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Original poster

Using phone for school lessons

30 replies

BertBox · 09/10/2020 13:40

I don’t know if me feeling weird about this, or if it’s normal. My daughter’s just started year 7, and like many others has a new phone. She only gets £6 a month credit on it, and I’ve locked it down pretty tightly, as she went a bit silly to start with and used her credit too quickly, and spent ages playing games on it. No big deal, and I kind of expected it. I only let her have 10 minutes of internet time a day on it, but she can use a laptop at home if she needs to.

Anyway, twice now I’ve received messages from her at school, in class time, asking if she can have internet access, as they’re on ‘Kahoot’, which is some fun online learning platform.

As they’re not supposed to even have their phones out at school, isn’t this’s a bit off? I presume they’re not given a WiFi password, so it’ll all be off her internet allowance, and I’m presuming not all the class will be able to participate. Her form tutor (it was in tutor time at the beginning of the day) is brand new to teaching, and I’ve not even spoken to her yet, and hate making a fuss...

OP posts:
CallmeIT · 09/10/2020 14:00

Pretty standard in my DDs secondary to use kahoot for quizzes in some classes. Hadn’t occurred to me to be concerned about data usage but I don’t have the strict rules you have.

RedskyAtnight · 09/10/2020 13:59

She gets a £6 a month goody bag, which gives her unlimited texts and calls. That’s enough at her age.

11 years olds do not typically make texts and calls .... (or only to their parents!).

RedskyAtnight · 09/10/2020 13:58

My DC use their phones a lot at school to support learning in class. The school will not give out WiFi passwords (imagine how this would be abused!) but they may give them access to advice.

My DC have £5 credit a month and it's very rarely not lasted them (though they do use WiFi at home). So you might want to check if you can swap to a better PAYG deal (we are with 3) or a contract if you'd don't have WiFI at home.

10 minutes of internet time is extremely stingy!! You are aware that a huge amount of socialising/making plans will be via social media? Your daughter will be really be missing out with such a small allowance.

Original poster
BertBox · 09/10/2020 13:54

I know ten minutes was a bit stingy - I’ve put it up now, but she’s only just eleven, with her first phone, and there’s no need for her to have unlimited internet access yet. As I said, she’s got a laptop at home if she needs it, and she can still message her friends, play games etc. She gets a £6 a month goody bag, which gives her unlimited texts and calls. That’s enough at her age.

OP posts:
LemonBreeland · 09/10/2020 13:43

Our DC use Kahoot at school, but they have school issued iPads. I would expect if school are allowing them to use their phones they should be giving them a wifi password.

Separate to that I think you are being way too strict on her phone usage. You would also be much better getting her a cheap contract so she has a decent amount of data, and can make calls etc.