Phones away: London headteacher trials 12-hour school day

London’s first 12-hour school day (and smartphone ban) trial begins this week at All Saints Catholic College in Notting Hill. It’s a voluntary 10-week pilot, with year seven and eight pupils offered a 7am breakfast club and the option to stay until 7pm, keeping their phones in their bags or lockers throughout. Headteacher Andrew O’Neill, 42, hopes to break cyberbullying and sexting habits as well as offering a low-cost private school experience in a deprived area – pupils will do homework, with one-to-one tuition available, as well as sports, art, drama and cookery classes, for £10 per week and will eat a hot meal before going home. O’Neill cites a rise in anxiety and apathy in teenagers as the reason for the trial and wants to recreate the kind of play-based childhood he enjoyed growing up. O’Neill says the scheme is too expensive to roll out without government support, but told the BBC “there can only be positives” in sending children home “with a bucket of endorphins.”