“There’s just no need for them at all.” - That was a councillor’s views on pupils having mobile phones with them in schools.

Clr. Reg Owens had called for school governing bodies to ban mobile phones during school hours unless pupils were in the sixth form, and his motion was discussed this week.

At the schools and learning overview and scrutiny committee on September 26 members agreed with Cllr Owens that there was a “dark side” to mobile phone use but accepted their ubiquity was part of modern life.

Clr. Owens said he had heard from a number of parents about concerns and acknowledged each school had their own policy on mobile use on their premises.

“I don’t see any need for a student to have a mobile phone whilst in school, there’s just no need for it at all,” he added, highlighting pastoral support for emergencies was available.

“The dark side to mobile phones is very dark. We have incidents of violence filmed on a mobile phone and sent on to YouTube.

“It’s a modern version of bullying, there was an incident of a young girl in one of our schools where a group of other girls continuously sent unpleasant texts to her phone so much that she attempted to take her own life.

“It’s a very serious issue when mobile phones are misused,” he added.

Ysgol Penrhyn Dewi Headteacher David Haynes, attending the meeting to talk about the new curriculum, said he shared concerns about mobile phone misuse and at his school phones were not permitted in sight.

He added that the school also had to deal with problems of technology misuse that happened outside of school hours and it was about ensuring children were educated about responsible phone use.

“Mobile phones are not going to go away, it’s about appropriate and acceptable use,” he added.

The amount of time it took teachers to deal with matters was also raised as a concern as well as keeping up with new technology such as smart watches.

The committee discussed Clr. Owen’s notice but noted that schools already had policies in place, with all secondary schools not allowing mobile phone use in the day.