AIBU to ask for advice on how to overturn a school decision - quickly

I get the policy of no phones once at school but no phones outside school is draconian and a lot of parents and children need to communicate. I don't think this is right. Good luck raising it with the school. Hopefully you can get other parents on board. My sons' school operated a no phones at school policy (they're at uni now). It was enforced through detentions if caught with a phone during school time. However they were allowed phones when they left the school building. Seemed like a very sensible approach.

Actually a lot of kids Do have to have a phone. My son gets a bus and the timetables and his tickets are all on the phone. If he pays by bank card or cash the journey is quite a lot more which adds up to a substantial amount over the year.

It's not ok to insist we need phones for everyday life like banking and parking, but then tell someone under 16 they can't use the thing they need for everyday life.

My son actually hates it and hates using his phone and is very analogue but at the end of the day, that's how the bus company works.

I work in a school and think a blanket ban is stupid. All kids I know have to do homework etc by phone so the school is just setting double standards.

My son keeps his in a zip up calculator case in his bag and so far no issues. And I absolutely would remove him from the school over this, and I work there!! Doesn't mean I agree with the rules!!!

I grew up in the 70’s and 80’s when there were no mobile phones. We got to school and back ok. I am not being Facetious either, just stating a fact. This keeping track of our kids at all times has become an obsession. I think it is not very helpful in teaching our kids how to grow up and to be safety conscious independently.

You could also pay for everything with cash and access timetables etc without using an app. Like it or not these things are in our lives and needed now. I refuse to park anywhere with app parking but must admit it's getting harder snd harder

Suggest you complain quickly to the schools local authority. And to governors. Education Secretary, your local M.P. Write a letter in local paper. Start with Head who set the policy but you need to explain why your child needs a phone so much.

No teacher has the right to chase a pupil down the street to take a mobile phone from them. Teachers have no authority when pupils are off site, and not in school hours. It would be for them to prove your child had the phone in school, not the other way around. I'm all for school rules but this is clearly over the top

It’s already been recorded that children who don’t have their phones in school show better attention. Don’t ask me how it’s just a circulation through our academy. I do think that children should be able to hand their phones into tutors at registration. Switched off and if caught with one it’s confiscated until a parent can pick it up.

Any arguments from a parent could be silenced with your responsibility to get your child to and from school as there was a suitable alternative put in place.

So did I. But this was an era when there were lots of phone boxes around so if I ever missed my school bus/lost my bus fare/felt ill, I could call someone. No phone boxes now so removing kids phones leaves them without options in case of need. Good luck op, yanbu at all.

Possibly a way forward is to write to the Chair of Governors setting out / explaining your case and point of view. If you can encourage several - or even many - other parents to write similar letters about their own concerns, you will be putting pressure on the point in the system where something might possibly be done to alter policy. You could suggest that the Parents Association (if you have one) could fund-raise to pay for phone-lockers throughout the school. Find out the best channels for pushing your pov. Get allies to join you. Be careful not to appear antagonistic. Stay friendly, polite, sensible-sounding and underscoring your wish to work positively with the school (even it that's not how you feel). Good luck.

You could go so far as to buy one of the tiny phones people smuggle into prisons and suggest she hides it in her bra. Nobody in a school is allowed to search there.

I think move schools to be honest.
You dont like the school and it sounds like the culture of it isn’t for you which is understandable.
Vote with your feet! Xo

Also paper tickets were available.

The op is being unreasonable to try and rush this through because at the end of the day transport and school are separate. Take your child and pick up because they are your child and school is not a care service.

Tjey are also unreasonable to say we’d chase said child down 😂 We won’t. We don’t care. We will remember the next day though!!

But "quickly" ? Probably not. Go through channels. This may take some time.

Sorry, teachers have said they'll stop their journey to get out their car or off the bus to “chase them down the street and snatch it out of their hand”. That is the stupidest thing I've ever heard.

YABU to make up this ridiculous story. School aren't going to do anything if they see your kid with a phone when walking home.

When there is an issue with the bus they get home and they are now walking several miles on a secluded road, versus ringing a parent who can pick them up

The school has no authority outside of the gates so I’d email them to remind them of this fact and if they take the phone off the child, you will consider it theft.

Schools should have locked phone bags or phone safes or a phone collection system for children who carry phones before/after school. And many do. And for good reason. Including mine.

And, yes, I work in a school.

EverMerge

I do think that children should be able to hand their phones into tutors at registration. Switched off

Simply, No. Many form tutors would be stuck with the phones all day and can you imagine the shit they would have to deal with if one goes missing/gets stolen.

and if caught with one it’s confiscated until a parent can pick it up.

If this worked without the many complaints, it would still be in force now.

Teachers aren’t going to run down the street chasing children seen with phones. It’s therefore hard to believe the rest of your post isn’t exaggerated. A police matter but you didn’t go to the police?

If a teacher chased anyone of mine or now grandaughter down a road and took their phone id grab them by the scruff of their necks..outside school lessons are finished so leave our kids alone when parents are using these for safety ... I agree with phones off within the school day .. After school finishes us parents or grandparents are responsible for our kids thankyou.
Give your daughter a phone and it stays deep down in her bag on silent until she leaves the school gates x

Pick your children up then. If the school rules say no phones what’s your option? If they’re your responsibility why would school care how they get to and from school?

It seems some parents want it all. Again I won’t chase your child. But I’ll remember they snuck it in the next day!

I agree with you, my youngest DS will often decide to go to his friend's house after school and I'd rather he texted me to say where he was and so I could remind him when he needed to be home (he has ADHD). His big brother has an ED and I wouldn't have let him out of the house without a mobile phone after he fainted in Sainsbury's.

It’s a DfE policy not a school policy so take your argument to them, not the Head.
Schools Such as the Oratory in London have always been phone free and there never been an issue.

My son is in his twenties now but his school had a no mobile phone policy. I gave him a Nokia brick and he hid it in his bag which was very well concealed in another item. Thankfully I did as in year 7 he was on a sports trip and the school left a group of kids stranded in an area he didn't know. He called me on his Nokia and I collected him. Just hide it OP.

To all those saying that a school has no authority outside the gates, yes it does, as clearly stated in the government policy 'Keeping Children Safe in Education' (updated for 2026). It not only has authority, it has responsibility.

But back to the matter, if it's a police issue, then you should've contacted the police or at least the DSL. It seems like you don't want to go down any of the well established routes and instead would prefer to have your own policy.

I suspect (as a teacher) that what's happened in this large school is they've decided they simply don't have the people or the time to police the kids handing in their phones and then handing them out at the end of the day. But they do need to find a better solution. Phones are communication devices. It seems unreasonable to prevent kids communicating with their parents. Mine never had phones when they were growing up but it was a different world back then.