Interview: Emma Mills, Birchwood Community High School

“Lunchtimes are noisier now -

because they’re all talking to each other.”

“Lunchtimes are noisier now -

because they’re all talking to each other.”

Why did you feel you needed to act? 

Brianna died in February, and then we had a suicide of a pupil in August. A group of friends. There was bullying on a snapchat group, and a child ended up taking their own life. That was the tipping point. Also, the issue with sexting was just huge - we were dealing with three to four incidents a week. I was also noticing how desensitised the children are to everything - some girls receive 3-4 explicit pictures a day from random people. They tell me, “it’s no big deal miss”. And the things they write to each other is just awful. They seem to think it’s not real because it’s a game - it’s on your phone so it’s not real. The way they’re learning to interact with each other is so disturbing. We also noticed the influence of Andrew Tate - particularly on vulnerable boys, who don’t have a lot of friends. 

I’ve been teaching for 24 years and I was noticing an enormous difference in how the children were interacting with each other. They weren’t talking as much. The canteen had become quieter. Kids don’t know how to be bored, and they’re not developing those essential executive function skills. If they don’t know the answer to something, their instant response is “I can’t do it”. They can’t tolerate having to think about it for even a second. There’s also a huge issue with county lines - vulnerable kids being picked up online. People are so protective of their children in real life these days. Because they’re not outside, parents think they’re safe. What they don’t realise is that all the scary people are sat behind a computer. 

The impact of social media 

The impact of social media is enormous. And if I wasn’t working in a school, I would have no idea how bad it is. Parents don’t realise just how harmful it is. Tiktok and snapchat are the worst. Tiktok is so much more dangerous than people realise. It starts off innocuous - but it reads your facial expressions and looks for what causes the biggest reaction because that makes children come back. Usually that’s fear, so it sends them more and more disturbing content.

We’ve had kids come to us who’ve been terrified - they’ve been watching something and then suddenly the most horrific scenes of people dying in Gaza pop up on their feed. It’s usually not something they’ve looked for.

Social media also puts huge pressure on children to look a certain away - Tiktok, AI, filters, it all has an enormous effect on their self image. It’s had a big impact on the mental health of our children. I’ve seen a huge rise in anxiety. 

What action did you take? 

We brought in Yondr pouches in September 2024. 

What was the response? 

We did get some initial parental backlash. Two parents kicked off, telling me I was ignoring their child’s human rights. But that was out of a thousand pupils. The vast majority of parents said “yes, please just ban them.”  

What’s been the reaction from pupils?

Pupils have come up and thanked me for what I’ve done. Interestingly, it’s those quiet, high achieving girls who tend to get quite stressed about social media. They tell me,“it’s so nice not have to think about their phone for a bit. You don’t realise the constant pressure they’re under - because they don’t either. Students tell me it has reduced their stress levels, and helped them realise they can live without their phone. They say it has also helped their ability to focus and learn. 

What impact have you seen?

The reduction in safeguarding is incredible. Last year 80% of safeguarding incidents were to do with phones, and now it’s 20%. Amazingly, the kids also aren’t using their phones in the evening any more, and I have lots of kids who don’t even bring their phones in at all. Seeing how behavioural and safeguarding issues have almost disappeared has felt like a big moment. 

I also notice so many more kids turn up to the lunch break activities. Last year only about a hundred children attended - now it’s every child in the school. There are only about five children in the school who don’t go to the enrichment clubs.

Lunchtimes are noisier now - because they’re all talking to each other!