Boarding school parents. Do your kids have internet all night?

[Numsmet]

My DD in year 10 is complaining that her boarding school cut off internet at 11pm until 5:30am. Is this standard? I'm supportive, but she thinks this is dreadful unfair.

Absolutely standard although I think 11pm til 5.30am is quite a short break! I think for mine it’s possibly 11pm til something like 7.30am. However, they have to hand in their devices before 11pm anyway so not really relevant. I think in 6th form they have them longer….

Oh well, yes they have to hand devices in, but students are definitely are using "secret" devices for internet access at night.

I think the. 5:30 is to do with over seas pupils contacting family??

11:30 until 5:30 seems too short tbh, whats the secret device she is using?

Juniors (yrs 7-9) turned off 9.30pm-6am and seniors (yrs 10-13) turned off 11pm-6am but they also have to hand devices in at lights out for Yrs 7-10

If my dc was at boarding school, I would absolutely expect there to be restricted phone access at night.

Weekdays? Absolutely fair. It’s what we do with teen dc at home. No teen should be on their phone all night…!

Why does she think this is unfair? I’m interested in her logic.

My DS says internet is off from 11pm-6am. Only 6th formers keep their devices overnight though, younger ones have to hand theirs in at around 9pm. Some do have extra phones in secret and use VPNs for overnight use. If caught it would be a suspension. Mine tried it once and I took all devices away when I found out! The school rules are fair in my opinion and I don't want them on devices overnight. They think I am unfair though!

She says she "studies" past this hour lolololol

Her friends have second (and third) phones!

Some of the girls are from Hong Kong, so 5:30-6:30am is lunchtime there I think? Otherwise they'd have to speak to them when it's 4am in China or something!

Surely parents should factor that in when choosing a school? It shouldn’t mean rules that are detrimental to other pupils.

out of interest, what would your rules be at home if she was at a local school?

I dunno what they think of.

Rules at home are phone's downstairs at 11

Also Y10. Phones handed in at 8.30pm until 8am the next day. But yeah, lots of students have an old phone that they hand in at night for show, but then just take their own phone out when they get upstairs. It’s standard, unfortunately.

Devices went in a box overnight - so no, no internet overnight - which is actually the same rule at home.

I think it's sensible and safer - they're kids, they have poor judgement, the last thing I want is them having access to camera phones and internet overnight in dorms TBH.

(but yes, like other's said, the kids do manage to keep some phones out)

Our local authority sleep advice is no screens for an hour before bed. I'd expect a boarding school to be at least as strict as that, probably more so with under 13s. As a parent I check my kids phones that they aren't accessing anything inappropriate, I'd be interested in how boarding schools manage this (I expect lots of young people would claim to have forgotten the password to avoid this).

Does she think you believe this?

I don't believe her. She's just moaning on about school and thinks they're mean. I just don't think she likes that it's filtered and then blocked. She thinks she's old enough now and should be able to do whatever she wants. I'm telling her they arnt being unfair and that's tough luck, don't care if her friends have second phones. Maybe she thinks I should give her a way round it or something!