Friday October 10th 2025
Haddington, East Lothian
Written by Local Democracy Reporter, Marie Sharp
A mum who called on schools in East Lothian to ban pupils from using their own mobile phones during lessons has been backed by councillors.
Jenny Gries, a mum of three and former primary school teacher, told a meeting of the council’s petitions committee that a lack of council-provided devices in secondary schools meant some students were being asked to use their own devices to access learning material.
And she said the situation meant some young people were being distracted by ‘hundreds of notifications’ a lesson instead of being able to focus.
Ms Gries, from Gullane, pointed to an incident at all schools in East Lothian two weeks ago when all email accounts had to be suspended after a rogue email sent by a pupil, which went viral, attracted a string of inappropriate adult material which was shared through the network.
Putting a petition to councillors calling for a review of the council’s digital strategy to include guidance on personal devices, she called on them to ensure ‘only council owned devices can be used for teaching and learning, with smartphone use strictly prohibited.”
Ms Gries told the meeting: “Earlier this term parents and carers were sent a letter home from school asking for digital consent.
“In this letter it was made clear that all managed devices are equipped with a sophisticated filtering agent that ensures a safe environment for learning, however due to a shortage of devices across secondary schools there are times when young people are asked to access school work on personal devices on 4 and 5G networks over which the council has no control.
“On a device that sends a young person over 100 notifications per lesson and offers an array of games and apps and an entire internet of distraction and entertainment far more engaging than their classwork, it is my view that it is unfair and unrealistic to expect young people to focus and learn.
“It seems bizarre to send out letters highlighting the safeguarding technology on school devices while allowing young people to bring in personal mobile devices that have no such firewall in place.
“I am not calling on an outright ban on mobile phones in school, but do not believe they should be used for learning in the classroom.”
David Reid, the council’s education officer for digital support, acknowledged there had been inequalities due to a lack of council-provided Chromebooks for all pupils leaving some relying on their smartphones. However, he said a pilot project introduced in August at Dunbar Grammar School to provide Chromebooks to every secondary pupil was underway and could be rolled out across all secondary schools in the future.
And he said it had found that the number of incidents of damage to the devices had fallen ‘dramatically’ when pupils were given their own one to have in class and at home.
He said: ” We have found it gives a sense of responsibility and ownership around the device and over the very short period the damage and issues we have experienced with shared devices has reduced dramatically.”
Education officers said a review of the council’s digital learning strategy was due to be published with updated advice and personal devices would be included in the new guidelines.
Councillor Lee Ann Menzies said she was concerned that previous strategies had not looked at the inequality caused by asking some pupils to use their personal devices in the classroom.
She said: “The biggest point to me is the inequality we are creating between pupils, to me every child within the school setting should have the same filters.
“If we refuse this petition we negate our responsibility as corporate parents.”
Councillor McGuire said: “As a councillor we have a responsibility to do the best for our children so I will support the petition.”
The committee agreed to support the petition’s request for a review of the digital strategy to look into the use of personal devices as part of learning and introducing council-owned devices in the future.
Councillor John McMillan added: We have heard today with co-operation with school, charities and other partners we can provide the technology.
“We need to have children educated, but more than that learning and learning the right things, not just what but how.”
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