The world's first study of its kind - which was carried out at the University of Birmingham and published by the Lancet's journal for European health policy - has explored impact phone rules in schools have on pupil's health and education, with academics exploring students' behaviour, exercise, sleep pattern and length of time on their devices.

The research found no difference between those at schools with or without bans, with 1,227 students studied across 30 different secondary schools, which in turn were selected from a 1,341 sample of mainstream state schools across England.

Dr. Victoria Goodyear, the lead author on the paper, explained to the BBC that the findings shouldn't be taken as a mark "against" banning smartphones in schools.

She clarified: "What we're suggesting is that those bans in isolation are not enough to tackle the negative impacts."

Instead, she insisted the "focus" should be exploring how to reduce the time students spend on phone in general.

Goodyear added: "We need to do more than just ban phones in schools."

Although restricted smartphone use in schools didn't cause much of an impact, the study discovered other concerning links regarding pone use in general.

There was a connection between spending more time on social media and devices, and mental health struggles, a lack of exercise, lower grades and other disruptive behaviour.