To be annoyed by total phone ban

The data is in this book
https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/456971/the-anxious-generation-by-haidt-jonathan/9780241647660
And discussed here
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/jonathan-haidt-on-how-to-solve-the-teen-mental-health-crisis/id1460030305?i=1000652167670

Buy a pager if you need to know where they are.

Schools should not be responsible for missing phones, it's a decision parents make letting them have phones in school.

Another thing I’m responsible to the ‘we managed’ comments: I want better for my kids. I was in risky situations and I was just lucky at times. I went missing, I got scared and all sorts. I didn’t become any better for those experiences. I think it’s fine to aim a little higher for my kids. Add in the fact the area is different from when I was young. There were no early morning drug zombies at the station, less of the muffin for shits and giggles games. Plus we tended to travel in packs of kids more.

Can't they just use the phone at reception

eh??! there's literally none round here, they were taken down years ago

My daughter doesn’t have a phone, she has SEN’s and refuses to carry one (not ideal), so if she’s late home or there a incident at school I have to rely on school or the taxi company calling me which is probably what would have been done before we had mobile phones.

I do think kids should be allowed phones as long as they are handed in at registration in the morning and collected at the end of the day. Especially those who have to walk home (a fair distance).

YANBU but rather than fighting the ban directly, start campaigning to insist that the school must install payphones that students can use to call home about transport arrangements because they simply don't exist around the streets any more and if they expect their students to live as if it's the 1980s again they need to replace the facilities that used to exist back then. That's a totally reasonable mitigation for the immense inconvenience that they are causing to hundreds of families with their ban - but critically, it will cost them money to implement. I suspect that if the campaign gets enough support to be taken seriously, the school will realise that simply allowing students to have their phones in the bags but completely switched off (not just on silent/stand-by)they can save themselves ££££. Suddenly the rules will be changed to be less draconian.

@namemane
"As a pupil I learnt how to use a calculator - the world didn’t fall apart, we didn’t go down a wormhole writing boobies." 😂😂😂

What borough is this in? You can get list of payphones in each borough and some mainline stations like Victoria (last time I checked anyway still have payphones).

If you aren't going to change school policy or change school then maybe look at different solutions like the airtags or if there actually is a local shop you could pay that he could use the phone. What about a friend who lives closer to the school? I just think someone must have had an ingenious workaround if there are that many kids. Smartwatch? Tablet?

Think it ridiculous, and I see hundreds of kids travelling daily on the tube to and from school, they've all got a phone!

I saw a mobile locker at a school on the TV news last night. Seemed a good idea and solution. Many schools have smaller boxes for pupils with GCSE exams as taking a phone into the room can cause disqualification etc.

Some schools get a bit above themselves with their total bans. Trying to uninvent the wheel. As a teacher I’d not be happy about random bag searches - from both a legal and a moral viewpoint. What about 6th forms where some will be over 18 and so adults?

My, now adult, children lived near their school, attended before phone ownership and social media etc was as common and also before schools came up with their simplistic solution to a problem that throws up bigger problems.

To my mind its better to teach safe and appropriate use of such devices, theres more to school than the 3Rs and pupils will have their phones on later with all the attendant problems with them for some.

These Schools are just washing their hands of an aspect of adolescent life.

To throw something else into the discussion……
A few years ago my school was OFSTEDed. My class were doing small detailled practical work.
I told them to take pictures of their work and email it to my school email address.

We then stopped at various points to all look at the photos, via projector, taken of their individual work and comment.
Smooth lesson, progress made all pupils could see what they and others had done.
I was given outstanding. One of the 6 outstanding lessons in the school.
Mentioned as good practice in the final report.

pupils need to learn how to use phones etc as a tool.

As a pupil I learnt how to use a calculator - the world didn’t fall apart, we didn’t go down a wormhole writing boobies.

I'm pretty sure what's well documented is actually unfettered access to social media rather than smartphones per se.

The smartphone is just a piece of tech, which can be put to a variety of uses. In my DCs' cases it is essential to how they control their chronic, potentially life-threatening, medical condition, so it most certainly is NOT harmful to their health.

@TeleGardenGnome surely he knows your phone number by heart and so he can call it in an emergency? Which is what he might need to do if his phone was lost/flat/broken anyway? He should know your number? I know you don't want to get him to approach strangers but sometimes needs must - they need to be taught to find someone trustworthy to approach in an emergency. Or even use the station office phone.

If this is the school I think it is based on your various comments then I think I know which it is as I know other families there. Surely you knew the school policy when you chose to accept the offer of a place there?

As for thinking the metal detectors are there to scan for phones - have you considered that that might not be the primary purpose they are there, and the school has put them in for your son's safety?

Different opinion here...
I think we just need to teach phones off / not used /in pockets or bags etc in class. It must be an expectation.
The comments, "However did we cope before" are moot. It's 2024 and a different world. How did we cope without cars? Supermarkets? Plumbing? Pick anything for comparison.
There are several reasons kids/people in general are reluctant/find it difficult to put their phones down. We need to teach and practice good habits.
ETA
I don't think I even agree with phonos to be locked away, but I def don't agree with seizing personal property. Breaking the rules should have consequences, ie detention.

Can you share the studies on that?

All the studies I find generally tend to centre around excessive use. Or extreme cases. Where extreme cases have always happened. Just in a different way. I am sure most people agree that excessive use of anything isn’t great.

At my ds school they can hand them in at the office. At dds secondary it was a brick phone only, to be handed in but only brought in with prior permission.
Either way is sensible, neither of my kids had phones until the summer after GCSEs but we live within a 15 minutes walk of both schools and neither child did after school activities plus both sets of grandparents lived within 5 minutes walk of either school.

Of course I realise that. I'm not saying 'Having phones is better than not having phones'. I'm saying that having phones could make kids safer in the circumstances where they previously weren't safe.

Your argument is like me saying that people can get to hospital faster now that we have ambulances so we shouldn't put them in a pony and cart, and you saying 'You do realise that cars kill people don't you'. Yes. I do. Cars exist and phones exist and while they both have their problems, some things that were less safe without them can be safer.

You do realise that children are groomed in massive numbers over the internet? Way way more than the extremely tiny amount who were ever abducted and/or murdered, which was very rare statistically even in pre-smartphone days.

My kids have smartphones but no access to the internet. It doesn't have to be one or the other. Parental controls are so good now.

People who say 'We had no phones and we were fine' - it's distressing to wonder how many child abductions or murders would have been avoided if that child had had a mobile phone. To alert their parents where they were, to call the police, to call their parents - or even just for the assailant to not have taken the risk in the first place as they'd know that the person would be likely to have a way of contacting someone. We'll never know - but I do think we should stop pretending that everyone was fine without phones. And that's not even counting the number of worried parents walking the streets looking for a child who hasn't come home because their bus was cancelled, or kids who've spent hours sitting outside because a parent couldn't tell them they were held up and to go to grandmas, etc etc.

We've been lucky in that the school paid for the pouches and they are on loan to the children until they leave in year 11. Six formers are allowed to keep their phones but are expected not to use them during classes. They've been a great solution the phones during school hours issue.

Is this a state or independent school?

Smartphone use is harmful to health, that's well documented (I'm not talking about radiation causing tumours or bollocks like that, I'm talking about children carrying around unfettered access to the internet in their pockets 24/7). Not all change is good and it should not be accepted as the status quo.

I don't think it has done anyone's mental health any good being expected to be contactable all the time, put it that way.

I mean in that - the world moves on and things change. Just because something was a certain way 25 years ago, doesn't mean it applies today ...

I mean if you're going to go at it from that angle smart phone use is starting to prove as harmful to young brains and health as smoking would be.

I think people willfully ignore this by saying well we can't do anything about it now.