London Oratory complete mobile phone ban even on long commutes

During 7/7 all the phone signals were jammed anyway. You couldn't get through to anyone for hours. You had to just work it all out and get home as best you could.

I imagine it would create more stress for parents and children having the device they have learned to depend on rended utterly useless right when they need it. That day the transport ground to a halt and the roads were blocked - so not really very much anyone could do to get to anyone anyway. Maybe, just maybe it would be better to develop resilient children in the first place so they can cope in this situation.

I do feel from this thread children having a mobile phone is more about the parent's reliance (addiction) and passing this on to their children. Very often this insistence on a child having a phone is more about parental anxiety of perceived danger than offering any real benefit to the child. It's just slightly less creepy giving them a phone than sewing a tag into their shoe!

As an aside I (a short arsed woman past my prime) was in Victoria with my DC at about 4pm on Wednesday. As we walked I put my hand into my bag. A hoodie on a lime bike must have jumped onto the pavement and, as I retrieved a bag of popcorn for DC from my bag, he was right beside me. I saw a look of extreme annoyance on his face, as he bumped himself back on the road (presumably to do another round). I explained to DC what had just happened and why...

Someone up there must have been watching out for me as my peri-menopausal brain meant I'd put my phone in my other bag and left it at home anyway! I also ended up walking in the wrong direction for a couple of minutes, so stopped a stranger and asked for directions. He got his phone out and after a pleasant exchange we were all on our way. People are mainly nice and helpful - who knew?

Almost an adult? And she’s in actual danger leaving the house without a phone?!

Judging by the number of newly hatched year sevens walking the streets after school glued to their phones, I’m talking heads down gawping at their screens like their lives depend on it, I think the Oratory is to be applauded for their policy. It’s so depressing seeing youngsters so attached to their devices. Makes them so vulnerable to mugging too. The Oratory has it right.

where we live, yes. It isn’t a dense area where she can count on asking for help if she is injured.

I suppose I could get her a satellite radio or something, but the way they wrote our law, they would be covered as well.

as I said. Badly written, blunt law.

Amazing, really, that there are schools within reach of such a remote wilderness.

How would your daughter have coped thirty years ago? This is utterly ludicrous and over the top.

Not a parent of school age children, never had to consider long commutes.

My preference if practical is the phone locked away during the school day, so not on the child whilst in lessons or break/lunchtime.

I defend the school having the rule it does, whilst not my preference. Air tags and the ability to know how trains and buses are running to time (or not) is available.

Concerns might be less if we kept to BST year round, so always going home completely in daylight.

Schools cannot control what children do outside of school nor bringing in items in their bags (other than if they suspect they are carrying something illegal). Are they going to search all bags to see if they have a little Nokia at the bottom? Sounds like overstepping to me.

Well, yes, they can. Clearly.

By using one of the myriad phone boxes that existed then and don't now.

Also where I went to school there were six buses I could take. Where DDs went to school there was one bus, which was sometimes unreliable.

Yes if they act like they are operating a dictatorship. Until someone takes them to court and they find their rules have no legal effect.

So send your kid elsewhere, instead of one of the most sought after state schools in London 🤷🏻‍♀️
it’s really very simple, for most people.

My sons got places there, I wanted them to go to the Oratory and was fine with the policy for reasons PPs stated above, but my husband was dead against it like the OP and so we went elsewhere. That was our choice and our sons are well settled elsewhere now.

But when I see my sons both glued to their phones, as their friends are, and us having to really police the time they spend on them in a way which is a struggle sometimes, it does almost make me wish we had made a different choice. I know boys who go there and they have never had a safety issue, seem far less phone-reliant for socialising and the point the head makes that there’s no point mugging the boys from LOS seems to be true.

As I have already explained upthread, such a challenge would be very, very unlikely to succeed.

DD1 and DD2 never had their bags searched at school.

Such an anti Oratory sentiment from some posters. If you don’t like it go elsewhere and leave your place for a boy who deserves it and will benefit from their ethos.

The boys have second hand smart phone at home or on headphones gaming with their friends. The no phone policy doesn’t cover home use, families just tell their DC to say they have no phones etc but they do.

Just choose your local school!! This is a bloody ludicrous thread.

Oh I don't know. I was half hoping someone one here was going to get so worked up they would petition the Holy See about it!
Since some parents seem to think phones have some supernatural quality that offers safety and protection to their children (rather than being a lump of plastic with some electronics) I thought they could convince the Pope to pass a Canon Law that any phone blessed by a priest actually transfigures into the Holy Ghost! I agree bloody ludicrous.

Concerning? Are you having a laugh?

Nah it is not that. For those of us who are more liberal modern Catholics it is just too old fashioned to deem modern forms of communication the coming of the Anti Christ. What are we now, a new form of Waldorf/Steiner/Mormons? Besides, yes, phones can be detrimental but they also enable when used properly a lot of peer on peer communication and learning and understanding of modern life. And partly they also enable questioning of authority, including Church Authority. Whilst I am a practising Catholic with DC who have all been altar servers and choir singers etc, the bit about overstepping and authoritarianism doesn’t sit right with me. And clearly I am not the only one.

OMG how can they survive ?

I swear on my teddy bear that should any child ever have a transport emergency I will phone any number they ask for and ensure they get home safe

its such a sad sad world that you would trust to tech over humans

Based on your sarcastic and belittling response, I’m hoping you’re not the one they approach.