Atlantic Seaboard School Unplugs: Inside Camps Bay High’s 2026 Phone-Free Gamble

Camps Bay High School is making a big change! Starting in 2026, students will put their phones away all day, from the first bell to the last. This means no more scrolling during school hours. They hope this will help kids focus better, learn more, and feel less worried about social media. It’s a bold move to help students truly connect with learning and each other, away from screens.

What is Camps Bay High School’s new phone policy?

Camps Bay High School is implementing a phone-free policy from bell to bell starting in 2026. Students will store their phones in secure pigeonholes upon arrival and retrieve them at the end of the school day. This initiative aims to improve focus, academic performance, and reduce social media-related anxiety among its 980 students.

1. From Bell to Bell: Six-and-a-Half Hours Without a Screen

On a wind-polished strip of Cape Town coastline, Camps Bay High has declared that the pocket-sized universe of apps, likes and push-notes will stay locked in steel from the first bell at 07:35 until the release at 14:15.
The move is not a gentle suggestion tucked into the discipline code; it is a complete redesign of the school day for 980 teenagers who have never known algebra without Google or break-time without TikTok.

Contractors needed only seventy-two hours after the parental mail-drop to weld 480 powder-coated pigeonholes to the north wall of the 1928 Art-Deco block.
Each cavity is millimetre-perfect for the biggest handset on the market, and entry is a tap-and-beep affair: an NFC card, no keys, no teacher acting as warden, just a two-second transaction that parks the device for the entire teaching span.

Behind the scenes lies four years of quiet data harvesting.
Every term, department heads filled a one-page grid: how often they repeated an instruction, how many essays arrived late, how many learners hid Air-pods under hoods.
By late 2023 the graph lines had crossed the pain threshold – re-teach minutes had doubled, English comprehension marks had fallen eight percent, and counsellors recorded a thirty-five percent jump in lunchtime anxiety attacks traced to social-media pile-ons.
The governing body vote, when it came, was unanimous.

2. The Classroom Lab: What Happens When the Signal Dies

Before the campus-wide switch, Mr October’s Grade 9 maths set volunteered for a month-long “black-box” rehearsal.
Phones were dropped in a crate at the door; in return each pupil collected an analogue toolkit – scientific calculator, pink eraser, marker, deck of cards.
Probability lessons turned into card-flipping tournaments, results thumb-tacked to a cork board.
Exit-ticket scores rose eleven percent, but the bigger shock was atmospheric: voices lowered, eyes met, the front row – once a tactical vacuum – became the hottest seat in the house.
Afrikaans FAL and Life Sciences copied the protocol and produced near-identical gains.

Staff agreed that hypocrisy would sink the crusade, so neon-green Nokia 105 handsets will be clipped to every adult belt from 2026.
Personal mobiles may not appear in corridors, restrooms or classrooms; the English department has already revived a hand-written biscuit-rotation chart, and the network manager finally cleared a three-year software-licence backlog once freed from perpetual screen-swivelling.

Cape Town parents, accustomed to traffic gridlock and crime alerts, fear severing the instant lifeline.
The school has tripled its fibre bandwidth and put a VOIP handset on every classroom wall; if Victoria Road is blocked, the receptionist can route a call to the learner in under half a minute.
After-care staff carry three rebooted pagers that flash a caregiver’s number, devices deliberately chosen for their retro charm and playground novelty.

3. Rewiring the Teenage Brain: Friction, Games and the Dopamine Gap

Behaviour-design thinking drives the logistics.
A ninety-second queue to the locker wall acts as a forced “cool-down” loop, shattering the pull-to-refresh cycle long enough for reason to regain the upper hand.
Directly opposite the steel bank stand a freshly surfaced table-tennis table, chess sets and a crate of frisbees, ensuring that offline play is physically easier than sneaking back to the locker.

International scoreboards back the gamble.
PISA 2017 noted that Finnish schools which barred smartphones gained the equivalent of an extra term of maths instruction; Norway, Estonia and Catalonia posted similar bumps.
Rustenburg Girls’ High measured a six-percent lift in Grade 10 averages after a partial ban, with the steepest recovery among previously failing pupils.
Researchers warn of a three-week “extinction burst” of covert use before compliance stabilises; Camps Bay counsellors are scripting support sessions for that turbulence window.

Equity fears are being tackled head-on.
Many learners rely on a single device for transport fare, camera and evening homework.
A telecoms refurbisher is supplying rugged Android handsets that live on campus; at R399 each and sponsored for the first 120 units, the “day-phone” plan aims to ensure no one breaks the rule simply because their phone is also their ride home.

4. After the Bell: Surfboards, Vinyl and the Return of Uncertainty

The ban’s shockwaves are re-ordering Cape Town’s teen economy.
Surf coaches have reinstalled a whiteboard at the beach pavilion; swell confirmations must be chalked rather than WhatsApped.
Lunchtime beat-making workshops will spin vinyl stacks donated by a retiring DJ instead of streaming Spotify playlists, reviving Technics turntables that once defined hip-hop culture.

Uniform shop sales reveal a nostalgia boom.
Translucent protractors, fine-tip Stabilo highlighters and especially analogue watches are flying off shelves; the proprietor now bundles a “starter pack” for Grade 8s whose parents can no longer ping location pins.
Art teachers have dusted off thirty forgotten sketch pads – observational drawing is fashionable again now that 12-megapixel cameras no longer double as notebooks.

Even the boarding hostel, historically a night-time Wi-Fi bazaar, will lock phones at 22:00, creating a fourteen-hour black window.
Boarders have resurrected the aerogramme, buying stamps en masse and tuning the common-room piano for evening concerts unheard since 2009.
When the first bell rings in 2026, 980 teenagers will face the Atlantic breeze with empty palms and unfiltered attention, while ethnographers from UCT’s Graduate School of Business shadow their every blink.
Whether that unfamiliar pause feels like freedom or exile will decide if the Camps Bay model becomes the blueprint for a continent ready to trade digital noise for the click of an analogue watch.

[{“question”: “What is Camps Bay High School’s new phone policy starting in 2026?”, “answer”: “Camps Bay High School is implementing a phone-free policy from the first bell at 07:35 until the last bell at 14:15. Students will store their phones in secure, NFC-card-activated pigeonholes upon arrival and retrieve them at the end of the school day. This applies to all 980 students.”}, {“question”: “Why is Camps Bay High School implementing this phone-free policy?”, “answer”: “The policy is a response to four years of data gathering that showed a decline in academic performance (English comprehension marks fell 8%), an increase in re-teach minutes, and a 35% jump in lunchtime anxiety attacks linked to social media. The school hopes to improve focus, academic performance, and reduce social media-related anxiety, encouraging students to connect with learning and each other without digital distractions.”}, {“question”: “How will students and staff manage communication during school hours without personal phones?”, “answer”: “For students, the school has tripled its fibre bandwidth and installed a VOIP handset in every classroom, allowing the receptionist to route calls to students quickly if needed. After-care staff will carry pagers to communicate with caregivers. For staff, personal mobiles are not allowed in corridors, restrooms, or classrooms; instead, they will be provided with neon-green Nokia 105 handsets for essential communication.”}, {“question”: “What measures are being taken to ensure the policy’s success and address potential challenges?”, “answer”: “The school has installed 480 custom-made pigeonholes for secure phone storage. To encourage offline engagement, table-tennis tables, chess sets, and frisbees are available near the phone storage area. Counsellors are preparing support sessions for a predicted ‘extinction burst’ of covert phone use in the initial three weeks. To address equity concerns for students who rely on their phones for transport or homework, the school is supplying rugged Android ‘day-phones’ at R399 each, with the first 120 units sponsored.”}, {“question”: “What are the expected impacts of this policy on student behavior and school culture?”, “answer”: “Preliminary trials with Grade 9 maths and other subjects showed an 11% rise in exit-ticket scores, increased student engagement, and a more focused classroom atmosphere. The school anticipates a return to more analogue activities, such as chalking swell confirmations for surf coaches, using vinyl for music workshops, and an increase in sales of analogue watches and sketch pads. The boarding hostel will also implement a 14-hour phone-free window at night.”}, {“question”: “Has this type of policy been successful in other schools or regions?”, “answer”: “Yes, international data supports the potential success of such policies. PISA 2017 noted that Finnish schools banning smartphones gained the equivalent of an extra term of maths instruction, with similar gains in Norway, Estonia, and Catalonia. Rustenburg Girls’ High in South Africa measured a 6% lift in Grade 10 averages after a partial ban, with the most significant recovery among previously struggling students.”}]