Let’s make space for childhood
By Caolan Wukics, head of boarding, Holmewood House
Australia’s legislation banning social media for under-16s has reignited a conversation I have with parents almost weekly: how do we help our children grow up in a world where smartphones seem designed to capture every spare moment of their attention?
At Holmewood House, we’ve taken a clear position. Our boarders enjoy a largely phone-free environment – and I use the word ‘enjoy’ deliberately, because that’s precisely what we see happening.
Article continues belowHere’s how it works in practice. Boarders can access mobile phones for communication three times a week; Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings, for around 30 minutes. Phones must not have social media apps installed. At weekends, phone access is at staff discretion and similarly limited. Laptops and computers aren’t allowed in bedrooms.
The reaction from new boarders is telling. Initially, some are uncertain and understandably so, given how embedded these devices have become in daily life. But within days, something shifts. House staff suggest a picnic, outdoor games, or arts and crafts. Children rediscover the simple pleasure of being bored and finding their own solution. It’s genuinely liberating to watch.
What does an evening look like without screens? After supervised prep, you’ll find children making the most of our 32 acres: football on the pitch, den-building in the woods, painting in our creative room (where they’re positively encouraged to leave their mark on the walls). There’s baking in the kitchen, board games in the common room, conversations that meander and deepen because there’s nowhere else to be.
We’re not anti-technology – far from it. Our pupils use computers throughout the school day, and we have thoughtful discussions about digital literacy, social media and AI. But we believe childhood benefits from boundaries, particularly around bedtime. Research shows that 45 minutes of blue-light exposure delays melatonin release, making sleep harder. Our screen-free evening routine has helped earn us recognition as a BSA Sleep Champion, though what matters more is that children wake genuinely rested.
The deeper benefit reveals itself in relationships. Without the option to retreat behind a screen, children learn to navigate the rhythms of community life: sharing space, reading social cues, building the kind of friendships that form when you’re truly present with one another. They develop imagination, independence and conversation skills – qualities that will serve them far beyond school.
When I meet prospective families, I’m straightforward about our approach. I ask parents whether their child genuinely needs social media apps, which children shouldn’t access until they’re 13 anyway. The response is overwhelmingly positive. Parents tell me they find it diffcult to enforce boundaries at home. They recognise that helping children establish healthy habits now, before the teenage years when screen battles intensify, is invaluable.
This isn’t about creating some romanticised, pre-digital childhood. Boarders can phone home using the house mobile and landline whenever they need. The common room has a television (though, like most of their generation, they rarely watch it). There’s even a Nintendo Switch for rainy afternoons. But these are moments in their week, not the gravitational centre.
What we’re really offering is something increasingly precious: time. Time to discover interests that emerge from curiosity rather than algorithms. Time to develop independence through real-world experiences. Time to build the kind of childhood memories that aren’t mediated by a screen.
I’ve noticed a growing trend across schools “Parents consistently tell us that our phone-free boarding is a significant draw” to limit screen time and extend childhood, protecting pupils from inappropriate content whilst fostering genuine inquiry and interaction. Some schools use Yondr pouches to lock phones away during the day. We’ve simply removed them from the boarding environment almost entirely.
The results speak for themselves. We see children who are present, engaged and connected to one another in meaningful ways. We’re alert to research about screens affecting attention spans and the ability to form deep relationships. Our approach isn’t about fighting technology, it’s about giving children the space to grow at their own pace.
Parents consistently tell us that our phone-free boarding is a significant draw. In a world where screens compete for our children’s attention at every turn, families appreciate a place where childhood can unfold more naturally, where children use their imagination, play games and participate in activities without constant digital distraction.
When I watch boarders at supper – laughing, chatting, fully engaged with one another – I’m reminded why this matters. We’re not preparing children for a world without technology. We’re just giving them the foundations to use it wisely. And that strikes me as an education worth having.
Banning phones is easy but not effective
By Dr Robert Harrison, director of education & integrated technology, ACS International Schools
When the education secretary writes to every head teacher in England insisting schools must be phone-free environments for the entire school day, I understand the impulse. When she says phones shouldn’t be used as calculators or for research during lessons, I recognise the frustration driving it.
But I’ve also watched this debate drift from legitimate concern into something approaching moral panic. And I worry that an outright ban – however satisfying – mistakes avoidance for protection.
The truth is that a blanket ban would simply create a phone-free bubble for seven hours, then send students home at 3.30pm with a cheery ‘good luck’. Parents would be left to manage their children’s digital world alone, often without the tools or support to do so effectively. Meanwhile, we will have spent the school day pretending that the digital world doesn’t exist.
This is the equivalent of teaching road safety without ever letting children near a street.
The evidence supporting bans is far less conclusive than the headlines suggest. The University of Pennsylvania study showing improved grades? That was in India, where smartphones represent fundamentally different patterns of access and ownership. The LSE research from 2016? Frequently cited, rarely read in full. The effects were modest and concentrated among specific groups. We don’t have robust evidence that school-hours bans improve long-term outcomes. What we may be creating instead is a generation skilled at hiding phone use rather than managing it.
At ACS International Schools, we take a different approach that’s neither permissive nor punitive. We absolutely limit phone use during the school day. But we do so through consultation with teachers, parents and students, not through inflexible campus-wide prohibition.
Our experience is that one size doesn’t fit all. Pre-teens have different needs (and capabilities) than 17-year-olds with revision apps and UCAS correspondence to deal with. Campus layouts matter. After-school activities matter. School climate and student engagement matter. Transportation matters, too, for students travelling significant distances and where parental contact is a legitimate need.
So we build consensus. At the start of each year, we engage families in an open discussion about digital boundaries and resilience. Students help shape the expectations they’ll be held to. This isn’t democracy for its own sake, but it’s recognition that rules imposed without buy-in become rules to circumvent.
In practice, this means protected spaces where phones can be secured in lockers or pouches, or checked-out by classroom teachers for legitimate academic use. Times and places for interaction not mediated by technology are the norm. We monitor individual behaviour and intervene when needed. But this isn’t done through surveillance, it’s through the ordinary attentiveness and relationship management that characterise good schools.
Does it work? Our students aren’t perfect digital citizens. But they’re practising, and they’re developing what we have labelled (in a nod toward Ethan Mollick) ‘co-intelligence’: the capacity to work ethically and productively with technology. When they leave our schools, they don’t suddenly encounter the digital world for the first time. They will have been navigating it, with adult guidance, for years.
I understand why black-and-white statutory bans appeal. But the problems smartphones create don’t stay within school hours. Students do not separate their lives into neat digital and analogue compartments. A balanced approach values both technology-free educational spaces and technology-informed social-emotional learning that reflects the real digital lives of today’s young people.
Threatening schools with Ofsted inspection for non-compliance isn’t collaboration but trying to outsource a societal problem to the classroom. We need genuine collaboration amongst schools, parents, government and the technology companies whose business models depend on capturing adolescent attention. Parents must engage with their children’s online lives and not outsource concern to school policy. Governments must hold platforms accountable and not just hand teachers another set of rules to enforce.
Schools should focus on developing responsible digital citizens, not confiscating mobile phones. Our job isn’t to create sanctuaries from the modern world. It’s to prepare young people to be ready to navigate it with wisdom, discernment, and confidence. That requires practice which is supervised, structured and intentional, not the convenience of avoidance masquerading as protection.
This article first appeared in The Week’s Independent Schools Guide Spring/Summer 2026, edited by Amanda Constance.