Yondr pouches - why are some parents against them?

[aperolspritzbasicbitch]

I’ve seen a lot of comments (online, never come
across anyone is real life, although it’s not a conversation I’ve had much) from parents that are massively against their child’s school supplying them with Yondr pouches.

For those of you that don’t know, they are fabric pouches with a magnetic closure. Pupils are expected to put their phones in them when they start school, and use the magnets stationed around the exits of the school to undo them at the end of the day.

My child’s school use them, and I have no negative opinions about it at all. They haven’t pulled the idea out of their arse or stumped up the cost for no reason - phones were obviously causing an issue.

I can’t see why any parent would be backing their child up with a refusal. Although, that wouldn’t stand in my child’s school. They would be suspended if they are caught without their phone in the pouch. Spot checks are done during the day.chat

How did locking the pouches take time off of their lesson?

You pop the phone in and close the pouch, it takes seconds.

Presumably the unlocking has to be done one by one which is time consuming.
But surely that's just at the end of the day 🤷

The teachers would go round to each child, make them turn off their phone in front of them, place it in the pouch, click closed the pouch. The teacher has to shake the pouch and feel it. If a child had already shut off their phone or locked the pouch they had to open it ect. They don’t do it in an efficient way or have other students doing work whilst they lock yondrs so much of the lesson is wasted.

Every lesson?

Massive waste of money
More stuff to get lost or stolen and parents have to py for.
Massive faff - what if you forget to unlock it and leave school?
Surely the school have something better to spend that money on.
I imagine a thousand kids trying to swipe their phones on and out is onerous.
Easy for kids to pretend it's locked and still use phone so potentially not solvong anything

The problem is some of them won't, then the others want to fit in or don't want to stand out or have no oen to talk to so they get theirs out too. It's contagious

The school sounds inefficient and a bit thick, I'm sorry you're having to pay for this ineptitude. I don't know any state schools that would be this ignorant of how kids or are this clueless about how to use the pouches effectively.

But if they are taking their phones out then surely they would be confiscated?
Back in my day (80s/90s) people always had stuff in their bags we weren't supposed to have at school or things we were allowed but obviously not used during a lesson.
Comics, Walkmans, Game Boys, bags of sweets, cigarettes (not me because 🤮 but lots of people had them).
What did we do.....kept then in our bags, out of sight and just didn't use them during lessons.
It wasn't blimmin complicated.
Why can't modern kids manage that?

It’s the best thing my son’s school did IMO. They don’t need a phone in school. It has been very positive. I was irritated that friends I had more respect for rushed out to buy “burner phones” so they could text their kids during the day. Absolutely ridiculous. If there’s an emergency then the school will contact you or you can contact the school.

We have a locker problem - the kids don't have a locker each they are an optional extra that we have to pay for and if everyone wanted one there aren't enough to go round. I bought one for DS1 - he never used because it was in a totally different building to his form room..I didn't bother for DS2.

The school has gone for pouches because it is rural with regular bus issues etc that mean parents wouldn't have been happy with a total ban.

Sorry I didn’t mention it’s only the first lesson of the day. They do have random checks throughout the day but those aren’t very frequent and pointless.

School should message you if she doesn’t arrive

Yup. And cinema! 🙏🙏🙏

I don't get them - why can't kids just leave them in their school bag and not touch them until they leave school premises? Why do they need to be locked away and the kids treated like uncontrollable babies? At DS' school phones stay in the bag and are not allowed to be seen on school premises or it's detention.

I think they are a waste of resources, but don’t have any other objection.

My daughter’s school just adopted a policy of as long as we don’t see your phone between particular hours, will pretend it doesn’t exist. Apparently it is working just fine. It’s a generally well behaved school though so maybe other schools need more serious measures.

We are about to get pouches and I’m disgusted with the waste of money. The kids ignoring the ‘no phones visible’ rules will be the same kids who get burner phones or magnets or whatever. The rule abiding kids who were never a problem will have another bit of faff. I have 0 issues having phones off and away during the day. No issue having them confiscated. No issue telling my kids to comply. But a massive issue with wasting thousands on something that doesn’t actually achieve anything. Our school has no money for things we actually need and we were forced to waste money on this nonsense.

And no I don’t think I need to track my kids (though the time I forgot to call her off sick I found out they text at around 11 so I’d have no idea if she didn’t show up). I do however think that a 13 year old who stays at school until 8/9pm most nights (dancer) and is alone for about 45 minutes between the end of school and the start of dance ‘and’ who was the victim of some physical antisemitic bullying last year after school would be safer with a phone. There are no pay phones, the office closes at the end of the school day and she’d have no way to call me or anyone if anything happened. So she will always be bringing a phone to school with her.

Because many students don’t follow that rule.

Local schools have recently introduced the pouches. They now treat phones not in pouches as prohibited items, so if caught with one it will be instant suspension rather than detention. They also have wands to help pick out phones hidden in bags

I think they are great. We have had no problem with DD and her friends. There may be some that put an old phone in and keep the current one in their bag but I cant see it happening much as too much hassle and they dont get long enough breaks to faff around.

The only downside is the school raised funds for them for last school year and its just been announced the council are paying for other schools to have them this year so could have waited a year and saved a lot of money.

My son's school just have a not seen not heard policy. They started this in April, if you are seen with your phone in school it's a warning, then it's confiscated and a parent has to collect it. From what my son has said it's working well and hardly anyone has been in their phone and had to be punished.

No issue with this whatsoever. Provided my DC have a phone when travelling home from school I don’t care. They don’t need one during the school day.

No complaints from me- apart from having to buy one for a year 11 child- for 8 months use.

DD2 says it takes ages to queue up to get them opened, so she slides some card between the magnets to stop it closing after school. Then she doesn't have to queue up in the morning, so it halves the waiting about.

Our school uses them and they are brilliant and have transformed the school.
Our system is very efficient. Several staff at the school entrance to assist with locking the pouches, Velcro pouches for those with medical needs who need access to phone for their condition. Harsher sanctions for anyone now seen with a phone because they put a dummy phone in the pouch. Kids still have access to their phone for going to and from school which is important as their travel card is often on their phone. There has been a MASSIVE reduction in kids asking to go to the loo during lessons, kids now talk more to each other in social areas before school. The cost was massive. We asked for voluntary contributions. Some parents were so supportive they contributed more than was asked for. It’s not 100% perfect but it is so much better than before. So many kids were tempted before to look at their phones sneakily even with a switch off out of sight policy. I honestly think they are fantastic.

My dd is 16 and autistic managing a mainstream school. Her support plan includes regular check-ins via messaging / teams to her three identified support workers. It’s discreet and it means she can safety and discreetly ask for help without drawing attention to herself. Lots of neurodiverse individuals needs adjustments to communicate for a variety of reasons. My daughter would not manage mainstream without her phone.
She is only allowed to use for this purpose though and she would still get a detention if caught scrolling in lesson.

Because they're just an expensive waste of time. They don't work. DD and the rest of her classmates had bypassed them within a week.

I complained to our school when they were introduced.

there was already a very clear no phones in school rule. It just wasn’t being enforced. So instead they spent tens of thousands of pounds on a solution which also needs policing.
also if your child doesn’t have their pouch you have to pay £17 for a new one.

I am fine with my child having a smart phone, fine not being able to contact or track his location. I despair we need to spend so much money which could be spent on glue sticks to enforce a rule which can still be easily broken.