Good luck to Julia Polley for trying to take drastic action. The head teacher of Wensleydale School and Sixth Form College wanted to install a jamming device in the school to block mobile phone signals. OMG! How would the students survive?

It turns out that jamming devices are illegal. Shame. Maybe the school could try an outright ban on phones instead. Students would of course object. Parents might object even more.

Phones in schools are tricky. Some parents insist that children need their phones so they can always be contacted. Smartphones can be useful in the school room. And, of course, mobiles are a huge part of modern life so you can’t pretend they don’t exist. Better to learn to deal with them. And yet…

Never mind the basic distraction – a phone is endlessly diverting. Many grown ups can hardly function for five minutes without their phones, so what chance for teenagers? Otherwise when boredom strikes they’d have to spend their classroom hours compiling their favourite football teams, or boy bands, or filling in the circles in their text books – if they still have text books…

Schools which have banned phones completely have shown much improved exam results, so that’s possibly reason enough

But there are more important things to worry about.

Ms Polley says she temporarily closed the Wi-Fi and looked at further jamming action after “a social media campaign and friendship fall out” between a group of girls. Which sounds perilously close to cyber bullying.

When these things escalate they become seriously damaging and even tragic. Teenagers have killed themselves as the result of relentless bullying on social media.

It’s no coincidence that the rise of social media has coincided with a deterioration in teenage mental health. Only part of the reason, no doubt, but still a significant one. So a few hours in the day when there’s no chance to use, abuse or feel threatened by your phone seems obvious really.

“Students need to come into school and feel safe,” says Ms Polley.

Banning phones seems a good place to start.

OF course, I watched – and read – Prime Minister Theresa May’s speech on Brexit very carefully and considered all the important points.

On the other hand, being of an essentially frivolous nature, at the same time I couldn’t help noticing that her hair looked different – fluffier, softer, more flattering. Her make up too, was different, more glowing, very flattering on a woman of a certain age.

It could, of course, be the inward glow of confidence. But if she has spent money on a makeup make-over, than I reckon it was money well spent.

TOP gallery director Dame Julia Peyton Jones retired last year from London’s Serpentine Gallery saying she wanted to pursue new projects.

This year she’s announced that at the age of 64 she’s just given birth to her first baby, a daughter, Pia.

As a retirement plan, it will probably be a bit more interesting than gardening or pottering around National, Trust properties.

I wish her great joy with her new baby – and masses and masses of energy.

BIG Brother is not only watching, he’s determined to make us sit up straight…

Some workers are now being tracked 24 hours a day, wearing monitoring devices so their bosses know who they’re talking to, for how long, if they’re sitting at their desk, walking around – or even how well they sleep.

Wearing these devices is apparently “voluntary”. Yeah right. Like volunteering to keep your job or not, I guess.

Of course we’re all being watched all the time. Unless you never go online, always pay by cash, never use a loyalty card and avoid all CCTV cameras in public places, we leave a trail wherever we go. All sorts of people have all sorts of data about us. Knowledge is power.

This new science of monitoring people at work is called “people analytics.” Some firms use a modified version of it to help with staff training, others use it for specific reasons, such as measuring if drivers are hungover or tired, or monitoring company fitness levels in a sort of mass Fitbit information gathering scheme presumably so they can name and shame the couch potatoes.

There’s even a device which monitors if you’re sitting up straight and if not, gives you a little electronic poke in the back to stop you slumping.

We used to have a headmistress like that. She’d creep up on soft-soled feet and give you a sharp jab with a ruler. We thought she was scary. But at least she was human…

DRIVING from the A1 to Shildon last week I spotted a buzzard perched, very buzzard-like, on a gatepost. But it was extremely big and somehow very feathery. I assume it was just a big, feathery buzzard – but could it have been something else and if so, what?

IT’S National Pie Day on Monday, so that’s one day’s meals planned. Meanwhile, today is National Hug Day and if that wasn’t enough excitement, it’s also Squirrel Appreciation Day – who knew squirrels felt so unloved?

Anyway, just go out there and hug a squirrel and you’ve ticked both boxes. Then you can start on the pie..