COUNCILLORS in Wellington have agreed to support Court Fields School’s mission to stop students using mobile phone at school by helping to provide security pouches for devices – but it is going to mean them splashing out a whopping £7,500.

Members of Wellington Town Council’s community committee heard on May 18 that mobile phone use had been identified as a significant and growing issue impacting well-being, sleep, behaviour, concentration and learning for students.

Now Court Fields School in Wellington has proposed the introduction of secure mobile phone pouches which students lock at the start of the school day and unlock at the end.

The proposed system would remove phones from lessons during the school day, reduce disruption and distraction and support face-to-face teaching in the classroom.

The school is looking to buy just over 900 phone pouches for students and the £7,500 requested from the town council would pay for half of them.

It is all part of the Cradle to Career programme which will give young people in Wellington support from the moment they are born to early adulthood.

It was back in 2024 when the town council was first introduced to the scheme being developed at Court Fields School.

The Cradle to Career initiative has been used elsewhere in the country and its core approach involves providing support from birth to early adulthood, combined with activities which target different aspects of young people’s lives. This could include antenatal classes and social groups for parents, youth groups, mentoring and career advice.

The town council has already agreed to make £50,000 available to the project and the authority’s community development officer, Laura Batcha, told councillors on May 18 that buying the secure phone pouches would fit with its priorities – improving children and young people’s well-being, supporting positive educational environments and reducing risk factors linked to anxiety and online harm.

“Court Fields has highlighted that, although national policy direction is increasingly moving towards formal school-day restrictions on mobile phone use, schools are not currently being provided with dedicated Central Government funding to support implementation,” she said.

“As a result, introducing a consistent and effective pouch system would place significant financial pressure on the school without external support.”

Cllr Justin Cole said: “We are committed to this project, but is this more of a grant request rather than partnership funding? I think we should be asking a few more questions about this, for example, whether other funding is being sought.

“We have had vigorous conversations about grants recently at the policy and finance committee and I am just wondering whether we’ve done our due diligence on this?”

But the mayor, Cllr Mark Lithgow, said: “We have already set out that we want to support this project and we should not then be questioning everything. I support this initiative as it will show students that there is life without a phone.”

Councillors agreed to support the scheme with a £7,500 input as part of the Cradle to Career’s digital well-being strand.