Does your school allow phone use during day?

Ds school has a very firm rule of no phones to be seen during the day. Ds is in year 10 and has never bothered taking his with him.

I work in a city secondary with a high population of very low income family kids. At the start of the year our amazing head introduced this policy and we braced ourselves for serious pushback from students. Trust me, they are not backward in coming forward about anything they are unhappy with .

I was very pleasantly surprised with how well they accepted it.

It's completely doable

Not banned from bringing but have to be off and out of site on school premises. If seen or heard phone is confiscated. They do let child get it back themselves at the end of the day, but if it's confiscated 3 times in a term a parent has to collect it.

DD's school - phones had to be left in lockers during the day. Any seen (or heard) during the day are confiscated, though they don't go to the extent of checking bags.

This whole 'first to ban' thing is just a publicity stunt. Unless they are going to search every bag, every day, it is no different to what 100s of schools are already doing.

I’m a teacher, I thought all schools have banned now

The majority of safeguarding issues related to phones ( and there are a lot of them - I’ve dealt with some awful things even working in primary schools) happen outside of school hours.

If this is to be addressed all under 16s should be banned from smart phones/social media altogether and have old fashioned phones that call and text only.

Another thought - do schools with sixth forms have these bans? I’m wondering about telling 18 year olds the must hand/pouch lock their phones.
I’m playing devils advocate really with all of my comments on this thread - my daughter is yr10 and has her phone switched off during the day unless her teacher asks her to send a message on a trip and walks home so doesn’t need to worry about missing the bus so using pouches wouldn’t bother her in the slightest.
I do genuinely think it’s the wrong thing to focus on and finding a way of improving people’s attitude towards education and respect for teachers would improve the working environment far more than not being allowed on TikTok at break time.

At my daughters secondary she used to use them in class sometimes but they now all have ipads so the phones are getting locked in pouches from Monday.

I’ve just read about yondr pouches this does seem a better idea logistically as long as there are enough unlocking stations, but yeah I’d have absolutely had a dummy phone and had my real one to use.

My younger two's secondary's policy is no they don't allow it for KS3 and KS4, would absolutely swear they don't allow, that they confiscate if they're out, send home letters on it, the works.

I'm a governor and have seen phones in use in the classroom. Last year I wrote in a visit report that included a mention of how a child with additional needs was using her phone under TA supervision because the laptop she was meant to use hadn't worked and was essentially told off by the DSL for including it, was told to add in more emphasis that that wasn't standard procedure and that he was going to have a word with the teacher even though he had been in the room with me when it happened, he was giving me as safeguarding governor and the trust head of safeguarding a tour of a new part of the school adapted for alternative provision, was there when the teacher had explained the situation, was part of the conversation around the issues with keeping tech in good condition and e-safeguarding.

So while it's great to read more schools putting in more to ban phones because it is a significant safeguarding issue and distraction, I can't say that I trust schools on it.

I see. At our school they don’t go back to form at the end of the day so this would cause chaos with the buses - there isn’t a school bus only the public ones and the most popular leaves too close to the end of the day to allow for a return to form.
I’m not sure what a yondr pouch is? If the phones are not handed in surely there is a way around not using them.
Although it dawns on me as I am typing when I was at school if phones had been a thing I would have had an old no SIM card one to hand in and kept mine with me - but I found a way round most rules.

Last year during the trial form teachers collected them in morning form time and handed back in end of day form time - it didn't seem to be a major issue and the teacher feedback seems to be that they preferred it.

However, like I said, they've now shifted to Yondr pouches for the majority now and phones only get taken in if the kid doesn't have a Yondr pouch for some reason. The main reason given was some parents' concern that phones would get damaged in the locked box. So the kids have their phones on them but totally inaccessible.

I think this is ridiculous to be honest collecting 1000 + phones at the beginning of the day and giving them out again must be a logistical nightmare.

Ours recently shifted from "switched off out of sight" to ban - phones are either handed in or in Yondr pouches for the full school day.

This was after a trial with years 7-8 which went well - the school reported students were less distracted, less tempted to just check their phones at break times/in the loo, behaviour overall improved. It's now rolled out across the whole school and it seems much better than a system that relies a lot on trust and the deterrent of punishment.

There are obviously exceptions for kids with eg diabetes, and there are of course kids who'll claim they didn't bring a phone to school/try to get around it (though the school gets parents to note at the start of the school year whether their child usually brings a phone and what make/model.) No system is foolproof but I think this is a much better system than them having their phones on them and having the temptation there all the time - part of the idea is embedding the idea that the world won't end if you don't check your phone for 7 hours.

No. I've always thought it was completely ridiculous to allow phones in the day and it formed part of our decision of where to send DD as one of our potential choices did allow phones.
When we were looking at secondaries, it seemed more common for private schools to ban phones - none of the private schools allowed them, but 2 out of 4 state schools did. That was a few years ago though.

Ds finished school recently. His school have no specific mobile phone polices and sometimes they were used to support learning in class.

Any behaviour issues in class, or on breaks, regardless of whether it was with a mobile phone or not would be managed.

Blanket bans in school imo are a lazy approach and not teaching children how to navigate their use in the world they are growing up in.

DD's school has an out of sight rule. They do sometimes use in class, but that's obviously with permission. If they are caught using it otherwise, it gets confiscated and a parent has to pick it up.

My DS’s school don’t allow any phones to be seen or heard at any time during the school day with various sanctions for doing so. For repeat offenders this includes having phone taken and given back at the end of term. DS hasn’t mentioned anyone having their phone taken. I think it’s pretty easy to comply when you know the consequence! At primary they could give phones in to reception ,in year 6, at the beginning of the day if they needed it to walk to and from school.

Cgm?
I would assume in those cases it's treated as a medical device my son is diabetic and has a Dexcom he was allowed to have his phone on the desk in front of him throughout his GCSE exams and he's now at college ,and his tutors know he has to have his phone on him at all times.

Are they at my school, it's odd we have no phone signal at all. Only in the car park, when contracts come in and need to make a phone call I'm always having to apologise and point them outside. It is like a odd black hole.

The WiFi works most of the time though, if we're not having a bad day. So I could never understand how the kids could use their phones previously.

No not allowed. Off and in bags. If they are seen to be using them they are confiscated until a parent comes to collect them or until the end of term.

It does help that the school is in a black hole for network so they can't use them anyway.

No. Phones have to be handed in at the start of the day for y7-9, then from Y10 they can have them in school time aren't allowed to use them but are expected to self regulate and not use them in the school day.

Primary was y6 could bring a phone and leave it at reception for the day. No phones in classrooms.

Secondary, phones allowed but switched off in bag unless directed to used foe educational purpose.

At the secondary I work at they are allowed but switched off in bags. Only allowed out for educational purposes for ks4, shouldn't be out at all at ks3.

Not allowed during school day. Off and in bag or pocket.
Only school devices can be used on lessons.

There is an exemption for medical devices and in lessons the teachers are aware if a pupil has one