Winchester College laptops: first-years do homework on paper

Winchester College’s youngest pupils may use their laptops only in lessons and for 15 minutes after breakfast. For the rest of the day their devices are handed in, and their homework is done on paper.

The school’s approach to screens has been in The Times and The Telegraph over the past few days. The rules themselves are not new. The Headmaster, Elizabeth Stone, set them out in her end-of-term message to parents last December, and the college published it on its website on 10 December 2025. This report is taken from that published text.

What the rules are

Winchester College has about 760 pupils across 13 boarding houses. Ms Stone said the school regulates every device, not only phones, because “just about anything you can do on a smartphone you can do on a laptop or tablet.”

Under the college’s published policy:

• pupils may have one personal mobile phone and one school-prescribed laptop, and nothing else
• first-year boys (known in the school as Junior Part) use laptops only in lessons, plus 15 minutes after breakfast for email
• all their other work is paper-based
• in the first two years, boys can have their phones between the end of the day’s activities and the start of evening study, which the Headmaster put at up to 90 minutes once supper is taken out
• laptops in those two years stay in the communal study room and do not go to bedrooms
• for every pupil, including the Sixth Form, the campus is phone-free through the school day, afternoon activities included
• all pupils hand their phones in overnight

Ms Stone told parents the paper-based homework had “greatly improved study habits and concentration.”

The school makes exceptions case by case. Her message said some pupils “have diagnosed conditions and need to type”, while others who are “unusually addicted to their devices” need tighter limits.

Why the school says it does this

The Headmaster’s case is about learning rather than a ban on technology. Her message lists what the school does use computers for, including 3D modelling in maths, flashcard apps and climate simulations in geography.

“The research is clear, for instance, that it is harder to learn when reading on screen; and when typing on a device,” she wrote. “Which is why we are judicious about the use of laptops, and we don’t use them by default: there has to be a solid reason to use the digital device.”

She also accepted the cost. “Our approach means the experience of our pupils, particularly boarders, is radically different from typical children their age,” she wrote. That works, she said, because every pupil is under the same rules.

Her message asked parents not to buy smart watches, smart glasses, MacBooks or tablets as Christmas presents, as they are not allowed in school.

The AI question

In a second message published on 10 February 2026, Ms Stone turned to artificial intelligence. Her view is that pupils should meet AI later rather than earlier, once their knowledge and thinking skills are solid.

She compared it to running shoes with carbon-fibre springs. Train in them every day and your legs get weaker; put them on for race day after years of normal training and they give you a boost.

“Schools must not copy workplaces by using AI to produce a better product with as little effort as possible,” she wrote. “That effort you just eliminated? That’s the learning.”

A study with Oxford University

The December message also announced a research project with Oxford University, led by the college’s Dean Academic and Dr Jack Andrews. The college says it will look at:

• how device use affects pupils’ motivation and engagement
• how pupils use their devices for learning
• how teachers use them for teaching

The college says the findings will be published in peer-reviewed journals. No publication date has been given.

What it means for you

These rules apply only at Winchester College, a fee-paying boarding school. They are not Hampshire County Council policy and do not cover the city’s state schools, which set their own phone and device rules.

The Department for Education publishes guidance on mobile phones in schools, which sets out how schools can prohibit phone use through the school day. If you want to know what your own child’s school does, its behaviour policy is the place to look, and most schools publish it on their website.

Families thinking about the college can read the Headmaster’s full message, including a transcript, on the college’s website. Its 13+ open events are booked online.

For dates across Winchester’s schools, see our Winchester school term dates.