To be annoyed by total phone ban

I was shocked when my friend said the same thing about her son’s school in SW London. And many of the kids travel a long way by public transport.
I think it goes too far and wouldn’t be happy with my child not having a means of contacting me on their journey.

Yes, but we had other resources available that DC don't have now. Like payphones, bus timetables on stops etc.

Yes, but there were public phone boxes then!

I honestly feel like this raises new safeguarding / safety issues. Some kids may have to get the bus to/from school from afar. If the bus breaks down, there's a traffic accident or otherwise kids should be able to communicate this to their parents. Or if something happens to the kid on the way home e.g. wants to pop to a mate's house, falls over and has an accident etc, the kid should be able to reach their parents. It's the 21st century FGS. I am totally against use of phones throughout the school day, so if teachers collect them and hand them out again later that should be an easy solution. But the unnecessary hassle of a total ban is ridiculous. I would be raising this with the governors.

Tell me, when did you last do a bus journey across London without the benefit of a phone?

And we're now well into the 21st century. It's about time schools joined it.

1. None of my secondary aged kids have form time at the end of the day so the same 30 arnt together at the start and end of the day.
2. You could put in form time at the end but that would mean extending the school day hours as teaching time can’t be cut. That has huge ramifications on everyone as transport links and all arrangements would need to be altered for most pupils.
3. wont work anyway as lots of students will just bring a dummy phone to hand in.

She was worried about being able to contact DS. I assumed that was for non school purposes eg evenings and weekends.

FGS!

It's a bus journey, surrounded by people, in the UK, not a solo track across South America.

I'm pretty sure any kid getting harrassed by a man (we will leave out all the female teachers who have been jailed for grooming children) would also be surrounded by other adults or children. I think you're creating a problem where it doesn't exist.

As for the stabbing? Yeah, bit extreme and I absolutely guarantee that other adults were there in seconds, if not already there when it happened. And it's not exactly a common occurrence is it? Little Jaden isn't stepping over dead bodies on the way to school.

I can remember my home phone number from 65 years ago. I remember it when it changed from the exchange to all numbers. I know my current phone numbers.

I cannot remember anyone else's because I don't 'dial' them

I asked the same- got an eye roll and was told bus drivers, a police officer, paramedic or an adult. Not sure if this poster has secondary age kids taking the bus or has indeed even been out past their town in the last 30 years 🤣

He can ask someone in the pastoral team for advice and support if he has an issue.

That's really not going to work when the kid is halfway home, only to discover all the trains for the next leg of his journey have been cancelled.

Or needs to tell his parents that his bike has got a puncture.

Or is on a delayed coach back from a school trip or a football match etc

Because the safeguarding of identities of vulnerable children in school trumps that of others using phones to and from school. It might be the school had too many incidents of the pupils not turning their phones off so have had to ban them. As always, the minority not following the rules spoil it for the majority.

YANBU.

Adults also use mobile phones for emergencies. Eg i once used mine to call 999 when I was out of the house. Why deny our children the same?

I’m in favour of the teachers collecting phones and handing them back at end of day. Yes there may be 1000s of pupils in a school but if it’s done by class then that’s 30 isn’t it. I also don’t think kids should have their phones in their bags so this would be a good compromise.

I’d also love to know where that PP has seen all these payphones.

And the PP who said ‘go to a nearer school’ - as if all parents have a choice. Where I am, secondary school location is literally pot luck as there aren’t enough in the catchment.

If they search the students though surely they'd just find the second one...

I bet they wouldn't

What do they use to call them when they're out?

Yes and society has moved on.
People survived for decades using slate and chalk. Should schools go back to that too?

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Given the stabbing and murder rate today, you are talking shite

DD's old school had this total ban and had random searches too.

It was a problem for the kids who took a bus as it meant they couldn't take advantage of the cheaper weekly ticket as they were only available on the bus company app.

It didn't reduce bullying or improve behaviour. In fact we had to move my DD to a different school because the bullying was so bad.

A local shop set up a service meaning that for £1 a day the kids could leave their phones in a locked box. There would be a queue out of the door after school but I really couldn't see the point of it.

My DD just used to leave her phone at home but I drove her and collected her every day as she didn't have a bus she could take and it was too far to walk.

New school just has a lock box in each form room.

That's an awfully lot of messing around, teachers have enough to do.

I think total phone bans are a great idea honestly. More schools should do it.

I was infantalised far more in the 90s before phones became avaliable to teenagers. DM's response to safety was to drive me door to door everywhere which was infuriating. She only relinquished when I was 15 because she broke her arm and was unable to drive.

School had a payphone so I could queue and phone at breaktime if there was a change to afterschool clubs. I haven't seen a pay phone in a secondary school in about 15 years.

It's a lot easier to let my autistic child develop his independence when he knows that he can contact me for support as needed when journeys don't go to plan. That's far more effective than throwing him into the world pretending it's not 1998 yet. The tools like printed bus timetables and payphones that we used are gone and they're not coming back.

Incidentally DM who actively chose the luddite path through the early 2000s now struggles to function in a world that takes smart phones for granted. She can't book her own GP appointments. She can only use limited taxi companies. She struggles to hear on phones, but doesn't benefit from texts. She is often dependent on other people to do basic life admin for her and not engaging with the current world has left her isolated and more dependent.
I'm encouraging my children to use their phones wisely as tools and work around the pitfalls and tbh some of them like bullying can occur in a tech-free world anyway.

OP you could try telling them you’re going to give their “mobile phones are evil” philosophy a try so you’re getting rid of your mobile and they’ll need to call the house landline if they need to contact you.

Realistically, I’m not sure what you can do other than raise it as a safeguarding issue or through the parent governors as a very parent unfriendly policy.

Also, not sure how an Apple AirTag would really help, but if you have a plan for that if only you had an iPhone, then a Tile tag might work for you with an android. https://uk.tile.com/en

Another option if you have money is one of the Apple Watches or equivalent that can send messages etc. without a phone. (Though they may realise what that is and ban it too).

I think the issue is the world has changed.
My 2 used smart phones to help get to/from school.
They checked which route was best to get home. They had to get a bus to the train station, but if the trains were playing up they had the option of getting a slower, longer bus from school. This saved them getting the bus to the station and being left stranded.

There are no printed time tables anymore - all online.
There are no pay phones. We had one in school - I've never seen one in current schools
Laughing at bus drivers lending a phone. A couple of times DCs bus pass stopped working. Weren't allowed on the bus. They had a physical photo card pass with expiry date shown. But no, it didn't beep, so no entry.
Delayed away sport fixtures, they rang me to let me know. Are the schools going to do that?