Pilot study finds lockable pouches help reduce smartphone use in schools

The study, carried out during the 2025-26 academic year, looked at how the pouches were rolled out and their perceived effects on classroom behaviour, academic engagement, participation in school life, and wellbeing.

The Northern Ireland Department of Education funded pilot study was intended to inform future policy on smartphone restriction in Northern Ireland and the wider UK. It used magnetically sealed lockable pouches into which pupils placed their phone at the start of the day and is unlocked at the end of the day. All secondary schools in Northern Ireland were invited to put themselves forward to be part of the scheme.

The evaluation used a mixed-methods design across nine Northern Ireland secondary schools, though only eight engaged fully. Researchers tracked behaviours and attitudes before the pouches were introduced and at follow-up points through the year, using online questionnaires on homework, classroom disruption, PE and extracurricular participation, peer interaction, smartphone use, and measures of anxiety, depression, and smartphone and social media addiction.

Schools also supplied half-termly records of exclusions, detentions, CAMHS referrals, counsellor visits and parent visits going back to September 2023. Alongside this, termly focus groups with pupils and staff, plus interviews with school leads, gave a qualitative picture of how the pouches worked in practice, combined with the survey data for a fuller view.

What the study found

The study found that introduction of the smartphone free pilot was associated with a reduction of smartphone usage.

• Teachers reported experiences of behavioural benefits of the pouch restriction policy, and a reduction of classroom disruptions was seen, as well as improved social interaction amongst students.

• Students exhibited mixed views of the benefits of the policy. This was reflected in the measures of student mental health and wellbeing - with negligible changes in difficulties, but some decrease in anxiety and depressions symptoms.

• Almost all teachers reported benefits of having a clear policy, and the pouch offered a noticeable change of implementation of school smartphone policy during the pilot.

• However, consistent implementation challenges were found including: inadequate locking/ unlocking points; damages to pouches; inconsistent enforcement. Many of the challenges reported appeared to be transient and were accepted by students at later timepoints in the pilot.

• Student adherence to the pouch policy varied by year group, with younger students perceived as more likely to adhere than older students.

Recommendations for implementation

The research team identified several recommendations for the Department of Education:

• Staff should role-model controlled smartphone use by restricting their smartphone use in pupil facing areas of the school.

• Schools should also consider introducing age-differentiated arrangements as older pupils viewed the policy as disproportionate and incompatible with independent study.

• The Education Department should consider how the restriction of smartphones interacts with the use of technology, and the importance of access to alternative technologies, such as laptops or computers, to support learning and assessment outcomes.

• The Education Department or schools should consider a standard operating guidance; staff training materials; parent communication templates; agreed sanctions and escalation processes to ensure a consistent approach to implementation of the pouches.

They also suggest that considerations should be made to overcome the barriers schools face to participate in research. A future study during a longer period would allow further robust quantitative data related to educational attainment outcomes: attendance; exclusions; mental health outcomes; long-term behavioural effects; impact on disadvantaged and SEN pupils.

The study was carried out by the Department of Biostatistics and Health Informatics, at King's College London. Report: Lockable Smartphone Pouches in Northern Ireland Post Primary Schools - A Cohort Study (June 2026)