To think that if my DD didn't ignore the 'no phone' rule at school then I quite often wouldn't know where she was or what time she'd be due home?

[MyballsareSandy]

She text just gone 3 to say there was a rounders match at another school and she would be back about 6pm. She hadn't been told this before today and there is nothing on the website. It happens a lot. I believe her when she says she hadn't previously been told as she's a very organised sort of child. She's year 8.

[SuburbanRhonda]

If you are going to raise this matter with the school, I would ask them to use the school texting service to inform you of any last-minute sports arrangements. Of course, it only works if parents inform the school of any changes in their mobile number, and if the parent picks up their phone when it rings or reads a text.

Both the schools I work in use this system. We would never have time to supervise students individually phoning their parents using the office phone. One text lets everyone know what's happening.

But do let your DD know you're going in, as she may want to amend her story before you present what she says as fact

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

Dds school bans phones. It means she keeps her very cheap one well hidden. School only does searches if a phone goes off in the lesson and no one owns up. Dd only uses it when her bus goes rather wrong.

When she first started at the school I thought it was really unreasonable until we realised that if you keep it off and hidden then school really don't care.

[ElephantsNeverForgive]

Our school not only assumes everyone has mobiles, they remind DCs to have them with them, since many longer trips give very approximate return times.

The permission slip thing is odd. Everyone, except PE sends out full medical form two side letter for anything off site.

PE I've never signed anything and 1/2 the time DD2 doesn't know if they are playing on or off site and when they'll have finished. Cancelling at no notice or coming back early because it poured are perfectly normal.

[whattheseithakasmean]

My DD's secondary school is incredibly disorganised - I do think this is the norm for big comprehensives (1,600+ pupils). Teachers are often rubbish at paperwork (I know, my DH is a teacher) and there aren't enough admin staff. So it is entirely believable there was no notification about an event.

I am sympathetic to the school on the mobile phone issuse, but at the end of the day if you live in an outlying rural village and work, it is a pretty essential tool to keep in contact with your teenager. But they should always be switched off in class.

[AgaPanthers]

This is nonsense, if they have an unannounced sporting fixture, your daughter should contact the school office (if they haven't already done so) and ask them to phone you themselves.

No monile required.

[Merrylegs]

It is worth raising with the PE dept. There are often last minute fixtures at DD's school but phones are allowed so a quick text at break to tell me she'll be late is not unusual.

If they are going to arrange last min but also ban phones they need a better system really.

For eg, our PE dept emails a 'weekly fixtures list' via parentmail with all matches listed. They also have a sports noticeboard where all teams are posted (so for eg a rounders board, a tennis board). Dd usually takes a photo of the relevant board at the start of the week as the info tends to be more specific than the emailed list (eg duration of match, expected return time).

It's a day school but they play a lot of boarding schools which is why I think the fixtures can be last minute as their opponents are effectively always on site so forget perhaps that some kids need picking up at the end of the school day!

[pointythings]

DD1's school allows phones to be brought in but must be kept in lockers during lessons. They can be used during break. It seems to work well, and has been incredibly useful on several occasions. Most of these have been to do with sports fixtures - away games where the bus got stuck in traffic, for instance: DD was able to notify me that she would be late. Far better than 1) no notification at all, or 2) expecting the teacher to text every parent of every child who was away on the fixture.

[gotnotimeforthat]

I got locked in the toilets at secondary school. The teacher hadn't bothered to check if they was empty before locking them during lessons. After ten minutes of banging on the door I text my mum who rang reception. Once a teacher had let me out I then got my phone confiscated because 'they are not allowed in school'

I could have easily of been stuck in there for hours because the toilets were very rarely unlocked. But I was totally in the wrong for using my phone to text for help.

[STOPwiththehahaheheloling]

Doesnt the school have a text system where they update/remind parens of events and changes to events? Maybe secondary schools are different as very big and so many classes but my dcs primary do this.

[Icimoi]

CorusKate, I think the point is that if this child didn't have a mobile phone, she would simply have got the school office to phone - so there would be no issue about getting stranded. And I suspect also that if it was the school suffering the inconvenience of letting parents know, they would be a whole lot better about ensuring that the PE department keep people properly informed.