To wonder what the ban on smartphones across 17 schools in South London will acheive.

When I was still teaching in Melbourne a few years ago we had no end of trouble making phone bans work, but when it became law the problem vanished as all the students could blame the government!!

Of course some lessons still need occasional phones but their need had to appear in the online lesson plan.

Students left their phones in their lockers, which were not vandalised as was the case in every London school I taught in - who promptly abandoned lockers.

How is my kid going to access the train app when there are delays or the connection doesn't arrive? How are they going to plan an alternative route when eg: someone jumps on the line (as sadly they did a few weeks ago)? My child being tech-enabled made our choice of school possible.

This is great news. I am a member of the WhatsApp group smartphone free childhood and it makes me hopeful that there will be greater regulation by the time my children go into secondary.

There is a an argument that children need phones and there may well be occasions they do so I propose issuing old style dumb phones with no data just for calls.

They do not need to be able take photographs and view video in school..

Why didn't they just leave them at reception?! Were they leaving school premises during the school day to get them from the bushes/neighbours/grandparents?! Are they allowed to leave the school midway through the day?

This all sounds like dreadful standards of discipline generally.

It will achieve what all performative authoritarianism achieves -sneaky, disengaged kids who think the adults around them are against them and not to be trusted.

Because that's the way they all communicated with each other.

All parents knew about the age limit but all of the kids wanted to chat in groups like in Teams (per pandemic) but on their own devices.

DS school did this some years ago for a year or so. Kids with a long journey to school could leave phones at reception. About 200. Bloody chaos for all concerned. Some hid them in bushes at the edge of the grounds leading to dubious types hanging about to steal them and generally intimidate. DS left his with his grandparents who lived a couple of doors away and pretty soon about 20 other kids did this too. Other neighbours apparently wanted to charge to look after phones! And of course the worst offenders just carried on taking them into school. Oh and burner phones. Anyway it was unpolicable, so it was dropped. I mean it was a terrible school, but no way NO WAY were those kids going to be without a phone.

Adolescents need to learn how to become adults and part of that is using all of the tech that the world provides, in an age appropriate way. Completely banning young people from smartphones altogether is unrealistic and counterproductive. They need to learn and part of learning is failing to get it right.
Tighter regulation on apps and internet access yes, better rules around access to them during school hours (in schools that don't already do this) yes; make it illegal to have them? No. That's ridiculous.

@Parker231 but unfortunately some do because that's how they pay for their transport home - electronic tickets.
Perhaps schools and bus companies need to sit down and talk to each other.
In London children have Oyster Zip cards which is a physical plastic card. Why can't other bus companies do that?

Why are primary age using WhatsApp - they are below the legal age.

Fact is life is so reliant on smartphones now that it's hard to learn how to function in a grown up world without one.

Well my only 11yo will just have to learn how to function without one until he’s old enough to be part of the grown up world…and he’ll have Snake on his phone to keep him occupied whilst the other 11yo pretend to be grown ups on their smartphones 🤷‍♀️

Children don’t need smartphones

The Nokia kids (and the no phone at all one) in my kids primary school were left out. So much socialising and plans were done on WhatsApp - in part I think as these kids grew up socialising solely online during the pandemic. And my 2 definitely need smartphones now as they use the route planner/timetable apps for transport, have payment enabled for emergencies and I like to track their whereabouts using find-my (though I know that can be done with an AirTag).

Fact is life is so reliant on smartphones now that it's hard to learn how to function in a grown up world without one.

Of course they do this!

I work in secondary as well. Some parents have no idea about what goes on.
Not all students of course but a majority would given the chance.

Check out this podcast on this topic

open.spotify.com/episode/36v2KWpyUBK1MYkv3YqjF6?si=jjb3jUJKQFmdHrQ3DsnFaA

My son needed a phone in year 5, as he had to walk home on his own and be ablento contact me or his sister (covid). So we got him a Nokia brick, there was no way he was getting a smartphone. I mean all of the social media platforms are at lest age 13 or above now so why would a kid need a smartphone before then?

I do . Seen it with my own eyes. School has better things to do than produce stats or data, too busy trying to teach. There’s a body position which you know means a pupil is on their phone at their desk, usually right hand down low trying to hide the phone under the desk. I used to play chicken with pupils walking down the corridor on their phones, but I always lost so I gave up. Nightmare.
My nephews school in North London has a phone ban, my sister is fully in favour.

This with bells on!

About the phones for walking to/from school thing....perhaps there needs to be more public phones put back in place.
My walk to secondary was about 25 minutes.
I walked past 3 public phone boxes (and there was one more slightly further on from my house that my friend walked past).
All those phone boxes are now gone.

Students can bring their phones into school but if they have them out when in school, they are (supposed to be) confiscated.
Smartphones are a massive issue. Kids will film staff members, other students and all sorts if they get the chance and for many kids this is a safeguarding concern.
.............Not to mention having phones in the toilets.

A colleague told me a couple of days ago about a child who had taken her phone, gone to the toilet and taken pictures on it. He then accused her of child abuse (as the pictures were on her phone). You don't even need a pin to take pictures on most phones. It's swipe and click.

Lets not be naive about what kids get up to!

So annoying for me that I had in place no phone for school with my middle two (having had three through school already) and now the school bus pass is going to app only from September.

There was zero need for them to have them from bus stop to school and back again, but now they’re essential.

The HT is furious as well, so I’m hoping something like a pouch set up will be brought in. It’s a big school though and most of the pupils are bussed in so it’s going to be tricky for the school to confiscate.

stupid decision by whoever at the council made it.

my year 6 is getting a basic Nokia phone, despite what seems to be the majority of friends getting smartphones especially for starting secondary. I could find no good reason why a smartphone was required in year 7, it seemed to be mostly so they wouldn’t feel left out.
If more schools across the U.K. could do what these London schools have announced maybe parents would stop buying them for year 7 and children wouldn’t feel left out of the smartphone cliques, as they wouldn’t exist 😣

In relation to the advice in year 6 do you mean? It was a combination of parents being able to call the kids if they did not get home on time or kids being able to call in the event of a change of plan or problem.

A step in the right direction. Spain are proposing banning social media for under 16s the tide seems to finally be turning (very slowly)

https://inews.co.uk/news/world/spain-ban-children-under-16-social-media-3093398