headteachers to consider.<\/p>\n

“Yes it can seem an expensive way of keeping phones out of schools, and some people question why they can’t just insist phones remain in a student’s bag,” he explains.<\/p>\n

“But smartphones create anxiety, fixation, and FOMO – a fear of missing out. The only way to genuinely allow children to concentrate in lessons, and to enjoy break time, is to lock them away.”<\/p>\n

Yondr’s Dugoni says school leaders have reported a number of benefits from adopting a phone-free policy.<\/p>\n

“There have been notable improvements in academic performance, and headteachers also report reductions in bullying,” he explains.<\/p>\n

Vale of York Academy in York began using the pouches in November<\/a> and headteacher Gillian Mills told the BBC: “It’s given us an extra level of confidence that students aren’t having their learning interrupted. <\/p>\n

“We’re not seeing phone confiscations now, which took up time, or the arguments about handing phones over, but also teachers are saying that they are able to teach.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paul Nugent created Hush Pouch after working for 20 years installing lockers in schools. He says there’s a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":389762,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[2306,86,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-389761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mobile","tag-mobile","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=389761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389761\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/389762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}