Queensland bans phones and smartwatches at schools

Students in one state will be banned from using their phones or smart watches for the entire school day from next year,

A ban on mobile phones and smartwatches will begin in Queensland schools from next year.

Students at state schools will have to give up their devices for the entire school day, starting from Term 1 of the 2024 school year.

The decision is a backflip from the state’s Education Minister Grace Grace, who publicly rejected the idea earlier this year and left it up to individual school principals to decide.

“From Term 1 next year mobile phones will need to be away for the day in all Queensland state schools, building on the excellent work of our principals and school leaders to date,” she said.

Phones will be banned at QLD schools from Term 1 in 2024. Picture: NCA Newswire / Gaye Gerard

Ms Grace hails the move as a “win-win” that provides a “consistent approach.

“I’ve always called for a consistent approach when it comes to mobile phones in our schools,” Ms Grace said.

The ban will extend from the first bell to the last bell of the day and include break times.

A government survey showed 95 per cent of Queensland schools already have a policy banning the use of phones during class, but most of these do not extend to break times.

“The only ones that weren’t implementing a school restriction were very remote, small schools ... the majority were implementing this already,” Ms Grace told reporters on Friday afternoon.

“The guidelines will have exceptions of course, particularly for students who have health reasons why they may need to have their phone with them, and sometimes students need them for educational purposes as well.”

Ms Grace initially said the reason she wasn’t implementing the ban was due to the fact the Queensland government’s anti-cyber-bullying taskforce did not include a ban in its recommendations.

The ban is a major backflip from the government after previously refusing to implement a statewide policy. Picture: NCA Newswire / Gaye Gerard

However, Taskforce chair Madonna King disagreed with the Education Minister’s statement and threw her support behind a ban.

It lead to an independent review conducted by former Queensland Family and Child Commissioner Cheryl Vardon and a survey of the state.

“Now obviously times have moved a bit, we didn’t want to disrupt what schools and school leaders were doing at that time,” Ms Grace said, “we’ve now got the time, the consistent and uniform approach to implement it, and that’s what I want to do.”

The full report is due later this month.

Queensland will follow in the footsteps of NSW who will ban phones at public high-schools from Term 4 of 2023.