To feel relieved the school has now completely banned phones

The evaluation i would make would include the school rules and the harms of continuous phone usage on developing minds. The easiest and the best are not always the same thing.

I teach primary not secondary but at a guess I’d say it’s because parents tell their children to break the rules or that the rules are Draconian, instead of accepting that their piss poor, low effort, “raised mainly by Apple” parenting is to blame for poor behaviour, focus, concentration, etc.

I presume they're not checking everyone's bags at entry into school?

In which case you'd just put it in your bag anyway wouldn't you

(And my child has no social media or internet or WhatsApp on her phone for reference.)

Do you not believe that people can have the capacity to evaluate each situation and decide whether using modern tech or a more traditional method is the best solution? Sometimes you don't need to use tech at all; but sometimes it's very obviously by far the best method.

We all have lots of tools and facilities that we don't need or choose to use all that often, but that doesn't mean that we don't need them sometimes - and also value having them available in case we do need them, even if that doesn't occur very frequently

This makes perfect sense, @BrezhnevsLuxuriantEyebrows, except that too many kids have been allowed to spend so much time on their phones that being without it - even when genuinely not needed - is thought appalling

We've all seen the glazed expressions, and worse, groups of teenagers sitting together with not a word of actual conversation but fingers clicking away madly - and then some wonder what happened to their ability to communicate and focus

Because parents haven't been backing schools up and reinforcing the more moderate rules that have been in place for years.

This

Why are English schools like this? So draconian and disproportionate.

My parents were both at work, so wouldn't have known if I was home or not anyway. Mums sat at home waiting for kids to come in wasn't normal in the 90s was it?

Phone free doesn’t mean banning them completely.

No you wouldn’t. The people beating you up wouldn’t have paused for you to film them doing it. And the bullying would have followed you home via social media. Their friends would have filmed you being bullied and posted it everywhere so you’d have been further humiliated. Bullying is far worse since phones/social media, there is literally no escape, and people say far worse things online than they do face to face.

As someone who was at school in the 80s/90s I would use one several times a term.
Using a payphone to call home (and to call 999) was part of one of the Brownie badges and I can also remember it being taught in primary school. It was considered something important we should know.

At school we had a phone box and I remember calling for things like

Wanting to join an afterschool activity
After school club cancelled.
Staying on with a friend after school
Going to the library to do some homework
Going to a friend's house
Sport's match finished (for that we used to let the phone ring three time, come off and then do the same again to save the 10p)
Forgotten something
"How's granny?"
If a friend was off ill, we'd often crowd into the phone box to call them at break.

If I'd gone to town with friends, I might call to say I was on the way home, or plans had changed or permission to get something etc.

All those things would probably be done by a WhatsApp message now which is far simpler!

Sorry, but I think that's really lax parenting.

It wasn't about permission. My parents never said no to me going somewhere, but wanted to know where I was. I dont think that's unreasonable or unusual, even in the 90s. None of my firends just didn't come home. Would you be OK with your child just not turning up?

We also both grew up without the internet - so why do you feel the need to be on it now? Life doesn't have to be a race to the bottom, denying all of the progress and convenience of modern life. Do you never use your phone to call or message a family member whom you will see that evening anyway?

Incidentally, we had a public payphone right outside our school, and several more on the way home. I still got bullied and beaten up walking to and from school. Had I had a mobile phone, I would have been able to phone for help right then and there (parents/school/police) and film/record the bullies (whether overtly or discreetly) for proof to take to the authorities and my parents to take to theirs and get them stopped and punished. But I'm still alive now, so I guess that's all that matters...

The good old days!

This happened less than a month ago to a past colleague of mine, who now works in another school.

Absolutely agree. Many young people are sadly growing up without any lateral thinking skills because everything is seemingly fixed by a mobile phone.

This. Also with increasing use of AI it’s absolutely terrifying for school staff to think that you could be filmed and then have your voice and image manipulated in potentially life-ruining ways.

Because they don't leave them turned off in their bags. They are completely distracted by them, they film other students, staff and each other. They use them to cheat in tests and in some cases to video in the toilets because 'it's just a laugh'. I cannot tell you the amount of problems they can cause and often by really lovely students, who are completely addicted to their phones.

My school hasn't allowed phones for the last 3 years, after one of our lovely TAs went into very early and sudden labour and she was filmed and circulated. Phones are now handed in at the start of the day and locked away, then collected at the end of the day.

YANBU. I think it's a good idea.

No, not always. But being able to manage without modern tech sometimes is a handy life skill.

Do you do everything in life obstinately searching for ways to eschew standard modern ways of making things easier and more convenient? Do you use a dolly tub and mangle to do your washing? Do you use a porcelain jug and a bowl to wash your hair instead of a shower?

It reminds me of Mrs Doyle 'liking the misery'!

I think as a teacher it’s the best thing schools can do, and as a parent I wish everyone had the common sense not to give an adult tool to a child. When asked about parental controls etc for phones, the creators of various smart phones have pointed out that they were not made for children, which is why the controls are so poor and easy to workaround. I’ve been teaching 13 years and since young children having phones has been commonplace, the dip in attainment, focus, concentration, social skills, play, imagination, etc has been marked.

Your friend will then have to home educated or find a private school which will allow phones as all state schools now have to ensure that children do not have access to a smartphone during school hours.

https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-10241/

Why do you or I come on MN to discuss things or ask questions and opinions - is that because we're ultra anxious and unable or too stupid to find any solutions on our own?

Why does it have to be all or nothing? Why do so many people have such a rock-bottom low basic view of teenagers as a whole? Maybe some teenagers are very susceptible to addiction/crushing anxiety or have been parented (or not) in such a way that they believe a phone is a magic comfort blanket-cum-ersatz brain that they cannot function without - and action quite likely is needed for them and their needs; but huge, huge numbers of them - just a few years away from being adults - are indeed perfectly able to use a phone as a tool when it is needed or helpful, without being glued to it every second.

It's like an alcoholic using their own experiences to demand that all pubs and supermarket booze aisles should be closed down for good; or a problem gambler insisting that the National Lottery should be banned - because if they can't safely function without taking things to extremes and addiction levels, or take steps to protect themselves with their own individual issues, surely nobody else could either? In fact, those aren't the best analogies, because you can live perfectly fine without either of those... but you can't function in modern society without a phone.

It's a very damaging message that we're sending to our teenagers: that they're all automatically badly-behaved, unable to think, immature and foolish, so why even bother to put in the effort to develop and mature if they're just going to be slapped down again and gaslit into believing that they're just silly little children who can't know or be trusted with anything? At the moment, we're telling 16yos that they absolutely cannot be trusted to know how to use a phone wisely and sensibly; yet one year later, they're allowed to drive a car!

Not everyone is privileged to live in a safe neighbourhood.