Mobile phones

Virtual Learning Environment

Hmm I ike the idea that only a monority of children don't have a smart phone.

Seen how many 'non smart' phones are still been sold, I'm wondering who buys them. Clearly not teenagers then... Probably dinosaurs like you and me. Or people who just can't afford to buy a £300 phone or to pay £25 a month for a package that includes a smart phone for each of their children.

Sorry I haven't met a £30 android yet but I have found non android at that price.

What is VLE??

I assume at the school like DS2's where phones are allowed at lunchtime and break the children stand about playing on their phones?

I must ask him, I think he plays footy at lunchtime though.

Supposedly not allowed at DC's school, but the reality is that they can have them as long as they aren't flaunting them in lessons.

I like the idea of the taking a photo of the homework - DS might actually get it down if that was the case!

I like Sparkling idea.
But ime, teachers can also rely on the fact the students can take photos like this (eg take a photo of the homework on the board instead of copying it)

Not having the same phone is not an issue : even a £30 android can get twitter and news and google calendar and the VLE

Yup, some kids do not have smartphones - teachers cannot assume that they do but the percentage will be v small
same as the % age without home internet

What are they learning with their phone though? How can you make it part of the learning if the teenagers don't all have the same sort of phone or don't all have a smart phone?

At our secondary, all the children have to have an ipad for 'their learning experience'. It has been in place for the last 2 years now. It has also been proven a nightmare.

Serioulsy, I don't mind phones as such. But they are phones. To use to ring people or text. People from outside the school.
How are they going to help learning?

Undecided
Cyber bullying will go on during the hours that kids are not in lessons - better to teach sensible attitudes than pretend phones are not there.

If teachers accept and embrace them - making use of the technology - then they are less of a distraction and more part of the learning scenario

For schools with a population that needs to travel more than walking distance then on balance I would agree Sparkling.

The rule would need to be very strictly enforced though with the exception of 999 calls any child with a dire need to make a call or send/check texts would need to go the the school office to get permission to do so otherwise a confiscation until the next day with a text home to parents to inform them.

I think all schools should have the same as DS1's policy. Switch off and put away at 8.50am and switch back on at 3.30pm. If seen between these times, instant confiscation.

But the issue isn't whether mobile phones are helpful and whether we can live wo them.
It's very clear that they are helpful and that they are here to stay.

The issue is how to handle the issues coming from teenagers having a mobile with them at school. Not if it's helpful for them to have it as soon as they get out (see all the examples given).
So how can we protect our dcs from cyber bullying due to mobiles been used at school?
How can we ensure that it's not a constant distraction when they are in class?

I think these are the very valid questions raised the OP seen that most of the options seen in different schools do not prevent any of these issues

I do remember when we didn't all have mobile phones, and I remember all too well what an utter PITA it was, and how traumatic it was when your DC went missing for hours at a time and you didn't have the faintest idea what had happened.

DD's after school clubs get cancelled or rearranged all the time at short notice.

However I do agree that having a smartphone present during actual lessons can be far too tempting and distracting.

Why make life difficult when it doesn't have to be? Give them a phone and communicate. It's what they are for after all, makes it all so much easier.

In the 80s I regularly rang my Mum from the payphone at school to get her to 'rescue' me.

I was at school before Mobile phones were invented.
I was at school when Mums did not work so were expected to be there
I was at school when there were 10p payphones at the gate of every school for emergency calls
I was at school when only private school kids were more than a mile or two from home.

Those days are past
get with it or look like a twit when you find out that your kids have a PAYG smartphone that you know nothing about.

I don't know about their homes - but it's clear who is used to having a phone with them, but not being able to access it, and for whom the mere presence of their phone with them in class is just too irresistible to cope with.

On the home bit ... Going through that dilemma with our own. Planning on not having phones until there is a need, but we are pretty strict on screen time, which has to be earned. A Mathletics Bronze certificate a week and half an hour or so of Minecraft is regarded by the DCs as a good week. iPad always used in family space - unless face timing Grandma.

"DS1 is only 13 and I didn't have a phone until after he was born. Somehow, people still managed to get to school and medical appointments."

I also didn't have a mobile phone til several years after finishing school. However, I went to a school much closer to home, didn't need to catch unreliable buses, after school activities were virtually non existent and my friends all lived local to me.

DD doesn't catch buses often but when she does they are often not on time. She makes arrangements to do things on the day - this is only possible because she can phone up and check first. After school events are sometimes changed/cancelled because of other commitments teachers find themselves under. DD usually walks and meets me after school - but she needs to phone me when there as she won't know whereabouts I will be, or if she can even come in the room incase I have a meeting or something. It is easier for u all if she can text/call.

Yes, they can cope without a phone - but having a phone does make life easier and more flexible.

Also how to deal with cyber bullying which is one of the big issue the OP is facing in her school?

Lemon what is, in your opinion, a super strict house?
And why do you think that it also equals less ability to have some self control over them?

Genuine question.
Dc1 is in Y7 and we don't really have major issues with mobile. But we do with tablets/Internet and the reason why we are (very) strict is because he can't exercise self control. Dc2 has no issue to do so.
So I'm wondering in preparation for the transition to a 'fancier' mobile phone.

I've gone down the "embrace it" route in my classroom. Phones off and in bags during lessons, but students are encouraged to take pics of anything that they don't finish for easier follow-up, and we push them to use their dead commuting time to revise vocabulary on Quizlet or verb forms on an app. We have also asked them to submit videoclips as homework.

This said, my students are 6th formers and generally a bit more able to manage their phones, although I can always spot who has come from a super-strict school, as they struggle more to exercise self control.

Students have also mailed me with bus stop selfies to prove that they're genuinely late and trying to get in

How can the return journey be plus or minus an hour and if it is, so what, they can wait.
So, your kids are at an event with an uncertain end time, an hour from school
and you live half an hour from school
how would they contact you to tell you when to meet them?
or is your life so empty that you can afford to sit outside school for an hour

PS in the old days there were phone trees and a lot more SAHM and a lot less inter school opportunities for kids

DS1's bus meanders on a tour of the countryside for 12 miles. There are about 4 stops that I collect him from depending on what we have to do and how late the bus is. So he texts me when the bus leaves so I can get to the appropriate stop on time.

They can rescue themselves if need be but after a long day at school if I am around I am more than happy to do any rescuing.

They are children. When they are adults they can rescue themselves, it's no biggie.

I'm not in London Talkin and my Dc have a similar life to yours. How can the return journey be plus or minus an hour and if it is, so what, they can wait.

I don't dispute that phones make life easier in some aspects, but they are so disruptive in school that I'd far rather my Dc were at a school without them.

The reality is though, that provided they aren't stupid, they can have them, even in schools where they are banned, as long as they keep them out of sight.

Me too Sparkling, but there must come a time when they need to learn to rescue themselves, surely?

Holepunch
Changes to bus times happen so rarely that if the child's late, the child's late and that's a genuine excuse
Ha Ha Ha
You obviously do not rely on Stagecoach then : the bus times can be altered at 25 minutes notice

After schools activities are known about in advance, so you/they work out their journey home the night before.
Yeah right

• an away match 30 miles away where the return time is plus or minus an hour

get real to the life outside London

DS1 does a 12 mile bus journey, and DS2 walks to school. I am glad they have their phones with them.

I am more than happy to rescue my children if required. All they need to do is text or call.