School that convinced hundreds of GCSE pupils to give up TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram reveals results
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A 'failing' secondary school that went to war on its students' smart phones has seen its results soar above the national average. Staff at Cumberland Community School in Newham, East London, made headlines in 2023 when they persuaded half their students to delete social media apps from their phones over the exam season.
![[Headteacher Ekhlas Rahman said the initiative was a 'game changer' after exam results soared (Picture: cumberlandcst.org)]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/01/14/15/94081661-14283367-image-a-74_1736867319313.jpg)
TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram were ditched for two months to be replaced by compulsory revision sessions - with some students agreeing to surrender their smart phones entirely to avoid any temptation or distraction. Since repeating the pioneering effort last year, the school's progress score has jumped by a grade and a quarter, leaving it among the most consistently improved in the UK.
![[Students were urged to hand over their phones to staff for up to two months]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/01/14/15/71177599-14283367-Students_taking_part_in_the_test_have_been_encouraged_to_hand_in-a-75_1736867350797.jpg)
And the inner-city academy now has 62 percent its of GCSE students achieving at least a Grade 5 in both English and maths – sixteen points above the average across England. 'The social media ban was a game changer for us because all of a sudden our students were 100 percent focused on revising for their exams,' said headteacher Ekhlas Rahman.
![[The inner-city school is now among the most consistently improved in the UK (Gov.uk)]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/01/14/15/94081579-14283367-The_school_has_now_soared_up_the_rankings-m-95_1736868329572.jpg)
'The (2023) cohort that stuck to it throughout the revision and exam period did significantly better than they were predicted. We did it again this last year and the results were similar. Amin Opayemi and Dania Olajide were among students at Cumberland Community School in Newham, East London who ditched social media while sitting their GCSEs.
