What is your secondary school doing about mobile phone policy?

[Monitored]

Our school are suggesting trackers as phones aren’t allowed on site or the commute either. This also includes brick phones. Crackers. How do I support the logic of this to my child?

I honestly think parents probably don't know. I'll be lots have phone shaped objects in the pouch too.

People are nieve if they think kids are beyond being creative in what they can stuff in a sealed pouch.

Our school have had a phone ban for nearly ten years. Switched off, in bags, not seen or heard are the rules. If the phone is seen or heard, it is confiscated and a grown up has to pick it up at the end of the day. The child also has a detention. The school have no plans to change their approach at the moment. Mostly because it works and those that persistently offend against the rules aren't going to abide by any stricter measures either. Everyone wanging on about "We didn't have mobiles in our day...." pisses me off. No we didn't, but we did have telephone boxes and plenty of them. It's a completely different world out there, wind your ducking neck on. Our high school sets homework on smartphone apps and their timetable etc is on a smartphone app. My teens like the ability to get in contact with me as they need me when they're out and about and I can see where they are if I need a touch of reassurance without telegraphing my issues onto them. Oh and all of my kids are independent, travel around the area (and outside of it) and are able to problem solve without me or DH getting involved, they are not mollycoddled or wrapped in cotton wool but they do have a safety net available if they need one. As for the social media ban, I think we need something but I also think more parents need to teach their children not to be bullying little shits!

Even more bonkers.

The pouches just sound like something kids will laugh about in the future.

Stuff you don't want parents to know about - oh it's hidden in a locked pouch.

👏

@Lillabet
Agreed.

Bullies are a tough thing to stop. Ultimately if there were no bullies they'd be no wars.
Do we think the Putins and Trumps of this world were wee angels 😇 in school. Probably not!

My teen's school have announced they're banning phones altogether from September but parents can buy trackers for their kids instead.

Most of the children live in walking distance (catchment is tiny) so the justification is they dont need a phone - my DD is one of the only ones who travels in. She has to get a bus, so needs a smart phone for her bus ticket. I've already told the school we won't be complying but DD can leave her phone in the care of her tutor during the day. It's a ridiculous policy out of touch with the modern world.

The rule in the school I work at has been phones off in blazers during the school day.
Except when they need to:
check their password for to do Sparx etc on a school computer
Do Sparx when school 'puters aren't available
get inspiration for art
print the photos the art teacher asked them to take
take a photo of the artwork they just did
take a photo of the whiteboard
do their online homework to avoid a detention
use online flashcards to revise
use an online textbook
listen to music to help them focus
do a whole class quiz.

The school is moving to pouches and the children are furious - they don't seem to know that other schools have had stricter rules in place for years.

what bizarre things are those pouches?

why not provide lockers?

In our school, if a phone is found (they need to be handed in to reception or form teacher every morning), it is a detention, and the phone needs to be collected by a parent at school office between 10:30 and 11:30. School is in the middle of nowhere, so it is a major inconvenience for parents. It works.

Where will schools who don’t currently have lockers find the space for them, or the money to have them fitted?

The only phones children can bring on site at our sons schools are phones that are also a medical device. Any other phone if found is kept by the school until a parent collects it. We’ve not been there long, but we know its been the policy for over a decade. Most children get a metro, bus or both and its fine.

When did parents start essentially stalking their children online?

@Simonjt are you in a city, with lights at night and if one train doesn’t come, another will within 20 min? We are not. Bus stops have no light or shelter (literally a sign on a stick next to a country lane with no pavement), train stations have a tiny little shed , no door, little light, and no train or bus for about an hour even if the trains are running. No water, no protection from heat/cold.
I really want my child to tell me where the train/bus has abandoned them this rime to be able to collect them. 2-3 hours delay happen at least once per month, so we have to pick them up from one of 8 possible tiny train stations, or 4 bus stops. A smart phone is very necessary.

They can't ban on the commute. My dc has his bus ticket on his its cheaper to have his pass on the app rather than a paper ticket

Sil is here and I just asked her. She said she wouldn't agree with the commute side as neice leaves hers on a Friday morning then after school goes to her dad's. She needs her phone as her dad often runs late and she starts to walk and he meets her where ever she is.

Our local schools have introduced pouches and there is talk about getting wands so they can check for hidden phones

Lots of the pupils have a journey like that as the catchment includes our equivalent of a national park. Has the school also banned water bottles, coats and suncream?

We have no lockers at school there simply isn't room for 1200 lockers

school is buying Yondr pouches and issuing them to kids. The pouch is deemed an essential part of school equipment.

I assume this means that smarter/richer kids will now have a stunt phone that they keep in the Yondr pouch, and they'll carry on making TikToks on their lunchbreak.

Very few schools have lockers or the space or money to buy lockers.

Local schools have provided pouches for this year but going forward they will be part of uniform so parents have to buy them and pay for replacements.

Any phone found outside a pouch could lead to a suspension, treated as a prohibited item. Special pouches for medical use phones

They would be suspended at our local schools, not just a detention. And schools are looking at wands to search out hidden phones.

It would be really useful if parents could support these measures rather than turn a blind eye to them

We are very rural. Almost all children have a journey including a bus (school to train station), then a train closer to home. Many have another bus after the train
yes, they have water bottles and sun screen. Which isn’t a lot if you are stuck at a train station without shade for more than 1 hour, plus your actual journey. And they have coats, which unsurprisingly don’t work well after hours in the rain and cold in winter,
If you are happy for your daughter to stand outside in 30 degrees ins summer for hours, or in the rain and dark in winter for hours next to traffic - that’s fine. I’m not. I rather have a sensible, working mobile phone policy that allows the children to be safe. Which we thankfully have.

I'd agree that's a ridiculous policy too.
So many kids are between houses or going other places after school.

Its not about being able to track kids it's about kids being able to get in touch if they are going to friends houses or other places.

Get a tracker. And brick phone, absolutely fine. Smart phones are banned for a reason. Social media on smart phones is bad for children. Including WhatsApp. Its very hard to control this as a parent. So do choose a minor inconvenience of buying a tracker and a brick phone (the su total of which costs less than a smart phone typically) over the mental heath of your children. I'm very happy about this decision and fully support the schools and the gov. And I'm certainly not alone.

Off & away all day at my place of work (pouches used too) - phones allowed at social times & on the commute. As a staff member, I follow this too. If my partner needs to contact me, they know to email. They’re -also our own child’s first point of contact too as I don’t have access to my phone when at work. It really annoys me when colleagues are glued to their devices, esp when we’ve asked (told) kids to put them away.

You know you can restrict social media on smartphones!

Our school is banning all phones, smart or otherwise. Rural school with the vast majority using school buses, public buses, trains and often a combination of the two.

DSs bus is once an hour and takes an hour. Only two buses go all the way to the school - if they are cancelled he has to walk to the normal stop which is about half a mile away. Not usually a problem but without a phone there is no way of checking whether a bus has been cancelled, or whether it is just delayed and arriving in 5 minutes (in which case he would miss it if he decided to walk to the normal stop). Also no way of telling us that he will be late - so that we can eg cancel music lessons that he goes straight to.

Would you be happy taking a regular 1 hour+ bus/train commute with no way of contacting anyone, and not being able to look up bus status? In the middle of winter?

Thought not.