We banned phones after seeing saw how damaging social media was for our pupils

"From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging."

"For Matthew Tavender, head of schools at Cunningham Hill primary schools, the problem wasn't children using their phones during school hours, it was the pervasive influence of social media when his pupils left the classroom. We were dealing with the fallout on Monday morning, he explains. In the past 10 years that smartphones have been around, I've not heard one in school. But what we were seeing was the damage smartphones were having outside of school, and the impact of that inside."

The Independent emphasizes field reporting across major issues and avoids paywalls to make journalism widely accessible, relying on donations to fund reporting. Coverage includes investigations of political financing and documentaries highlighting reproductive-rights activists. Renewed attention followed Sir Keir Starmer's pledge to crack down on children's smartphone use. In St Albans, Cunningham Hill and 32 other primary schools identified social media's pervasive influence outside classroom hours as damaging pupils' wellbeing and school life. Those schools issued a joint letter urging families not to give children smartphones until at least 14 and reported clear, observable benefits from the smartphone-free approach.

Read at www.independent.co.uk