To be annoyed by total phone ban

All phones are banned - what would putting a cheap sim in an old phone do?

Here it saves money to have your bus tickets on an app. I can buy ds in bulk and get a saving. He would need his phone to get to and from school.

Yes it's the same here. The buses are cashless so you need a card or a phone, and they heavily push using the phone and it's cheaper as you can buy multiple tickets at once eg for a week.

Our secondary has a total ban on smartphones but allows brick phones (off, in bags) which I think is sensible.
London, so no phone apps needed for transport.

You haven’t provided any argument to the contrary! Why am I disingenuous? Why isn’t it like we used to put babies on their front?
I know you didn’t mention seat belts- I was giving an example of things people used to think was fine that they no long do!?
Just saying ‘no it isn’t so there’ is absolutely lazy

Go to a nearer school, how far away can it be that it takes several hours to get home?

Im wondering if most people actually know of the difference. Smart watches people think normal smart watches which connect into your phone. Not the 4G phone watches with very limited functions. If the school has a strict blanket ban though it might be hard to get them to engage about alternatives.

And I did obviously go to school (and uni) in pre/mobile age but there were pay phones everywhere (also went on tube). It was a different era so comparisons are nonsensical.

DS needs his phone to zap on and off the bus. The days of 30p for the bus fare are long gone.

Around Christmas there was a storm and the bus service and route was heavily affected by fallen trees, including one stretch of road causing a lengthy diversion through a labyrnithe housing estate. It took him 90 minutes to travel the 3 miles home. While arguably walking would be far quicker in those circumstances, that was not a safe option in those conditions, and the only way he knows to avoid that closed section on foot would be off-road at very high risk of trees falling with no help nearby. He was safer staying at the bus shelter and on the bus.

There is a grand total of zero pay phones on the journey home. The pub halfway is not the kind of place where an autistic 12 year old will be able or allowed to walk up to the bar. Reciting my phone number backwards 3x can not summon me.

Smart phones allowed him to check the bus website for information, contact me to keep us both updated and reassured (because it's natural to be concerned about an otherwise missing 12 year old at twighlight in a storm even without the added complication of autism involved) and use google maps to know where he was in unknown areas.

It wasn't practical for me to go and rescue him because I'd be subject to the same traffic chaos. Plus I was waiting at the bus stop for him as the walk home isn't great at twighlight anyway, so I was able to update him on where I was waiting safely. I didn't have access to my car.

The phone was a vital tool and saved a huge amount of worry on both sides, and gave DS the information he needed to cope with a stressful situation and avoid shutdown or meltdown. It meant I already knew that bus#1 had been too full to pick up at DS's bus stop and he was still waiting rather than being concerned about him not getting off.

In contrast, DS2 doesn't need a phone for a simple 300m walk from primary school, although now on the cusp of leaving, he can use it to update me on spontaneous plans on going to play with friends.

I have no issue with phones being off or shut away in school, but they are necessary for many pupils' journeys.

The days of payphones and bus passes on cards are long over and young people learning to be independent need to learn to function in their current world not a rose-tinted 20th Century version.

I really think total phone bans in schools will become the norm, particularly with all the data around the damage to the developing brain, safeguarding/bullying we have now.
I imagine it’ll be a rocky few years while best practices are figured out but I welcome the ban, personally.

The school relies on the very technology they ban.

I'm guessing they sent you a text, and email or had some sort of app to notify you of the ban.

I'm guessing it wasn't a letter, a slip from the teacher or, heaven forbid for a school, an actual phone call (to a non mobile number...) to actually speak to a parent.

Oh and maybe refuse 'online' parent teacher meetings too- insist that the school accommodates your desire for them to meet you face to face- as you don't want mobile phones.

Yes, anything beyond the very basic watch is banned. Even fit bits. Also stops the moaning when they inevitably get damaged/lost/stolen. They can wear them to school, they just must go in the pouch. Surprisingly, the kids haven't actually given much of a shit. When they all haven't got phones, it's not such an issue.

no, it is not a lazy argument
no it isn't like saying we used to let babies sleep in their fronts, or any of the other disingenuous 'examples' you have provided.
I didn't mention seatbelts so you comment about this and the 'good for you ...' sentence is totally a non-sequitur
So try an different rationale

My DCs have left school now but there wasn’t a phone ban. I’m sure they were used in toilets etc but my DCs were ‘good’ and never had theirs confiscated.
Another local school only allows brick phones which I think is a good compromise as at least a call/text can be made - but then obv these kids have a smart phone at home etc.
I like the idea of this magnetic pouch thing, never heard of it!
It seems phone use is coming in younger and younger. My two got one towards end of year 6 (not even a smart phone for eldest). They usually got our old iPhones.
I don’t see why a child younger than 11 needs one.

What pay phones?? 🤨

They shouldn't be banned from bringing them in, but they should be banned from using them in lessons. Problem is you've probably got schools and teachers who can't enforce discipline, so the only way to stop them is to ban them completely.

Children should not need to be travelling these distances to school.

Schools shouldn't have to be accommodating requests for phones because parents have chosen to send their child to a school nowhere near home.

There also used to be payphones on every corner and now you can walk miles without seeing one. What a ridiculous argument.

Did you know that it's actually possible to phone on a non-internet connected phone? And that it's possible to access the internet on a computer/laptop/tablet, which the vast, vast majority of households now have?

YABU. Agree that the school needs to have a plan in place for emergencies, like the bus, but surely that happens once in a blue moon and the solution is to have a school emergency contact who the driver can contact. Other stuff (like Tesco trips, keeping tabs on the child and just chit chat) isn’t essential and it’s far more important that (a) kids lean to go for longer periods without checking their phone every break/ lunchtime and (b) schools don’t have to spend their valuable time and resources dealing with phone related issues.

I’m always so astonished how so many people act like imposing restrictions on a child’s phone use is tantamount to child abuse. The school is trying to do what’s best for your child- if you don’t think they are then they shouldn’t be at that school. It might be worth trying to speak to them to find out the background. I agree with those who say that in the future we will look back at this period of time and be horrified at young kids and teenagers being exposed to phones with barely any restrictions whilst at the same time being actively pursued by tic tok etc- it will be the equivalent to women smoking in pregnancy.

Even a basic Spacetalk type thing? They can’t do any thing with them especially when it’s on school mode until the end of the day. It’s literally just a watch and step counter until I switch school mode off again

That's because children live in the moment and don't ever think anything can go wrong.
Parents, parent and worry about all the "what ifs" that kids don't worry about.

Special exceptions can be made for special cases. The vast majority of kids have no special medical reasons for needing a smartphone, and we don't need to put a smartphone into every kid's hands because the very occasional one uses it to manage Type 1 diabetes etc.

At the societal level, this is a reason why society should not continue down this path of incorporating every single bloody function into smartphones with zero alternatives; it should be possible to have a separate Oyster-style card for buses, for example. In the meantime, the pouches (described upthread) can be used for kids who are genuinely unable to use the bus without a smartphone; everyone els can have a dumb phone.

Could slide totally back into pre-internet days. I'd support the school with no mobiles if they could guarantee:

1. pay phones
2. timetables for public transport on paper
3. books (in paper)
4. home work on paper
5. no teams, ppts etc that kids have to access
6. homework not set on apps- eg Duolingo, Sparx etc teachers not to use on line resources or have access to these either
7. all Comms from school via paper- no email or texts
8. no 'refer to website for...' anything from the school
9. no parent pay etc- school to 'find a way' to manage this.

Can you put an AirTag in their bag, that way you'll know where they are once school finishes?

DS's secondary have basket on the teacher's desk. They put their phones in at the start of lessons and collect at break/change of room. If they don't put it in and get caught with a phone in lessons it's straight to the headmistress. PE teacher also has a basket for valuables in the gym.
DS has forgotten his phone a couple do times when he's been in a rush for the bus and the teacher on question has always sent me a message to say when he can collect it.