Ms Byrne said it needed to be clear the responsibility for Kindergarten to Year 6 pupils not having mobile phones in their possession fell on parents, not teachers. Under the state government's policy, students must have their phones turned off for the whole school day – including breaks. WA Premier Mark McGowan and Education Minister Sue Ellery announced the new 'off-and-away' policy on Wednesday morning after consultation with schools which already had successful guidelines in place. "We want to create the best possible learning environment for WA kids, and our policy will allow students to focus on their school work, without the distraction of a mobile phone," Mr McGowan said. "Additionally, while it is recognised that cyber bullying mainly occurs outside school time, banning the use of mobile phones will reduce external issues being brought into a school via technology."

The ban restricts the use of mobile phones, smart watches, earbuds, tablets and headphones unless students are under the instruction of a staff member. Students from kindergarten to Year 6 will not be permitted to have mobile phones in their possession at all during the school day. Students from Years 7 to 12 must have their phones turned off during school hours and kept off and out of sight until the end of the school day. Smart watches must be set to airplane mode. Exemptions to the policy will be made for students with special circumstances, including where a student needs to monitor a health condition; when under the direct instruction of a teacher for educational purposes; or with teacher permission for a specified purpose. Texting friends at school will be a thing of the past in WA.

Parents will be contacted with information on the policy, including an instruction to contact their school’s administration should they need to get in touch with their child during school hours. The move follows a similar policy introduced to NSW public schools in 2018 and a push from federal Education Minister Dan Tehan to ban mobiles in schools across all states and territories earlier this year. Victoria is set to follow suit next, also banning phones from 2020. South Australia has flagged the possibility of rolling out similar legislation in the near future, but Queensland, Northern Territory and ACT ruled out any plans to enforce a ban. Parents, principal voice concerns over the ban

Simon Perroni, whose three daughters are in Years 1, 6 and 9 at West Coast Steiner School in Nollamara, which has an existing policy banning mobile phone use during school hours, welcomed the widespread ban. "There were incidents at a particular school where students would take photos of other classmates at their desks in awkward or uncompromising positions for just a split second, where that person might look funny or horrible for whatever reason, and seconds later it's spread around the classroom," he said. "And then the next thing that person is subjected to bullying for the rest of the day from everyone, and not just those in the class because the photo has been shared around the playground." He said his youngest daughter in Year 1, who doesn't have a phone, would often struggle to interact socially with other students because of the intrusion of mobile devices in daily school life. "Now that mobile phones are common in school and everybody has one, she's walking around trying to get attention from people or a reaction to something, and the other students have their head in a screen, they're in another world," he said.

Loading Unlike Mr Perroni, Karrinyup father of two Nathan Manick doesn't think the ban will make much of a difference in schools. His two children attend different high schools with different phone bans in place. His 12-year-old daughter attends a school with a strict no-phone policy, while his 14-year-old son attends a school with no ban in place. "I find it really handy being able to message my son at the school with no ban in place," he said. "My daughter attends a school with a strict no-phone policy but she checks her phone at lunch and recess by going into the toilets so even with this ban I don't see it making much difference."