“Piloting a smartphone-free environment at KCC has already shown the difference it can make, helping our students to engage more fully in their lessons, interact with one another, and build resilience.”

At Kingsbridge Community College (part of Education South West), the move towards a smartphone-free environment has developed as part of our wider commitment to student wellbeing, focus, and positive development. The decision has been informed by listening carefully to students, parents, and staff, alongside growing national discussion about the impact of smartphones, social media, and constant connectivity on young people. We began by piloting the approach earlier this academic year, allowing us to test and refine the policy in a structured and supportive way.
 
Our intended outcomes were to create a calmer, more focused school environment where students could engage fully in learning and social interaction without the distraction and pressure of smartphones. We also wanted to reduce stress, improve concentration, and support students in developing stronger face-to-face relationships and resilience in everyday social situations.
 
Preparation involved extensive engagement with students, parents, and staff to gather views and ensure clarity of purpose. We also implemented a pilot phase, which allowed us to test systems, gather feedback, and identify practical considerations before the rollout. This helped ensure that expectations were clear and that routines were well established.
 
As with any change, there were initial questions around routines and practical implementation. Some concerns were raised about consistency and how the policy would work in practice across the school day. There was also the need to ensure clarity for all stakeholders during the early stages of the pilot. 
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We addressed challenges through clear communication, consistent expectations, and a phased introduction via the pilot. This allowed us to respond to feedback in real time and refine systems. Working closely with staff, students, and families helped ensure any concerns were quickly resolved and understanding was strengthened across the community.
 
The most rewarding aspect has been seeing the overwhelmingly positive impact on the school environment. Teachers have reported improved concentration in lessons, students are interacting more positively with one another, and the overall atmosphere is noticeably calmer and more focused. It has also been encouraging to see strong support from the majority of parents and students.
 
Following the success of the pilot, we are moving forward with the full launch of the smartphone-free approach. We will continue to refine systems where needed and share clear information with families ahead of implementation. We are also exploring practical solutions, such as working with local bus companies to support safe and effective communication around travel arrangements.
 
My tips for other schools and MATs looking to introduce similar measures would be:

• Start with a clear purpose focused on wellbeing, learning, and student development
• Engage early with students, parents, and staff to build understanding and support
• Pilot the approach to test systems and gather feedback before full rollout
• Communicate clearly and consistently at every stage of implementation
• Maintain calm, consistent routines and respond quickly and constructively to feedback

 
Report by Tina Graham, Principal at Kingsbridge Community College 

March marches on and we are pleased to bring you the latest UPDATE.

Following the publication of the White Paper last week Executive Director Martin Smith reflects on: "the renewed commitment to strengthening the education workforce, particularly the investment in recruiting 6,500 new teachers and the significant expansion of high‑quality professional development opportunities." 

We are here to play our part as Teaching School Hubs to support you in our delivery of the Early Career Framework, National Professional Qualifications, and evidence‑informed CPD across our region. 

Meanwhile, founder and Lead Coach of The Thinking Academy, Leonie Hurrell shares her thinking behind the "Leadership Skills" course designed to help leaders boost their self-awareness, build connections, and communicate clearly, including the importance of soft skills. Feedback from this week's course is heartening: 
"It was valuable to be reflective and a great opportunity to plan next steps for my leadership' (said one delegate).

With engagement referenced in the White Paper The Engagement Platform (TEP) engage us with their February 2026 findings, drawn from 165,000 pupils across 263 schools and articulate what engagement means. You can take advantage for your School/Trust with a special subsidy for Colyton Foundation partner schools, as well as all other schools.  

This month's interview is a thoughtful piece on Religious Education in schools with Ed Pawson, our SWIFT RE Professional Community Lead and Consultant. A natural enthusiast for the subject, Ed reminds us of the value in networking and building a community through the Professional Community. 

Always in tune with the latest teaching and learning research, Devon Research School (DRS) signposts us to some practical ways to help pupils build independence through explicit teaching and careful scaffolding in the recent Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) blog.

Our sponsor SchoolPro TLC continues the theme of wellbeing and supervision for school leaders and how stress is not just stress anymore - it is a safeguarding issue. The Safeguarding Team are there to provide support and you contact here

Educatering our school catering sponsor share some of their foodie in-school delights - including pizza and cookie making and an imaginative Taste, Touch, Smell – I am a Teacher, Get Me Out of Here session (the proof is in the pics). Contact the Team here to find out how they can support your Catering Teams.

If you have planned absence on the horizon, our sponsor Exeter Supply Partnership are ready to help you get organised and with their not-for-profit ethos you can feel doubly positive. Contact them here for support. 

This should keep us all focused and as spring edges ever nearer, we wish you a rewarding continuation of this Spring Term.

We were pleased to see the White Paper signal a material shift in the role of pupil engagement as a school improvement lever, with TEP highlighted as a case study:
 
"Schools are taking new approaches to measure pupil, employee and family engagement. One example is The Engagement Platform (TEP). TEP works with schools, local authorities and trusts nationwide to generate data insights on their performance, to target their practice and improve outcomes.
 
TEP data, now drawing from 300,000 children, indicates that low engagement is often linked to low attainment outcomes and poor attendance. Secondary school pupils with lower engagement scores are around three times more likely to be persistently absent than pupils with high engagement scores.
 
Equipping schools with data on pupil engagement enables them to target interventions and improve practice. Schools focusing on activities such as improving transition support, actively listening to pupil and employee groups, and using inclusive routines, have been able to achieve engagement scores that are better than the national average."

In response to the publication of the White Paper, Professor John Jerrim, Research Director at The Engagement Platform, has published the background literature and evidence-base underpinning TEP's engagement framework (see "Background and development of TEP measure of pupil engagement").

What the Research Tells Us
Engagement is what researchers call a "meta-construct": not a single trait, but an umbrella concept combining cognitive engagement (what pupils think about school), emotional engagement (what they feel about school and their relationships within it), and behavioural engagement (how they act). TEP's framework captures eleven distinct drivers across these three domains, including agency, peer relationships, safety and inclusion.
 
TEP’s latest February 2026 findings, drawn from 165,000 pupils across 263 schools, provides evidence that this framework maps onto measurable outcomes. Persistent absence rates differ substantially by engagement level: in primary schools, the gap between the lowest and highest engagement thirds is eleven percentage points; in secondary, nineteen. On attainment, schools in the top third for engagement average nearly ten Attainment 8 points higher than those in the bottom third - roughly a full GCSE grade per subject. At primary, schools in the highest quartile for the agency driver see 45% more pupils achieving the higher standard in RWM at KS2.-

​he data also points to staff engagement as an independent predictor of pupil outcomes, distinct from school intake or local deprivation levels. Within the higher-disadvantage half of the sample, schools in the top third for staff engagement had persistent absence rates 9.4 percentage points lower and Attainment 8 scores 6.5 points higher than the bottom third. This shows us that staff engagement is not a parallel concern to pupil engagement. It is a predictor of it, and one that schools can actively influence.  
 
Taken together, the findings suggest that engagement data, when measured rigorously and benchmarked with precision, functions as a lead indicator: pointing to where outcomes are heading before they arrive, and where the conditions for improvement might most usefully be examined.

We are pleased to announce that the Colyton Foundation has secured a 50% subsidy this academic year for all Colyton Foundation partner schools — with a 40% subsidy also available to all other schools.

Report by Agnes Fitzpatrick, Regional Director, The Engagement Platform