Pupils are not allowed to bring Smartphones (phones with the ability to use internet apps and take photographs / video) to King Solomon Academy. This is true for all pupils throughout primary and secondary up to the end of Year 11. Sixth Formers are allowed to have mobile phones onsite so long as they use them respectfully in designated areas.
Following a consultation with staff, parents and pupils in 2019, it was agreed that smartphones are a distraction from learning and put the physical and mental health of our pupils at risk in years younger than 6th Form. In 2025, we re-launched our commitment to being ‘smartphone free’ due to a large body of emerging research on the negative impacts of young people having and using mobile phones. You can read more in the slides here and learn more about a growing movement of schools trying to protect young people from mobile phones here.
If in year 7 - 11 a pupil brings a smartphone to school, it will be confiscated and kept for four weeks. They will also be issued with a detention.
We recognise that some parents will want their children to have a phone to contact them before and after school. Therefore, non-internet/camera enabled phones, so-called ‘brick’ phones are allowed onsite. An example can be found here. However these phones must be switched off and placed into pupils’ lockers. If they are seen or heard, they will be confiscated and detentions issued, in the same way that this would happen with a Smartphone.
Please see the behaviour policy’s section on ‘prohibited items’ and ‘mobile phones’ for more detail.
