For pupils
Your phone stays yours. It just takes a break during the school day.
Your school uses BeShield pouches to apply the smartphone rule. Nobody takes your phone: you keep it with you, in a locked pouch.
Updated
How does it work?
- In the morning, you put your phone (or smartwatch) in your pouch and close it in one move
- You keep it with you all day
- On the way out, it opens in one move on the base
- During the day, no network and no notifications: nothing buzzes in your bag
Why a pouch instead of confiscation?
Because it is the same rule for everyone, with no arguing. Your phone stays with you: nobody else touches it, and it does not end up in a drawer.
Why is it so hard to focus with a phone nearby?
One notification is enough to break your focus, even if you do not answer (Stothart et al., 2015). And when phones are allowed in class, even students who do not use them remember less of the lesson (Glass and Kang, 2019).
What researchers say
One notification is enough
Receiving a notification, even without answering, disrupts a task that needs attention.
Stothart et al., Journal of Experimental Psychology, 2015The whole class benefits
When devices were allowed in lessons, students did worse in the exam, including those who did not use them.
Glass and Kang, Educational Psychology, 2019Less bullying
In Norway, schools that banned smartphones saw less bullying between pupils.
Abrahamsson, Journal of Human Resources, 202694%
of first-year secondary pupils in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation have their own phone. You are not the only one doing without it during the day.
#Génération2024, Média Animation and CSEM, 2024
Your questions
A question about your school's rule?
Talk to a staff member or your head teacher: they set the rule. Your parents have their own page too.