The University of Birmingham's research, peer-reviewed and published by the Lancet's Uournal for European health policy, indicates that students' sleep, classroom behaviour, exercise, or overall phone usage does not differ significantly between schools with phone bans and those without.

The study found that spending longer on smartphones and social media was linked to worse results on all those measures.

The study, which examined 1,227 students and the smartphone use rules of 30 different secondary schools in England, is the first in the world to look at school phone policies alongside pupil health and education measures.

The schools were selected from 1,341 mainstream state schools in England.

The research found that schools restricting smartphone use did not improve health, well-being, and lesson focus. However, it did find a link between increased phone and social media usage and worse mental well-being, lower physical activity, poorer sleep, lower grades, and more disruptive classroom behaviour.

The study used the internationally recognised Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scales to assess participants' well-being and examined students' anxiety and depression levels.

The study's lead author, Victoria Goodyear, told the BBC that the findings were not "against" smartphone bans in schools but suggested that "those bans in isolation are not enough to tackle the negative impacts."

She emphasised the need to reduce students' time spent on their phones, adding, "We need to do more than just ban phones in schools."