Does your child's school restrict mobile phone usage?

Thx @onetwothreeee Yes we'd have to do similar and ensure each room was manned at home time for 15 min to allow them to return & collect. Not all would be. Only the staff would know if feasible

Our school says mobiles are not to be used in the school day and if children have them they must be turned off or set to silent.

The policy states that if a phone is seen/heard, then it will be confiscated and only returned at the end of the day to a parent/carer. The reality is that many children use them at break/lunch and just hide from teachers. If teachers do see/hear a phone, some teachers take it from the child, others just tell them to put it away/turn it off.

Some teachers tell the kids to take a photo of homework on their phones or use apps in lessons on their phones.

All rules are inconsistent.

to be fair pretty much all of that applies to my childrens school

It means at the end of the day they go back to the room they do their morning register and collect their phones. There is no form session, they are not registered they just return and collect their stuff before their journey home.

Throughout the day the children are in different rooms from their phones and other children are in the room that their phones are locked in.

It just means there is a space where all the students safely leave their phones alone, and switched off, all day, and then return to for as long as it takes to collect their phone and walk out at the end of the day.
Their lockers are also in or near the rooms they take the register in so are likely to be going to their locker to collect their morning books / PE kits etc etc anyway.

If the children are leaving school early for sports fixtures, they are allowed to collect their phones early so they are with them at the fixture. (and the phones are expected to remain in their bags).

Our school have been implementing this for at least 7 years and it works pretty well IMO

Dc with libre devices are definitely allowed phones with them in my dcs (very strict) school.

Not sure what happens regarding measuring blood sugar - presumably it's done the way it was before there was an app for it?

Some insulin pumps and Libre blood monitoring devices are linked to smartphones via bluetooth technology – my daughter's phone alarms if her readings are going too high or too low so she can correct by altering the flow of insulin she is receiving. She therefore needs it with her, and on, at all times.

@Puffykins I presume schools make exceptions for DCs in these circumstances, it probably affects a very small number of DCs at present, though those numbers will grow as this tech becomes more widespread.

They also have to hand it in to go to have a toilet pass. So they can't use it then.

Yes they do the seen but not heard measure. Removing phone to be collected at the end of the day if it's seen. It's early days so I haven't heard of any confiscations so far.

DD (Yr6) 's school have a total ban, including turned off in their school bag except for one girl who gets the bus into town to a music lesson straight after school and whose dad is one of the governors

DS (Yr7) is allowed phone at school. Each teacher has a basket on their desk and they have to put their phone in there for the duration of the lesson. They are allowed to use them at break. The PE teacher also has a basket in the gym and they put all valuables in it rather than leave them in the changing room.

@onetwothreeee thx! Never seen one before. I can see it would work in some schools. Ours however would need a wholescale reorganisation of how they operate the school as

1. Form rooms are not necessarily the teachers actual classroom as the forms are grouped in areas of the school and teachers like the 10 PE teachers have form rooms elsewhere.
2. they don't have form time at the end of the day (pm registers are done in the class).
3. The kids don't do lessons in their form groups and are mixed up / streamed / in sets etc

1. One day a week they have assembly not form

Not to be turned on during school time.

deeprealisation this is a phone locker
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Storage-Cabinet-Examination-Transparent-Numbered/dp/B092D34RQG/ref=asc_df_B092D34RQG/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=535915448592&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=422532820657742593&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9046675&hvtargid=pla-1414461990406&mcid=c6a3359bf9de3052a1614df5e43116bf&th=1

Every form room has one (so pretty much every classroom)
The children put their phones in during form time (8.30) and then they are unlocked and given back at the end of the school day, so at the end of each day the children collect their phones. (It's amazing how PE kits / coats / blazers etc are frequently forgotten but phones are always remembered )

It means that the phones are locked away, and they are see through so everyone can see the phones are safe.

I think these are all questions not for me, but for the school, whose policy it is, and who say they are very happy with how it's operating.

They get their phones back in afternoon form time, immediately before they go home.

London. At all schools husband and I work in and have DC at phones have to be kept out of sight. One has yonder pouches so they are locked away. Confiscated if seen and parent has to collect. It’s effective. One local school bans them even in bags and any infringements are treated on a par with smoking or other banned stuff. It can be done and it has made things better for both teachers and pupils. I remember when phones were allowed and it caused a lot of problems. Different rules for 6th form in most of these places.

Part of a successful phone policy is having parents signed up and setting up decent parental controls. My son's phone is set up so that he can't access the internet on his phone during the school day. And if I saw he had been using it to message at break time or during lessons I wouldn't let him take it to school at all.

Many schools gave a not seen or heard policy. So they are meant to be switched off and out of sight all day. If they are seen with the phone it is confiscated. Most kids are pretty canny about keeping them quiet and out of sight. I am sure they use them in the loos or when not directly supervised though.

Our secondary has never allowed them to be used in school. They confiscate them if kids are found with them and parents have to collect
I don't have a problem with that policy and I don't think the kids do either. I find it odd that kids might be on their phone in lessons? Does that happen?

The 'It must be switched off and in the bottom of your bag' rule just doesn't work, I'm afraid. It is easy for secondary school kids to use their phones in unsupervised areas during break times, or to have them in their pocket and take them on toilet trips. Some teachers will ask students who ask to go to the toilet in lesson time to hand in their phone before they go, or leave it out on their desk. Some kids will comply. Others will just say they don't have their phone, or will keep an old phone in their bag to hand in!

We live in a village with kids coming from quite a way on buses to get to school so phone are allowed on site but have to be off and away in bags at all times

@OhCrumbsWhereNow so, knowing that there was a ban on phones, the DC's travel cards (for the train) are paper - I imagine other parents do the same. There are some children who are allowed to bring phones to school and hand them in - an example we were given was "single parents who do shift work that might change" - but the school office are genuinely brilliant at passing on messages to children (and vice versa). And there are prefects on all trains/ buses that younger children could conceivably be on, and members of staff on the station platforms - who also alert parents in trains are delayed etc. Not sure what happens regarding measuring blood sugar - presumably it's done the way it was before there was an app for it? And homework is set in class, and some is done on a laptop - via Sparx or whatever - but a lot is done on paper, in books.

There are other schools for parents who don't want these phone rules, and they're easy to get places at. This school, with these rules, is the most oversubscribed in the area. It also gets the best results, and it's a lovely lovely school with lots of Extra Curriculars and great teachers.

Why should schools have to collect them in each morning? What a waste of staff time. I’m sure they’d also love to be dealing with the pupil or parent that complains a school has damaged the phone whilst it was in their storage. What’s the thinking behind them then getting phones back for afternoon break? So they can walk around like zombies not interacting with other pupils, but at least they can catch up with the zombie social media content they’ve missed? @JassyRadlett

Yes. All phones must be locked in Faraday pouches and deposited in a rack in the morning. Unlocked and returned at 4pm each day.

I'm a teacher and I think this is the only way. If students are allowed phones in school and on their person, it is virtually impossible to prevent them being used when students aren't under close and constant supervision,especially at break, lunch or on toilet trips, but also to a certain extent in lessons.

From the policy. As above though there is an expectation they will have access to some kind of device as homework is on an app.

In order to minimise classroom disruption, to prevent cyber bullying and the student use of inappropriate websites, the school does not allow students in Years 7-11 to use personal mobile devices in school, including ear and headphones (for sixth form policy see sixth form handbook). These include mobile phones, MP3 players, iPhones and smart watches. If students choose to bring mobile devices/ear/headphones into school, they must remain switched off whilst on site. These items must be stored out of sight in students’ bags.
Please note that we cannot accept responsibility for valuable items that are lost or stolen.
Should a student be seen with a mobile device/ear/headphones on the premises, it will be confiscated until the end of half-term or until the student’s parent/carer makes an appointment to come in and collect it. If a student needs to contact home in an emergency, they can speak to their Form Tutor, Head of Year or Student Services.

Phones must be switched off and in bags or blazer pockets when on school premises. Occasionally they are permitted to film or photograph lesson resources, but usually they are off and away.

First offence being caught with a phone is a break time detention. 3 break time detentions means confiscation and a parent has to visit the school to retrieve it.

However, homework is set on a student app that all students are expected to access. So there's an expectation they will have a smart phone outside of school.

Ours has a school hours ban for Y7 and Y8 - phones get handed in during morning form time and given back in afternoon form time. So no temptation to get them out of bags, etc.

The policy has been really popular and successful and they're now saying they'll roll it out school-wide.

DS's school had a phone ban, if caught its confiscated and parents have to collect it.

The school I work at also has a ban, it gets confiscated the they can collect it at the end of the day for first offence second time parents have to collect. I've got no idea why they are all obsessed with trying to use them as there is no bloody signal where I work.