To be annoyed by total phone ban

Our secondary uses locked pouches (yondr). Phone goes into the pouch in the morning and is unlocked by school at the end of the day. Much better than a total ban as the phone is available for travel.

Agree.

We were pre mobiles.

But we also had phone boxes.

We also always went to a school near home. Nowadays pupils are often buses or provided bus/train passes because there's no local catchment school and public transport isn't as reliable now as it was back then.

Our school also had dedicated school buses which you just paid for (in cash!) or brought a weekly ticket.

My ds had a taxi to school (attended on an ehcp and transported). Just a taxi driver taking him and another lad to school and ds home. I wouldn't have wanted him travelling alone in a taxi unable to contact anyone.

this is tricky.

I actually understand the thinking behind a total ban - my 12 year old spends far too much time on his phone playing games/ chatting on school bus both there and home - I hate it but every other child has their nose in a phone as well.

I would actually welcome an initiative that bnned phones for kids this age in any form!

It's tricky though in the current day and age with bus passes etc - I also wonder what happens if they need to go on to sport or something like that.

It's awful.

I'm glad phones are not allowed to be used in school but they should be allowed in a bag switched off.

After school time is not school time and parents need to check where their kids are.

I don’t understand how your school can just ban phones. It’s clearly a safety issue. Maybe band up with other parents to get it changed

Ours has over a thousand students so not small they still collect and return daily

Ds2 primary is the same thousand students collect and return daily

I didnt need a phone for school because it was within walking distance ds1 high school isn't really in walking distance and there have been a few times he has vanished due to transport mess ups we have muddled through but he has had half the street get into cars and drive off looking for him at one point taking a phone would have been easier

The government is pushing a total ban on phones in schools. They can be a behaviour and safeguarding nightmare. For every so many children that keep their phone switched off there will be 1 who doesn’t and that will likely be a problem one.

School budgets are stripped back to ridiculous levels. Large schools don’t have the staffing or time to manage phone collections and handing them back in.

The government needs to step in and fund Yondr pouches if it wants total ban as the reality for many children is that to keep them safe to and from school they need a phone.

The problem is that off in the bags turns into pupils sat in loos on their phones. This can't be policed (quite rightly) but it creates an issue for the staff. I speak from experience of our school.

Handing them into a class box in the office on arrival would seem a sensible compromise. We also shouldn't underestimate the issues that pupils using phones at school creates for teachers.

I'm guessing here that they've tried allowing them switched off in bags etc and this hasn't worked.
I agree with the PP who said keep phoning the school and keep getting your child to phone you.

DS' school had the policy of 'off and away'. If they were seen then they were confiscated and the parent had to go and get it back. But it meant they could be kept in bags for the route home.

I thought that was sensible. Not sure about a total ban for all of the reasons mentioned.

I agree that a total phone ban is ridiculous. You can get tags for devices other than Apple. We use the Samsung ones.

could they use a smart watch? doesn’t need to be an apple one but most will have a gps function and some even allow calls?

Metal detectors are because kids bring knives into schools etc. I wish I was kidding but it's reality. Even in my rural secondary we had a lockdown as an excluded pupil was on site with a knife.

I disagree with phones being excluded totally. My son's school they have 'yondr' pouches their phones go on at start of day and they lock, and have to be released on their way out. Savvy kids have 2, obviously but it does compromise in that they still have their phones on transport/journeys but not accessible in school

Would he be allowed a smart watch?

My son's school have a strict policy of no smart phones, but kids are allowed dumb phones turned off and battery removed in their bags which seems a good compromise. Also London

There are kids phone watches with 4g and specific limited capacity to work as phones so child can call selected contacts through an app on contacts mobile. I dont think they'd work for bus passes but might help with safety concerns.

Shops often don't have phones nowadays.

if they do, they are in an area of the shop where the general public are not allowed for safety reasons.

when I was at secondary school in the 80s, there were multiple phone booths in my school, there was a phone box near the bus stop (both ways) and many payphones on the route. There were also shops with payphones (if you didn't want to go and ask to use the phone ...) Shop owners were also less distrustful of teenagers.

Point is, today's teens have grown up in a world where it's expected that people have a phone with them all the time and to have access to their phone's abilities. Expecting teens to manage without it, for no good reason, is ridiculous.
I bet there are not many adults who habitually use mobile phones, who leave them at home when they go to work, even if the phone is not allowed at work.

It’s progress isn’t it? A device that allows people to contact other people instantly, and also source any information you might need. I’m sure everyone from the Neanderthals to the Tudors to Victorians would bite your hand off to have that. Technology should be embraced, not shunned.

Imagine calling someone bitchy and dismissive after saying this...

Some of us lived in a pre-mobile phone world. We survived

Some of us also lived in a world where car seats weren't used, it was OK to give your child a slap and dog shit didn't require picking up. Things have progressed for the better and all your comment does is show how little understanding you have of that

What kind of school is this? I haven't heard of this procedure anywhere.

I would just air tag him

Metal detectors and bag searches? Is it prison? Ridiculous, I’d push back on that. My kids travel an hour across the city to school, they go to extra curricular activities straight from school. They text me so I can pick them up from the station but sometimes trains are cancelled or delayed. Schools have no right to dictate what students carry with them on the way to and from school.

The state education system has banned phones where I live but they don’t stop them bringing them into school, they just can’t use them during school hours.

Is this an independent school?