Concerns about secondary school - DD just started yr7

Phones - standard policy, keep it switched off in the bag and you will have no problems. Schools aren't trying to stop kids being able to call home to say the bus is late, they are trying to stop them texting in lessons and photographing people for Facebook.

Lockers - don't go there. Even when they are provided half the kids won't use them and carry everything around, which the staff have all known for years.

Lunchtime is a bit short but they are hardly going to change it for you ,are they?!

Give it time, you are probably picking up on the negatives because if the whole grammar school debacle. Which is quite understandable but still means you wil be "that" parent if you go in about these things.

All the same here, except a longer lunch break.

All normal in the secondary school I work in apart from the silent reading (which they do in form time).

Is the silent reading accelerated reading? Are there quizzes to do op?

It's not just the need for the phone in school (I agree you don't actually need one in school at all). You may well need one after school, though, especially if travelling alone on public bus (as public phone boxes are dying out), or at any point over a weekend (if confiscation on Friday).

It's the requirement for parents to collect that is the problem, not the control of phones in school (including pupil pick up confiscation, detention, other sanctions etc).

In ds' school phones have to be handed in at reception in the morning. This ensures that students can still contact parents if transport breaks down but that classes are not interrupted by constant ringtones. Sounds pretty solomonic to me.

1. Leave phone switched off in bag, no one will know its there.

1. Will promote organisation-cant carry excess crap about

1. But, why no pegs in the classroom - surely crap all over floor is trip risk and wrecks their gear. Trip risk is the but the school should card about.

1. Would prefer 10 minutes in fresh air myself. Then again I'd prefer an hours break but that might just be me.

Glad DD is settling well, I recall your situation.

(and I suspect the 'silent reading' is wishful thinking on the part of school - or will fade away within weeks... There is a tendency to lay down the law with Yr 7 when they start, so they get a sense that the school means business. It's like the old teaching adage 'never smile before Christmas' - start strict and then relax. BTW no one does this before some outraged soul appears saying it's disgusting not smiling at children etc etc.)

All normal.

Phones - fairly standard

Lack of lockers - fairly common (fortunately both ds and dds' schools have them, but more didn't than did, when I looked round

Weird about not being able to put them on the backs of their chairs - I wonder why not ? Mind, not an issue, as not many secondary school pupils wear coats anyway.

Lunchtime - my dc get 40mins, but a shorter lunch does seem fairly common.

Silent reading - never ever heard of this at secondary - used to do it in a lot of Primary schools, but it was in lesson time, not break time. How on earth do they get everyone served and time to eat and time to go to the toilet, if the school only effectively has 20mins ?

Oops her lunch is 1 hour and 5 minutes.

My DD1 is allowed her phone, but can only use out of lesson time and not in the corridor. Her lunch time is - hour and 5 minutes which is good, although they don't finish until 3.45. All of the children have lockers and coats can go in there if worn.

How did pupils manage before mobile phones? They are not needed in classrooms and are a problem for teachers so there has to be a rule. My school is the same as OP in that after one sighting it goes away and if seen a second it goes to the office.

"the phone thing is out of order tho' - what if pupils need to contact their parents after school and cannot get their phone? it then becomes a child protection issue doesnt it?"

Really? At ds's school, if they need to contact a parent they go to the reception desk and ask to us the phone. He has his mobile with him because I need to pick him up- we live 5 miles from the school, and I need to know if he's going somewhere else after school. But he doesn't need to use it in school time.

DS's school have late buses on club nights. Good thing I think.

We have lockers, not enough, and you have just reminded me DD2 needs to pay to renew hers.

We're rural, pushing clubs to after school would cause huge problems as there is no public transport.

At present we have kept 45 min lunch and they are just possible.

No phones would have my DDs changing schools, given some of the antics their bus has managed.

Short lunch times, with no time for clubs are barmy, ours has been cut and I don't approve. No talking, no socialising, no relaxing.

That and no phones makes me smell a huge discipline rat. Both demonstrate no trust in the pupils at all.

I wouldn't go in if I were you.

the phone thing is out of order tho' - what if pupils need to contact their parents after school and cannot get their phone? it then becomes a child protection issue doesnt it?

Though I think the lunchtime stipulations are weird, and I can't think of any regulations that any of the examples you give would contravene, I would take issue with the requirement for a parent to pick up the mobile unless the school has an office which remains open well into the evenings, especially on Fridays. The are sanctions other than overnight /weekend confiscation that could be used. The removal of the means of communication, on which families may rely, is disproportionate and may even have safety implications.

DD1 and DS go to different schools. Phone thing? Standard. For both of them. Lack of lockers, laces to put coats etc? Same at Dd1s (Grammar) school. They do have lockers at DSs school. Lunch thing? Odd. I would t be fussed about doing a bit of reading but when do they have choir, orchestra, jazz band, book club, drama etc?

Most of those are the same as DD1s school but I think they get a longer lunch break and all children have to silently read for 30 minutes every day.

DD is allowed a mobile phone as long as it is switched off - it's a very rural school and nearly all children travel on buses so it's pretty essential kit.

No lockers and DD has never worn a coat (she has a black pac-a-mac for downpours on the way to & from the bus stop but wouldn't dream of wearing it around school - the shame!). The lack of locker does mean some days she has to carry a school bag, a flute and music folder, swimming kit and football kit for after school, but the upside is nothing essential is ever left at school or going mouldy in a long forgotten lunchbox.

Lunchtime sounds a bit odd, have you had this info from school or confirmed by other parents? DD has an hour and can do what she fancies, she has nowhere specific to eat her lunch unless she has school dinners but isn't bothered by sitting out with her friends.