A student was refused entry to a school for failing to surrender her mobile phone in a clamp down on handsets.

Pupil Harriet Watson, 13, from was barred from Glenthorne High School, in Sutton, for refusing to give up her mobile phone and Sim card.

When she arrived at school the next day, she was again asked to give up the phone by headteacher Stephen Hume and was sent home for a second time after refusing to do so.

Her mother, Sheena, 42, a dinner lady at Carshalton College for Boys, said: “The next day she was asked for her phone’s Sim card, but she refused to hand it over and once again she was sent home.

“To be honest, I don’t see why they should keep the SIM card as well as the phone. She missed two days at school and I’m really unhappy because she hates missing school.

“They called me for a meeting on Monday to say they would allow my daughter back and to put the matter behind us, but I suspect it was because I got the press involved.”

Mrs Watson said she eventually gave the school the phone’s card, but only after she had snapped it in half.

Glenthorne’s policy states pupils are not allowed to use mobile phones at school and those who do should have their handsets seized until half-term.

Mrs Watson said: “I think this policy is very harsh. Kids need their phones and if they use it at school, the school should be allowed to keep it, but only until the end of the day.

“As it is, they are keeping it for months. But it’s very cheap to buy a mobile phone these days, so students just go out and get another one with a £15-a-month contract.”

A spokesman for Glenthorne High said: “We had a meeting with the pupil’s mother and the matter has been resolved.”

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