Elite girls' school in the UK bans smartphones on week-long trip

The Brighton boarding school Roedean costs $75,000 per year. Photo / Supplied

Girls from a leading private school are being sent on a week-long retreat without smartphones to help them reconnect with friends.

Sixth-formers from Roedean will spend a week at a country house to practise interacting face-to-face.

The $75,000-a-year Brighton boarding school said the retreat has "lots of fresh air and no wi-fi", so the girls will not be able to message each other on WhatsApp or like photos on Instagram.

The $75,000-a-year Brighton boarding school said the retreat has 'lots of fresh air and no wi-fi'. Photo / Supplied

The move comes after the headmaster, Oliver Blond, realised that some pupils received a lot of their information about friends from social media.

At the retreat, the sixth formers will be set team tasks and encouraged to make eye contact, read facial expressions and play board games.

During a chat with pupils, Mr Blond asked one girl which city her friend lived in and was surprised when she did not know even though they had been friends for more than a year.

He said teenagers can sit next to each other every day yet still feel lonely in the bubble of their online world. He told the Sunday Times: "Teenagers can seem so connected but at the same time rather isolated."

Gemma Hannan, who is the director of sixth form, said the idea of a retreat came after teachers noticed the girls' friendships were mostly conducted online. She said: "We find them WhatsApping each other even when they are in the same class. They feel more comfy contacting each other via WhatsApp than talking face to face."

Pupil Ellie Flavin, 17, said many of those she interacts with online are not friends in real life. She added: "Even when we walk with a friend down a corridor, they have their phones out.

"Social media offers virtual friendships. I will see them on Instagram and follow them, but I have never had a face-to-face chat with them."

Florence Andrews, 16, said: "I don't feel I can ask my friends about their families. The friendship is limited to online. It would be weird. There's something caused by social media that makes it really difficult to approach them. It's almost as though we are hiding behind these screens."

Mr Blond added: "The time away is not just for eye contact and board games - but to develop critical thinking, discussion and debate, without the distraction of technology."