A school has banned smartphones after a pupil's phone was found with 9,000 messages sent in just one night on a year's WhatsApp group.

Children at Blackhorse Primary School in Bristol will no longer be allowed to bring smartphones to school after a debate around safety was sparked by the sheer number of notifications spotted on a pupil's screen by a teacher.

In recent years, pupils have been allowed to bring smartphones to school, but had to hand them in to the teacher during lesson time.

But around a year ago, a phone was accidentally left in the teacher's cupboard overnight - and was returned to the pupil the next day with 9,000 notifications of activity in a Year Six WhatsApp group.

Shocked at the discovery, executive headteacher Simon Botten started a debate with parents on whether smartphones should be allowed in schools - and now pupils can't bring them in at all.