head teacher asks parents not to use phones at school pick up - what a great idea

[Crumpetdisappointment]

East Sussex: Head teacher urges parents to put their phones away - BBC News

i couldnt find a thread on this, but good for him

i remember years ago walking home behind a man with two children permanently talking on his mobile, while his kids were ignored

the piece also quotes a prepandemic study:

In survey of secondary school students in 2017 showed the overuse of mobile phones by parents disrupted family life.

More than a third of 2,000 11-18-year-olds who responded to the poll said they had asked their parents to stop checking their devices.
And 14% said their parents were online at meal times, although 95% of 3,000 parents, polled separately, denied it.

Not a surprise.

Kids get ignored far more these days.
I'd wager a larger percentage aren't read too these days as they used to be.

@TuesdayWhistler

Good luck with that.

Have a great day.

Why stick that on the end of your post? You don't mean it.

People are ridiculous about mobile phones. We should all be reducing our use of them. Yesterday I was out walking at teatime and people were sitting in cars and on benches at a place where there is a lovely walk, stunning views, interesting things to see and they were just scrolling on and talking on mobile phones.
'It might be an emergency or important' is mainly not true. Most of us will admit that.

Are the 10 minutes walking home from school the only time children learn to talk?

It includes having to answer phone calls throughout the day, regardless if you are on your lunch break, in the office or at home.

The school I work at now and the previous one both have signs up banning phone use within the school grounds/playground. This is partly to encourage parents to talk to their children/not be on the phone at pickup. But also because there was an incident a couple of years ago where a parent was taking photos of other people's children (to use them to complain about behaviour) so there was a safeguarding concern and they didn't want a repeat of that so phones were banned in the playground.

Schools can say what is allowed on their premises... its private property.
So fir the five minutes your on school property... no phone. Same with no dig or ridingv a bike or an escooter (other things explicitly banned from doing on the school grounds. Once you are out of gate... yes you as an adult can chose.

Within the law.

my original example of the man walking home which i have quoted before always gets people's backs up, and was probably out of place to use as an example in this scenario

I don't think they should do this as work time. They should make the time up afterwards.
This is why everyone is being asked to go back to the office because of people taking g the p*ss like this.
Thirty minutes for the school run from everyone in a team of 20 is 10 hours of lost work time.

This is partly to encourage parents to talk to their children

What a world we live in where there has to be signs in a school to encourage parents.. to parent..

Thats depressing.
I'm gonna take my kid out for breakfast and listen to her meanderings for an hour to cheer me up.

I'm sorry to tell you but I'm afraid its not up to you to decide what other adult people choose to do - look at the views or read news/ chat to someone on their phone.

LOL. No they cannot control the legal actions of autonomous adults.

Being on their land does not mean they can dictate your actions, imagine if your friend tried to do the same when you were in their house. You'd think they were bonkers.

Oh come on, so people in the office don't do any non-work related stuff in their work time? No personal phone calls, internet searches, online purchases? Endless coffees, cigarette breaks, chatter?...

I don't think they should do this as work time. They should make the time up afterwards.
This is why everyone is being asked to go back to the office because of people taking g the pss like this.*
Thirty minutes for the school run from everyone in a team of 20 is 10 hours of lost work

Everyone is not being asked to go back to an office. We certainly won't.

Different work places have different cultures. School runs are completely acceptable at my workplace.

We support working parents.

but do you take calls at the school gate @MinervaMcGonagallsCat

I work full time. Which means sometimes I'm on a work call at pick up,

My child quite enjoys being fed, clothed and housed and my job pays for that.

But schools have never been good at understanding we aren't all SAHMs

Me too. Can’t be bothered having another so are you looking forward to the holidays conversation. My kids are talking to their friends( older end of primary). Generally they just want to know if I have any snacks.

@Crumpetdisappointment

Like anything else, it is not black and white. I love picking my not so little one up from school and hear about her day.

i am really lucky to have a full time job where my manager is happy for me to do both drop off and pick up. - and work from home up to three days a week (sometimes less, more in the holidays).

I block my calendar for the school run. I cannot, however, dictate the timings of calls with very senior people. I also cannot dictate external calls. During the past year, I have taken a grand total of 3 unavoidable conference calls on the school run.

I would never just “scroll my phone” and not talk to my child. For me, the school pick-up is precious and I am very very lucky to be able to do it every day. But sometimes, we need to adjust.

i am also uncomfortable with judging other people. We don’t know their circumstances.

I remember this ' your child wants to see your face not you looking at a phone ' yep I totally agree with that , but if that parent is just scrolling through social media and ignoring their child chances are they aren't really bothered and a message from the head isn't going to change their perspective. Also people don't know what's going on in other people's lives who are they to judge whether or not they should make / take a call at 3pm?!

I'm not deciding - I am allowed an opinion. Why are you sorry to tell me and why are you afraid that I am not allowed to decide?

Actually my kids get the bus or walk home by themselves. My kids might arrive home and find me or DH both in work meetings. 😳😳😳

Some of my colleagues will take calls on the school run if something urgent comes up.

@crew2022 but if it's a meeting that the person is doing at 3pm they can't "make up that time" later. The meeting is at 3pm. School pick up at 3pm.....what you gonna do?
(I mean really what we need is a better system of after school childcare and for people to be able to concentrate on their job during the relevant work hours....)

i think by the sound of things work needs to be more flexible and allow parents to block out the time at 3.00pm, and parents must have the power to request this

@Crumpetdisappointment yeah.....not all jobs are that utopian.