What is your secondary school doing about mobile phone policy?

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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?

We have lockers but school has instituted a blanket ban on both smart and brick phones. Which is crazy in a school with a huge rural catchment with kids commuting by infrequent and often late/cancelled buses.

I don’t think many adults would be happy taking a 1hr+ commute in the dead of winter with no way of checking whether there bus is cancelled or late, or being able to call anyone to tell them they are delayed.

Although it seems many here are happy to be stranded at a bus stop in the rain in December with no idea where their bloody bus is. And no ability to call anyone if it doesn’t show up at all.

I agree with this approach. Dumb phone for the commute to be able to call or text if there’s a problem. Children don’t need smartphones at all in my view

Your missing the many other things phones are used for, tickets, payments, ordering food, music, books, homework apps etc

I agree with social media bans but phones are so much more than social media.

Brick phones rely on mobile phone reception- rurally, that isn’t a given. Trackers rely on other smartphones around the world- also not a given. We originally had a tracker in the PE bag - it shows our home train station as a location for the wholr day as that is the only place with enough phones to make it work reliably.
The bus does have wifi though, so does the train. We gad some kids starting with brick phones - worse than useless as there is no reception most of the way, including most of school. They all had smartphones by christmas.
I wish people would be able to imagine that their reality isn’t everyone else’s reality.

I would also agree with this, although checking the status of a bus is only possible with a smartphone now, as our bus company has got rid of the old automated enquiries number where you would key in your bus route number and it would tell you if your bus was delayed or cancelled.

But in our case they have banned ALL phones. So if I get home from work and DS is not there I don't have much option but to get in the car and drive the 40 minutes to his school and hope he is still there.

Dumb phones need mobile phone coverage. Outside cities, that really isn’t a given. Wifi on the other hand is usually available

Bustimes.org has live bustimes map.

@ThunderFog I thought this sounds great - only to look it up, and find a massive “grey” area with no busses at all indicated where we are. There definitely are busses, but the map isn’t complete. Trains aren’t really trackable either - cancelled usually means “ kicked everyone out a random station”, or “running, but as a different train”. I wish it was that easy!

And how do you do that without a smart phone or tablet with a SIM?

Theres another crazy work around, feature phone aka brick, with hot-spot capabilities and a tablet.

The reality of the "ban" is that a child with a phone turned off in the bottom of their bag will not be caught. School won't be searching bags because they should be making a log every time they do this. No member of staff wants to do this 30 x per day.

There's a lot of hot air around phone bans in school. 99% of kids are fine with it off and in a bag.

And so does google and many others (although the Stagecoach app has live tracking).

How does that help a kid stuck at a bus stop with no phone?

The parent can see where the bus is. I check it all the time not just DC but other relatives just to see what time to put dinner on. And yes to be ready to rescue if rescue is required.

That happens if the bus operator doesn't have transponders or if they aren't turned on. Can be frustrating if the number 21 suddenly turns into a number 1.
Which bus operator is in your region?

It looks like my school is a bit of an outlier. There are a few people on here that are against phones, so I am genuinely interested in what it is about even having a brick phone on a commute (or onto an activity that finishes late etc) that you have so much of an issue with?

TBH I think I'd give my child a smart phone, have parental controls on it, making child younger than they are if I need to, parental controls can be switched off at 13 if the child wants.
And give child strict instructions not to take it out their bag in school.

I honestly don't see why adults who probably drive to and from work, with phones have the right to dictate that children should be put into a potentially vulnerable situation.

My local station has a sign, For nearest telephone consult the Station Information Board. Which doesn't mention phones.

I actually don't think there is a public phone within a mile radius of the station

And again, how does that help a kid at the bus stop when you have no way of communicating with them to say “hang on, the bus is 15 minutes late” or “bus is cancelled, I’ll come and pick you up, see you in 40 minutes”.

Everyone managed perfectly well 20 years ago

This has been covered.
20 or whatever years ago there were call boxes around all over the place.

Phones in pouches during the school day is a perfectly reasonable method.
Then parents can oversee whatever phones they want their children to have for travel purposes and out of school.

Phones in pouches can cost schools upwards of £17k.

Surely you can see that money would be better spent elsewhere than capitulating to the weird need people have to be tracking their loved ones and in constant contact all day?

There seems to be a one off cost, then parents pay for the pouches.

Phones in pouches means that kids can stil have their phones for travel before and after school and for going to out of school activities etc and arrange pick up with parents. They can access homework apps on the bus home if desired. Many travel companies use apps for travel passes and to enable services to be tracked.

Having them in pouches in school rather than 'off and in the bag' anecdotally (teachers posting on MN) reduces kids asking to go to the toilet in lessons and generally reduces disruption in class. It removes temptation.

It isn't about tracking and being in constant contact. It is about using the tools that the current modern world expects independent travellers to have.

We are paying for ours. £11. No idea if that’s the cost or subsidised. We’ve had to pay and order before the holidays for collection on the forests day back. For a school with 2000 kids it would be expensive for school to buy them.

Are your colleagues glued to phones while teaching classes? It's hard to imagine that! My dp also teaches so one of us needs to be contactable for the children unfortunately - this can be done through the office but they will always try mobile numbers first, and I'd need to use a mobile to call the children's school back when I got the message anyway.

No fitbits allowed then if no smart watches?

Not read the full thread but DD's new school (she starts Y7 in September) allow phones but they have to be put in a pouch every morning and collected every afternoon.

I'm not sure how the Hell the school manage / police this? The girls all have their own pouch apparently but it sounds as though staff collect said pouch every morning on school gate and return every afternoon? Which sounds like a colossal waste of staff time.

DD won't take her phone. We live 5 minutes away so no need for tracking. On days she has clubs etc then I'll know to expect her later. She won't be allowed to wonder after school.

DC1 is going into Y9 and he doesn't take his phone. He is a short bus journey or a 30 minute walk but it's never been necessary to track him as he's always adhered to the agreement of coming straight home after school or school club. His school allows phones but they need to be turned off and kept in bag. Any phones turned on are confiscated for the week and a parent has to collect. I'm debating allowing him to start taking phone as he is now older and getting to the stage he may well want to go back to a mates house after school so he needs his phone to let me know.

As I say I haven't read the whole thread but I'm surprised at the number of parents who do not support the ban? MN always appears to be overwhelmingly anti smartphone?

We are never going to get on top of the scrurge of the smartphone when us parents "want / need" our children to have the damn things.

And I say this as a parent who has 2 children with smartphones.

Actually they’ve been a bit quiet about it but DD is in sixth form. They do occasionally use them in lessons but I know it’s an issue that some students can’t stay off them.
I can’t see how they can completely ban them for their age group as so many of them don’t go home after college but to work, sometimes into the evening.