Strict no phones rule at secondary school

"Well you’re all coming up with problems so you make a better suggestion then. It worked at the school I went to."

Easy. Phones off and at the bottom of bags. Immediate confiscation if seen or heard. Only released to a parent.

The suggestion of keeping the child's phone in their bag switched off (or in their locker if they have one that is secure) is much simpler and seems to have no downsides.

Was that a very small school by any chance? Or a primary school?

Taking in and locking away phones would be a logistical nightmare. It means the whole class has to come together in the same place at the beginning and end of every day (and there needs to be a method for retrieving them for students leaving early). Then you need time to lock them away and time to give them out again. Phones will get damaged or lost. And frankly teens will just refuse to hand them in. And how do you then prove they have a phone they've not handed in? Compulsory bag searches?

Well you’re all coming up with problems so you make a better suggestion then. It worked at the school I went to.

Who’s got time for that?
Are you volunteering?

That sounds like a complete nightmare. 30 phones in a box. 30 kids. "Mis, Miss- Josh took my phone...that's mine!".....

I’m asking about a scenario where there is a locked cupboard/drawer/locker or something in each form/classroom where phones are kept during the day, and the kids collect them at the end of the day.

What - the form tutor does it, you mean?

That’s why i said each form. So 30.

That's done for exams, but would be too much to do for 1,800 teenagers (or whatever your school size)

@BlockbusterVideoCard that's what schools are doing. As said upthread - have it on silent in bag or pocket, no problem.

Is there any way that phones could be handed in and stored in a locked cupboard in each form and then collected at the end of the day?

I'd be telling the school that I require my child to carry a mobile phone for travel and safety reasons (to be switched off during school hours) and that I wouldn't be taking no for an answer, but that any phone use in the daytime I would as a parent be taking at least as seriously as the school did.

I have no patience whatsoever with schools trying to police how parents parent their children and keep them safe. I would supply my child with the most boring phone that would do the job - probably not a smartphone, although if a smartphone was needed for bus or train time apps, then a cheap version of that, locked down to what they needed.

"feeling" that something is best doesn't mean that it is best though.
I think one of the benefits of a forum like this is not for people to find an echo chamber but to have their beliefs challenged and to (hopefully) consider why they do something.

OP has had several points of view regarding tracking on this thread. I would hope that she would now think about why she is tracking her child. Is it because she is overanxious? Or does DC have a habit of getting lost?

One thing I would say is that people shouldn't use trackers as a substitute for the young person learning a skill or for keeping communication lines open. If a secondary school age child gets lost, then I would hope they would have ideas about how to get "unlost" that didn't involve ringing mum. letting mum find them on the tracker and then suggesting the route home. That's not helping them build skills or independence. Equally if you use a tracker because you never have any idea where your child is or when they will be home, then perhaps it might be better to work on getting your child to communicate effectively rather than using the tracker as a proxy for actually talking to each other.

@Boudicasbeard is right. All the research shows that schools should not permit use in school time. We had many, many similar examples. Bullying and harassment - particularly of girls, is especially facilitated. I'm not saying banning phones gets rid of problems completely, but my goodness it cuts them down.
Filming in toilets and up skirting had become quite the thing.

Phones are becoming the biggest problem in schools and the main cause of behaviour issues both during the school day and at home. Here are some of the example of things seemingly nice children have done with their phones at my school recently:

• texted gossip to each other under the table during class that caused a fight at lunch.
• taken nudes in the toilet to send to other students.
• distributed nudes that they have received from other children.
• taking videos of a member of staff and posting it on TikTok with disparaging comments.
• starting a Snap Chat to deliberately start arguments between people that later cause fights.
• looking up porn and airdropping the photos to other students in class.
• taking picture of other students and auto dropping them to the entire class.
• googling Jeffrey Epstein and then sending the information to other kids.

I once asked a group of Yr9 student to check their weekly screen time as an experiment and the average was seven hours a day.

So this is why many schools are now taking a hard line on phone. It all sounds unreasonable until your child has been targeted or involved in any of the above behaviours.

Do you mean if the phone gets confiscated?
Then the parent gets contacted and makes arrangements or the student has the phone returned for essential reasons. That's what happens where I work.
Parents usually have a contingency plan, we find.

Hmm, I think in a happy trusting marriage, if a husband readily gives his wife his flight details and she has a look on flight radar to see where his plane is, that's not really the definition of stalking 🤣

No phone, no app, no bus ticket. How do they get home?

Who would choose to buy more expensive bus tickets.

That was me and I didn't say we were checking if dad had gone to Tesco on the way home, you're taking it out of context.

What I actually said was DD likes to track him on his way home (she's a 12yo autistic child who finds the tracker fun, and looks forward to DH getting home, she will excitedly tell me when he's nearby) - IF she sees that he's popped into Tesco (as an example) then he doesn't feel that his privacy has been invaded because we knew his whereabouts.

What would you be complaining to the school about?

I would be complaining to school. My kids took the public bus to secondary school and tickets are cheaper when purchased online.

The more rules you impose the more kids find ways round them. If you say "I trust you-just let me know where you are"-chances are they'll do it.

@Comedycook "Well there's a whole array of things that children can't do that adults can."

Sure. Popping into Tesco, though? And surely if a child wants to be somewhere they shouldn't be they just turn the phone off? And then you can't contact them at all!!