Sheffield’s largest secondary school rolled out the red carpet on Monday 14th July for a special premiere screening of a powerful new short film featuring its own pupils.

The film documents the experiences of 32 students at Ecclesfield Secondary School who took part in an innovative three-week challenge – voluntarily giving up their smartphones completely.

The Ecclesfield School Smartphone Project was a unique collaboration between the school, researchers at Sheffield Hallam University, Mitie, and Career Teachers. It was created in response to growing concerns about the amount of time young people spend on their phones and the impact this has on their education, health, and wellbeing.

During the project, students – along with four members of staff – handed in their smartphones and were issued simple “brick phones” instead. These allowed them to make calls but removed the addictive social media and app-based elements that so often consume young people’s time.

The red-carpet premiere was attended by students, families, staff, and project partners. They watched the short film produced by Revealing Reality, which captured the pupils’ reflections in their own words.

Liz Hunter, Ecclesfield’s PSHCE teacher who led the initiative, said:

“The film really shows the children talking honestly about the benefits of stepping away from their smartphones. Many of them told us they felt less anxious, slept better, built stronger friendships, and had more time to enjoy other activities. Some were even reluctant to take their phones back at the end of the project because they’d found the experience so liberating!

The premiere was a fantastic way to celebrate their achievements and share the positive message more widely. Now we’re thinking about what’s next – how we can involve more students, work with parents, and even reach younger children in our local primary schools to help them reflect on their phone use before it becomes such a big part of their lives.”

The success of the project comes amid mounting national concern about children’s online lives. Ofcom’s February 2024 report on online safety revealed that:

• 99% of children spend time online
• 9 in 10 children own a mobile phone by age 11
• Three-quarters of social media users aged 8–17 have an account on at least one major platform
• Six in 10 children aged 8–12 are signed up to social media despite minimum age limits
• Almost three-quarters of teens (13–17) have encountered at least one potential harm online
• Three in five secondary school children have been contacted in ways that made them feel uncomfortable
• There is an increasingly “blurred boundary between the lives children lead online and the ‘real world.’”

Ecclesfield’s smartphone-free challenge has shown that even a short break from digital devices can make a real difference to young people’s wellbeing – and the school hopes its film will inspire more families and schools to start similar conversations.