No phone for secondary school

Thanks OP for starting this thread. There's lots of interesting anecdotal information and some eye-opening comments from parents.

One aspect that's very relevant to the debate about phones and social media, but has been mentioned here less, is what the phone-based childhood has replaced (the play-based childhood, time spent together in families and amongst friends, unstructured unsupervised free play, independence, problem-solving, creativity, etc).

Jon Haidt's book is partly about this as well as the more immediate problems of smart phones for children - and draws heavily on Lenore Skenazy's book 'Free Range Kids'. Those who are saying 'ah well that's just how it is these days, etc' I don't think fully understand both the foundational harms of smart phones (social deprivation, sleep deprivation, attention fragmentation, addiction), the opportunity costs of lost experiences, and the problems associated with a decline in unstructured, unsupervised free play.

If you have even a passing interest in this area, you really need to read the book https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-anxious-generation-how-the-great-rewiring-of-childhood-is-causing-an-epidemic-of-mental-illness-jonathan-haidt/7499771

Smart phones AND social media use. Not one sentence in that study mentions having a smartphone and no media /SM usage is damaging.

Since we implemented the blanket ban, behaviour and focus has definitely improved. You're never going to get rid of bullying, but smartphones are a tool to enhance and amplifiy that kind of behaviour.

Schools do not make using any app a requirement.
All information and homework links you can access through the school website at home, on a laptop. There is never any requirement for a smartphone.

We loved without them once,they have there place but not in childhood

The amount of 'the ship has sailed, stop being a luddite' replies is depressing.

Having a smartphone (not just social media, but any smartphone use) is associated with all sorts of negative health affects from sleep deprivation to depression. Now that we know its bad for our children's health shouldn't we be doing everything we can to roll back their widespread use? As we have done e.g with smoking?

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7012622/

I think you just need to be prepared that smart phones allow children to bully,post inappropriate things , send people inappropriate pics .
I would never think my child would do any of this but she did and she said she did it cos everyone does it . Don't assume your child won't do these things .

@ringoffiire tbh I disagree with that. The phones are handy, for meeting up ,keep in contact outside of school hours etc. , but when DD is with her friends they largely interact like OP said.

DD walked a friend home yesterday and she didn't even bother taking her phone as it was a fairly short walk.

I'm perfectly happy with that.

I'm possibly abit younger and don't have teens so probably shouldn't have an opinion.
Smart phones started to become a thing just as I was leaving school.
I got my first phone when I started secondary school because I had more freedoms so good way to keep in touch with my parents and friends do that's all that I used it for.
Do I think smart phones are essential for school day probably not but as others said homework is on an app and lots of resources are through apps
Things are set up with smart phones in mind. I'm not saying they need a phone to go school with but you might be of the minority in not allowing your kid to have a smart phone at all and be mindful that time has moved on and you can't avoid tech even if you don't agree with it.

It’s going to happen nationwide. Just wait.

There is a blanket ban in schools because of the above problems.
Your children are kept safer with this ban. It's your choice as parents when to provide a phone and what you will allow in terms of usage, but they will not be using them in school.

I toatlly get the rationale for this and could definitely get behind no smartphone until year 9 (although we'd have had lots of public transport related issues and delays) but just in the interest of balance, my year 11 child has gone from a 3 to an 8 in GCSE Biology mocks from using a revsion app with videos on phone daily on way to/from school and my year 8 child has learnt and passed the certification for the PADI scuba diving first course this Easter holidays using the app with video content. My eldest failed the driving theory test twice after refusing to even pick up the official books I bought then passed it easily third time after a few days using an unofficial app.

This is all available on the web or in books of course, but for some reason they prefer to use apps on their smartphones. I do think this generation learn a bit differently (and are taught differently) in a way where some smartphone content can be helpful.

Year 7 though, yes, its to let you know about train delays etc.

Yes really.

Of course interaction is crucial to childhood development, and we are not talking about toddlers, we are talking about young people aged 11+ in secondary school. No one is saying that toddlers should have phones.

Owning a smartphone doesn't mean that young people don't interact. Kids walking home together and messing about on their phones is simply how they relate to one another these days, and your idyllic view of children walking home together and laughing in a technology-free world is outdated and shows a misunderstanding of how children/ teens are relating to one another and networking in the modern world.

The younger generation are developing qualitatively different ways of interacting with one another and you are projecting your idealised childhood days/ nostalgia onto them. That is not simply how things are now.

Most schools do not do that anymore, believe me.

Are you saying this it is a necessary requirement of his bus that he owns a smart phone? So, if he asked the bus driver / company / school what he could do if I didn't have one, they would say 'No, no smart phone, you can't come on the bus.'? No alternative provision could be made? Have you asked?

They are breaching department of education guidance. Report them.

So, by giving a young person a smart phone with unfettered access to the internet,

And that's the real issue isn't it? Same as with having any device with unfettered access to internet.

It’s not compulsory. Anyone saying they need it in school is wrong.

I have no control at all over my school's policies.

I agree with every word. Every single year it gets worse.

You can have the same comfort knowing he has a phone from a simple / feature / dumb / flip phone - it doesn't have to be a smart phone.

Your point about pedos and weirdos is misplaced though. There aren't any more around now than there used to be. There is much more awareness now than there used to be. A pedo is much more likely to be online, contacting young people via Instagram, than they are on the streets. So, by giving a young person a smart phone with unfettered access to the internet, you're actually likely to be making them less safe (in regard to this particular concern of anyway)

Well much as I say that our SLT is appalling (and it is), the Head is very much against phones in school for this reason. One of the teachers was filmed delivering a lesson and it was doctored to them swearing constantly/using sexualised language etc and posted online. It was awful. Most of the time when teachers were filmed they were shared via WhatsApp etc., but this one was particularly awful.

Getting expensive phones for your kids sounds like a way for people insecure about their social status to show off. Same as driving around in a massively overpowered vehicle worth tens of thousands and the other things otherwise unimpressive people get up to.