Government announces ban on mobile phones in schools

[noblegiraffe]

...because it won't cost them anything and there won't be any pushback because the vast majority of schools banned phones years ago.

Perhaps they could also ban kids running in corridors or pushing in the lunch queue.

What a waste of time government this is.

(by 'banning phones' it's generally accepted to mean kids can have them in their bags but they must be turned off or at least on silent and never seen - so any parental cries of 'but they need them for the journey home' are irrelevant.)

"Giles, compulsory maths in utero? Totes aspiration for hard working families"

Blah blah blah

I'm always amused by the batshit lines the Tory party come up with for the Sunday papers.

Sooner they're gone the better.

I'm not a teacher though so I don't have to be grateful for being paid in exchange for my labour in the same way as noblegiraffe.

Australia banned them in every state recently, under mostly Labour state governments. It’s a very popular decision.

https://www.nsw.gov.au/media-releases/nsw-government-begins-mobile-phone-ban-public-high-schools

I may have read it all now ...

Are you seriously claiming that the government isn't a waste of time solely because it pays teachers? Given that it makes education compulsory, what alternatives do you suggest are open to it?

"Back to basics : neighbourhood Latin hubs. To combat potential shortages in food banks this winter. Anyone with me? Giles? Giles?"

I'm dying here

"Swan therapy! Therapy for swans traumatised by swimming in chemically decimated jobby ponds. Giles! We're ROLLING!"

"Microchips for truants"

Was it the teachers who closed down schools due to covid and RAAC? How did they manage that?

IME, teachers played a blinder during the pandemic. Suddenly at no notice they had to produce and teach online lessons whilst also teaching those children who were entitled to come into school, in addition in many, many cases to going above and beyond in providing mental health support, supporting children whose relatives were ill or had died, even taking school meals round to families.

“To the relief of millions of parents and teachers”

Batshit.

A couple of schools I am familiar with still have not banned smartphones in school, so this will probably push the schools’ hand on the issue. I think the government is right, even if most schools are doing this already.

Wow, I just agreed with something Sunak’s government did!! Now I feel dirty.

🤣

Doubly necessary now there are no phones.

Can you provide a reliable link to the source of your post?

I don't, I left due to successive governments fucking over education.

Your last two paragraphs just so that some posters will deny anything,

But then goady posters do that,

Perhaps you misunderstood my post, as I certainly didn't make any such claim.

"It" doesn't need an alternative. "It" should indeed pay teachers a salary, but it's rather disrespectful and hypocritical for those who are paid by the government to bemoan it.

Judas springs to mind.

"National service : learn resilience by spending 16 hours a day holding up RAAC affected ceilings."

@Goreg - we had better be careful as some Tory bot will steal all these from Mumsnet.

Yesssss!

I for one am delighted about this. I work in a high school and our lives will be made so much easier by this.
Whenever a pupil goes to the toilet, they must leave their phone on my desk. Otherwise they'll text their mates to organise a vaping session in the toilets.
A ban is not before time. Here in Scotland, I'm pretty sure it's only the private schools who ban them (as they know they'll get the parents' backing).

But they all have iPads when they remember to bring them, so why would this be the case?

Then we can demand political consultancy fees.

As well as saving the country from economic and political ruin ofc.

Scottish government is handing out Chromebooks to every child.

Utterly pointless banning phones.

I think this is a positive thing.

Good grief. Which parents actually care less about this? We care about the real issues in education - lack of teachers, poor support for mental health difficulties, lack of SEN support.

This policy sounds like it's meant to appeal to voters who don't actually have kids in school.

@Efficaciou5 do you think all teachers should tell us everything is great in schools and education because they get paid by the Government, even when it is blatantly clear that all is not well in education

And you are giving teachers so much more power than they actually have when it comes to closing schools be it down to concrete or COVID

They also announced it in 2021.