Pupils as young as five years old are being subjected to random searches and knife-style metal detectors in a crackdown on mobile phones. 

Teachers are able to stop and search children using handheld scanners normally used to screen for weapons in a bid to keep the distracting devices out of the classroom.

Dozens of primary and secondary schools have updated their mobile phone and screening policies and have told pupils phones should be ‘powered down’ and kept in their bags. 

Notley High School in Essex is using ‘screening’ wands – ordinarily used by police officers and security guards to scan for knives – in order to carry out the checks. 

One policy document, updated in December and seen by The Telegraph, allows the random searches to be ‘carried out by members of staff each day to ensure that students who do not hand in a mobile phone do not have them on their person’, adding that a ‘handheld scanner may be used to aid the spot check’. 

Shockingly, some primary children are being screened for phones using metal detectors with staff at a Suffolk school being allowed to search the youngsters using handheld metal detectors, with the policy citing common law. 

Does YOUR child’s school have a strict mobile phone policy? Email matt.strudwick@mailonline.co.uk

Pupils as young as five years old are being subjected to random searches and knife-style metal detectors in a crackdown on mobile phones

Teachers are able to stop and search children using handheld scanners normally used to screen for weapons in a bid to keep the distracting devices out of the classroom (A stock picture of a metal detecting wand)

The document stated ‘staff have the power to search a pupil for any item if the pupil agrees’. 

According to The Telegraph, Cowley International College in Merseyside updated its guidance in June so pupils can be ‘taught the benefits of environments free from distraction’.

‘Random and targeted searches’ are being carried out every day to catch children carrying phones in their pockets, which are then being confiscated.

‘Schools have statutory powers to search students, or their possessions and we also sometimes use a ‘wand’ to quickly check for items like vapes and phones,’ the school said.

The former Tory government issued new guidance to schools in February, with then education secretary Gillian Keegan urging head teachers to ban the use of smartphones in schools, including during break periods.

A study by the Policy Exchange think tank warned in May that only one in 10 secondary schools have an ‘effective ban’ that physically prevents children from using their phones.

These schools either ban them from the premises or insist that phones are shut away in dedicated lockers or pouches for the entire school day. 

MailOnline has contacted Cowley International College and Notley High School for comment.

Meanwhile, this week EE urged against giving children aged under 11 smartphones in new guidance to parents.

At one seconday school, ‘random and targeted searches’ are being carried out every day to catch children carrying phones in their pockets, which are then being confiscated

Meanwhile, this week EE urged against giving children aged under 11 smartphones in new guidance to parents

The telecommunications firm is the first to suggest that children should have restricted access to social media and ‘inappropriate sites’.

It recommends that they instead be given ‘brick’ phones with only basic capabilities such as calling and texting.

Furthermore, parents of children under 16 should use parental controls in order to manage their access to inappropriate online content, the company has said. 

The Telegraph reported that staff at the firm are being trained in the new guidance, which comes in the wake of growing criticism that tech giants are not doing enough to protect children from harmful content.

Data from regulator Ofcom in February showed that nine out of 10 11-year-olds already had a smartphone, with 99% of children spending time online.

Although most social media platforms have a minimum age of 13. as many as six in 10 children aged between 8 to 12 have their own account, the research found.

And three in five school children had reported being contacted online in a way that made them feel uncomfortable.

In an international survey of 10,000 parents, including 2,000 in the UK, over half said they regretted giving their children a smartphone.

The government has come under pressure from online campaigners and bereaved parents to ban the devices for those under 16, a move so far resisted by Sir Keir Starmer, who has instead suggested that there should be stronger controls in place to restrict harmful content.

Does YOUR child’s school have a strict mobile phone policy? Email matt.strudwick@mailonline.co.uk