A school convinced students to delete their social media apps. The impact left everyone stunned.

While technology offers many benefits, it also comes with notable downsides. Smartphones, for example, can be a major distraction due to their multitude of features. Addressing this issue, a secondary school in East London implemented a bold strategy: asking its GCSE students to give up their phones temporarily. According to DailyMail UK, the school had been struggling academically, but after enforcing this measure, student performance rose above the national average.

The staff at the Cumberland Community School requested their students to give up their phones and delete all their social media apps during the exam season. The students complied and got amazing results. They deleted apps like Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat and made way for revision sessions after being free from all distractions. The school repeated the same thing once again the next year and their average grade jumped by one and a quarter points, placing it among schools that have improved consistently in the UK. Sixty-two percent of students from the school received at least a grade five in both Maths and English, a metric that is 16 points above the rest of the nation, as per the outlet.

"The social media ban was a game changer for us because all of a sudden, our students were 100 percent focused on revising for their exams. The (2023) cohort that stuck to it throughout the revision and exam period did significantly better than they predicted. We did it again this last year and the results were similar," the head teacher of the school, Ekhlas Rahman, revealed. He added, "Huge credit goes to our staff and students who have put so much effort into this sustained improvement." The students followed the measures for over two months. In 2023, 160 out of 300 students agreed to delete their social media apps, as per Good News Network. 120 students agreed to the same the next year during exam season.

"Five years ago, this school was failing its students. That meant they were not getting the grades to go into higher education. Now we are among the top-performing in the country, it means much greater opportunity for our students," the head teacher expressed. The head teacher was not surprised when other schools started to follow in their footsteps to ensure that their students were getting good grades. The school's effort and results also highlight the need to understand the impact excessive use of smartphones can have on young children.

According to a report by Ofcom, 90% of 11-year-olds own smartphones, and 99% of children spend time online for various purposes, reports DailyMail UK. Despite a minimum age requirement of 13 for most social media platforms, six out of ten children aged 10 to 12 have their own accounts. Surprisingly, three out of five children received messages on social media that made them feel ill at ease. The UK government has urged the head teachers of all schools to ban phones inside the school.