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

They didn't.

They got stuck when the last bus home didn't turn up, walking the streets to find a phone box that would actually take some money to call a taxi or get their Dad out of the bath to pick them up. At 17.

Lived experience.

Yes and you're still here.

Of course phones have uses. But the damage phones is inflicting on children outweighs them. Since parents won't police this it's being left to schools, who already have enough on their plates and they can't do it on a case by case basis.

Thank you for your empathy. I was frightened fucking witless. So much so that I remember it 50 years later.

Do you even know that public phone boxes in town centres were used as urinals?

Carrying a phone that enables them to call home, take a photograph, and allows their parents to know where they are doing not damage any child. You seem completely out of touch with what phones are available and what access can be prevented.

Mobile phones are a Godsend.

Anyone who thinks they are unnecessary for modern life or denies how useful they are has their head stuck firmly up their own backside.

I also don’t know why you think it’s got anything to do with the school or the teachers when it’s outside of school hours and not on school property? It’s the same as a shop keeper demanding a child’s phone from them if they pop into the shop on the way home from school.

On what earth do teachers have the authority to do this?

Is there a parents group on Facebook you could reach out to? If you put a post on there asking for parents opinions.
Could you speak to your local Councillor or MP, especially as an incident has occurred.
I find Academies are the WORST in their draconian methods tbh!
My children attended an academy that only started introducing more draconian rules when my youngest of my older children was in the last year of 6th form, so they weren't really affected. But a whole academy trust has just been closed down in the area that I live because of the rules, and other stupid ridiculous rules, that you have mentioned!
FWIW, I voted YANBU, because unless you have lived this exact experience of Academies, you can't really sympathise or empathise!

I have empathy for teachers and for parents whose children are suffering because these teachers are quitting the profession in droves

I'm truly sorry you had a bad time 50 years ago. Yes, I remember public phone boxes occasionally being used as urinals. But I also remember children not being bullied and exposed to snuff videos on their phones, plus losing the ability to read a book, because many parents can't be bothered to buy brick phones or put on the controls you speak about.

Occasionally?

Routinely.

You never much used city phone boxes or any phone box near a pub, did you?

I'm sure you don't remember children not being bullied because they've always been bullied and it was much, much worse in the past. Phones are just the new way of doing it, which also leaves a record.

The availability of a phone on the way to and from school has no impact on teachers.

The schools here are requiring phones to be locked away from use inside the school grounds. That's how to do it, not to police legal and normal phone use outside the school gates.

Of course I have used of inner-city/pub phone boxes, I don't think using the odd grotty phone box is more traumatising than being exposed to pornography and murder videos on a phone.

And I said children being bullied "on their phones." Not just at school as was the case, but everywhere. There is no safe place now.

Could never be a school policy to ban use of phones on site? It’s already in several school policies and became a law this year.

You’ll find that the school rule/law extends to smart devices including watches with the facility to communicate. Good luck with that one.

My comment was referring to the teacher chasing the kid outside of school (which I find difficult to believe as I've never heard anything so outrageous), not the smart watch

Havent read the whole thread so sorry if this has already been shared. Instead of a phone get a tracker keyring with a sim- this can be used to speak to stored contacts in an emergency (it tries them in order, you just press the alarm button). You can also call the keyring.

We use this with a parent with dementia and it has been very good: https://www.easylinkuk.co.uk/product-gps-location-trackers?product_id=1823

That was you have the contact you need any dont need to argue with the school about their policy or encourage your child to break the rules.

My children's doesnt get a school bus but the local coach company that does do routes from other schools in the area, including ours, posted on Facebook over the weekend to say that physical passes are not accepted as of today, and children using the service need to show the driver their e-pass so they can scan the qr code on every journey.

So children that have to use that service have no choice but to a) have a smart phone and b) have their phones with them on a school day

Is the whole of England and Wales on QR code bus passes? I’m in Scotland and we’ve given every school age child a bus pass but it’s a card, it doesn’t need a phone.

My kids' school have the Yondr pouches which they pop their phone in as the arrive at the school gate and they lock it.
In form time checks everyone presents it on their desk and the teachers have a thing that looks like a pricing gun which can unlock it for spot checks to ensure the phones have been definitely put in there (and not a calculator!)
Then on the way out of school they tap the pouch to unlock so they can use them for the journey/for bus passes.

This is the case in many schools... as parents, can you band together and push for the pouches?

Well thank goodness her Teacher didn't spot her and give chase up the street and wrestle it out of her hand. Small mercies.

Surely this is simple? If the school has a no-phones policy it has to have a way of taking them from the students on arrival and returning them at the end of the school day safely. I live in London and students old enough to travel alone absolutely need a phone, not least so their PARENTS can track them and check they're safe, and so THE CHILDREN can call for help if something goes wrong while travelling to school. Any child old enough to travel to school alone by law (ie over 11) is old enough to have a phone. Just not in actual class. My DC's school makes them, literally, check their phones in on arrival in the morning and retrieve them at night but no school has any say in what they do outside of school.

The school would hope that the parents are responsible enough to check the safety settings. Plus the child can do it in their own time. It’s not about what’s ‘bad’ on the internet, it’s about the addictive nature and distraction in school. If she gets distracted doing homework and it takes her triple the time, she’s personally accountable. If that happens in school, she’s affecting the education of others.

How did the discussion go with the school?