Year 7 and mobile phone

They don't need to cost the earth. We bought new phones outright for about £130-150 (for birthday) and then pay £8 a month for calls and data, which is ample. I'd say your DD needs a newish smartphone so that the apps work, but pay no attention if she suddenly says she 'needs' an iPhone .

I wouldn't want my child to be the only one without a mobile phone. So even though I think it's ridiculous that 11 year olds these days 'need' mobile phones, I would probably go along with it but implement parental control measures and strict usage rules.

My DS is in year 7 and I think a phone is essential. They're not allowed them in class and they have to be switched off but he texts me once he gets to school and to let me know if he's going to the park with friends after school. All of his friends have phones and they message each other after school and arrange meeting up. I think she'd be left out if she didn't have one and if she's not bothered about having one now, she will be soon.

They need one. Please make sure dd has one.

They need a fairly new one for the show my homework app to work, they can login on the website but it’s not as good as having the app with alerts.

DD's school don't allow them in class, but all their homework is set on an app (ShowMyHomework), they have a class WhatsApp and they need to access their school email a lot.

It was an essential for us as she has a long journey to school with multiple trains and a lot of after school clubs and classes (tracking apps are very handy), but I didn't anticipate how much a non-phone school would rely on tech for students.

What @clarrylove said. Mine didn't actually use it much for social purposes (he's not really into messaging or social media) but he uses it constantly for work - everything is via an app, he emails teachers, gets messages, uses it for Kahoit quizzes in the classroom etc. And it's useful for me to be able to see where he is on the school site if I'm picking him up, or for him to message me when he's on the way back from a trip or sports fixture. Couldn't have been without it, really.

My child uses hers during lessons to do actual work, they all do. They can share if a child doesn’t have one or it’s out of charge but most kids have a working smart phone with a power bank at high school. Plus she’s on the phone to her friends loads after school and we don’t have a landline.

Mine would have struggled without one. They are allowed to use them in school under certain circumstances, such as: Kahoot classroom quizzes, taking photos of work on the board, taking photos of work in school to be carried on at home (they don't get a text book any more), to access their online timetable, to receive messages about sudden room changes, to get info on their extra curricular clubs which may be moved or cancelled at short notice, to access Google classroom, to contact parents if they forget equipment, to contact parents on the way back from school trips to update on ETA, to access the app for online homework etc etc.