School students headed back to class last week, minus one of their "life essentials", the mobile phone.

More correctly, mobile phones may still be at schools but must be turned off and out of sight under direction of the Government who has committed to banning phone use at school from term four.

The aim is to improve the classroom environment where phones are a distraction and the source of cyber-bullying.

 School student, "Carla" explained her distressing experience.

"At first, I didn’t know what was going on. Other kids at school were telling me I had said horrible things about them, but I hadn’t done anything. It started one afternoon after lunch. A few of the girls who sit in front of me in maths began to whisper to each other, then they turned around and glared at me. They were secretly checking their phones under their desks and talking. I wasn’t sure what was going on," she said.

 "When the bell went and we all got up to leave, one of the girls stopped to have a go at me: ‘Why would you say that? I can’t believe you’d trash the way I dress!’ I had no idea what she was talking about. I tried to explain but she cut me off and brushed past me as she left."

Carla said she messaged her friend on the bus after school and learned someone had hacked her Instagram account.

"(My friend) sent me a screenshot of an Instagram account that looked just like mine. There were all these posts with pictures of other girls from my school, each with nasty posts beneath them."

"Carla's" experience is just one of countless reported to the eSafety Commission.

 Many local schools have kept students and caregivers posted on the countdown to the mobile phone ban.

Cobar High School said their policy is being implemented to increase focus in classrooms, remove distractions and promote positive social interactions in the playground.

"We are excited to make our school a mobile phone free space to improve learning and engagement," Cobar High said in their newsletter, but reassured parents that "we will always make sure that you can contact your child in an emergency".

Deputy Premier and Minister for Education and Early Learning Prue Car said, “This ban creates a level playing field across all NSW public schools, and means students can focus on what’s most important – learning in the classroom. It will help to provide more productive classrooms for students and teachers, reducing opportunities for distraction and cyberbullying.

Options for schools include:

• Off and away: Phones are ‘off and away’ in classrooms (typically kept in the student’s school bag). Phones are not used for the duration of the school day.
• Phones in lockers: Students do not carry the phones with them; they must be kept in a locker for the whole school day.
• Locked phone pouch: Students place their phone in a magnetically locked pouch and are unable to use their phone. Pouches are magnetically unlocked at the end of the school day.
• Phones collected at the front office: Students deposit their phone at the school’s front office at the start of the school day and collect it at the day’s end (or when leaving the school premises). 

Schools will determine how they enforce the ban and respond to any breaches.