To feel relieved the school has now completely banned phones

What, so they monitor every child and have a profile of all of the school rules that they haven't broken and all the possible miscreant behaviours that they haven't done? "Timmy works hard, is polite and is doing especially well at maths; he doesn't use his phone in class or bully other children for their lunch money and he hasn't - as at this present time - burned the school down"?!

As I've said several times, my DS has occasionally used his phone 'at school' - that wasn't a 'gotcha', if it was meant to be. He has used it from time to time at breaktimes and before/after the school day, when he has needed to contact us.

His school used to have a very sensible, practical rule that allowed the use of phones outside at breaktimes (and of course before and after the school day) - and they rightly clamped down on any student using their phone during lessons; but they decided to change it for everybody - because of the poorly-behaved teens (who still ignore the rule anyway - as poorly-behaved people tend to ignore rules) - to completely ban phones from the premises from half an hour before the day starts to 45 minutes after it finishes; then a few months after they did this, the law changed anyway.

I really think that some adults are summarily incapable of understanding that plenty of teenagers CAN use phones perfectly appropriately; having access to one does not automatically mean that they will be abusing that facility and addicted to it. It reminds me of the early days of the web, when you would mention something that you'd learned and tech deniers/refuseniks who didn't know it would scoff "Oh, is that something that you read on the INTERNET?!" like you were automatically stupid and useless at critical thinking, regardless of whether you'd seen it on crazybobreckons.com or on a government webpage.

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

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

I never knew that so many children used payphones in the 90s-early 2000s...

As a school aged kid at that time, I don't remember ever seeing a person let alone another child use one.

Somehow I think this is just a quick easy line to discredit the idea that before every child had a connection their parents in their pocket, they actually managed fine on their own..

Schools monitor patterns of behaviour obviously. Don't be so hyperbolic.

Your kid cant use his phone at school any more. Big deal. Get over it. Back the school up, let them get on with teaching. He will live.

You, and parents like you, are part of the problem. If you kid had followed the existing rules schools wouldn't need to be stricter.

Thank you for conceding that schools indeed don't have any way of knowing that 'nearly all of the kids are on their phones', but that they're just lazily tarring all of the kids with the same brush.

You, and parents like you, are part of the problem. If you kid had followed the existing rules schools wouldn't need to be stricter.

I'm not sure whether you're confusing me with another poster, or if you just haven't troubled yourself to read what I've written throughout this thread before nevertheless quoting and responding to it.

If you have/had read my posts, I have clearly said several times that my DS previously followed the sensible rules that were in place, and has continued to follow the new blanket rules, however unfair and ill-thought-out they may be. It is the poorly-behaved/parented kids who ignored the rules before - thus directly leading to the new rules being brought in, but for everybody - and indeed who continue to ignore them; whilst my DS and the other conscientious kids have followed whatever rules were/are in place throughout.

Haha if only. I grew up in crime ridden East London and lived a short walk from a street nicknamed Murder Mile. Yet I walked to and from school on my own from the age of about 9 along with most of the kids in my class. It was considered completely normal. There were no pay phones near the school either:)
I don’t know how we survived😅

Where did you grow up, antarctica? Selective memory to virtue signal more like. Payphones were everywhere in the 90s.

If your child has indeed always following the rules, and is now surviving a blanket ban, then he obviously does not need his phone at school. So why on earth are you so upset about it?

Sometimes you don’t know you need it until you need it though.

I do think most children going straight to school and back and therefore won’t need it but as soon as you factor other things in it becomes hard.

i wouldn’t be able to go to work without mine, for one thing wouldn’t be able to be guaranteed to use my laptop due to authentication.

granted most 11/12 year old won’t need to do most things that I use it for in a day but a 16 year old may

If your child has indeed always following the rules, and is now surviving a blanket ban, then he obviously does not need his phone at school. So why on earth are you so upset about it?

If your child has indeed always following the rules, and is now surviving a blanket ban, then he obviously does not need his phone at school. So why on earth are you so upset about it?

Haha if only. I grew up in crime ridden East London and lived a short walk from a street nicknamed Murder Mile. Yet I walked to and from school on my own from the age of about 9 along with most of the kids in my class. It was considered completely normal. There were no pay phones near the school either:)
I don’t know how we survived😅

Didnt need to use them though

Sometimes you don’t know you need it until you need it though.

I do think most children going straight to school and back and therefore won’t need it but as soon as you factor other things in it becomes hard.

i wouldn’t be able to go to work without mine, for one thing wouldn’t be able to be guaranteed to use my laptop due to authentication.

granted most 11/12 year old won’t need to do most things that I use it for in a day but a 16 year old may

The logic of some posters is pretty funny here.
A child age 10 legally needs before and after school care, but come age 11 they can magically go off for hours by themselves, do anything and everything and dont need any way to get in contact with parents or anyone else?
I think these posters are telling porkies about the 80s and 90s because they feel some bizarre need to feel superior. Its weird, honestly.

The logic of some posters is pretty funny here.
A child age 10 legally needs before and after school care, but come age 11 they can magically go off for hours by themselves, do anything and everything and dont need any way to get in contact with parents or anyone else?
I think these posters are telling porkies about the 80s and 90s because they feel some bizarre need to feel superior. Its weird, honestly.

The logic of some posters is pretty funny here.
A child age 10 legally needs before and after school care, but come age 11 they can magically go off for hours by themselves, do anything and everything and dont need any way to get in contact with parents or anyone else?
I think these posters are telling porkies about the 80s and 90s because they feel some bizarre need to feel superior. Its weird, honestly.