'BRICK phones' are set to be given to Eton students starting school in September as part of a ban on smartphones.

The private school is prohibiting the use of smartphones by its youngest pupils, swapping them for basic Nokia ‘brick’ phones. The phones have basic functions of receiving texts and calls and can only be used outside of school hours.

While first years, entering the school in Year 9, will use them, ‘age-appropriate controls’ on devices will remain in place for older year groups.

The school, which charges up to around £52,000 per year, is also supplying iPads to pupils to use for academic study purposes.

School leaders said that the decision was made ‘to balance the benefits and challenges that technology brings to schools’.

This comes as schools across the country grapple with young people’s smartphone use. There is currently no national legislation telling schools to adopt a certain position – but many have moved to adopt no-use policies.

A survey in February found that 49 per cent of secondary schools in England have banned the use of phones during school hours. But only 16 per cent of them banned phones on the premises altogether.

Some lock phones away when students arrive to the school day and give them back at the end.

Government guidance from then indicates that school leaders should develop a policy which ‘reflects their school’s individual contexts and needs’.

Other schools have encouraged parents to not let their children have a smartphone before the age of 14.

As well as Eton, other private schools are set to ban phones, including Thomas’s in Battersea – attended by Prince George and Princess Charlotte.

Research from think tank Policy Exchange says that phone bans offer ‘potential benefits’ for school performance and pupil attainment, as well as children’s wellbeing.

The research, which analysed 162 different school’s approaches, found a ‘clear correlation’ between an effective phone ban and better school performance.

Charities and campaign groups have welcomed Eton’s announcement and have encouraged more state schools to adopt similar policies.

Smartphone Free Childhood, which works to highlight the risks of phones in schools, said ‘we have to ensure its not only the most privileged in society who are able to protect their children’.

In an interview with the Times, their co-founder Joe Ryrie said that the harm of smartphones ‘affects those in the lowest economic households the most’.