Mobile phone ban on overseas school trip

[anotherglass]

12 year old son is due to go on his first overseas school trip to Belgium later this month.

There is a strict ban on children using mobile phones during the trip.

Part of the trip will involve a period of up to 2 hours where children will be allowed to wander around an open, retail precinct - unsupervised. Teachers will not be far and kids will have cards - in the local language - to hand to someone if they are in trouble, during this activity.

Parents were not made aware of this unsupervised element of the trip, prior to making payment.

I am nervous not only about this element, but also the fact that there is a heightened risk of terrorists attacks during the period of the trip, which coincides with Euro 2016.

AIBU to insist on son being allowed to take his mobile phone on the trip?

My godfathers if I told my tween/teen I wanted him to txt me morning and night while he was away for a trip he would be properly mortified! He would also be laughed out the room by his mates! I bet any other tween/teen boy would be too and would feel mum didnt trust him nor the teachers while he was away. Not gonna instill much confidence in him is it?

Teachers have phones, kids dont need them. They are there to have a leaning experience and a bit of free time in another country not to be permanently welded to a phone and ignore everyone and everything around them.

Its not one rule for all, oh except little Johnny/Jenny who is so special they can do what the hell they like with no thought for the teachers, rules nor other kids.

Rules are rules and when they have sensible reasons behind them based on the organisers experiences if you still dont like them dont send your kid so they can upset the rest of the group.

I really wonder if some posters have read all the incidents posted on here that happened cos some teen decided to put something completely out of context on fb, txt or whatever and caused panic back home, charges racked up on phones, lost phones etc ?

due to the true point about lack of phoneboxes now, perhaps the answer is to allow only sensible phones; ones that do texts or calls only and where you don't need to take a charger because the battery lasts a week.

although as these kids are only in a shopping centre with a teacher nearby, assuming they are given and can read a map, I don't see the desperate need for constant contact.

and yes; texts don't always get through, and coverage is not universal. And if there IS a terrorist attack, the mobile signals are blocked so forget that one.

it is a phone for communication. It is NOT a safety aid.

How bizarre. The kids are 12. Has your child never been with our parental supervision for two hours at this age?
At my school trip to Paris at 13 we were allowed two afternoons out with our friends. We were supposed to be in groups of a minimum of four but as my friend and I were deemed sensible and I was confident in my pretty basic French, the teachers sneakily let us go out alone. It was such an adventure. We all came from the back of beyond and not city-experienced. But we used our loaves and loved it!

marynary sorry, my experience is more than that one baby sitting incident. I have taken away guide units for 8 years. Secondary school groups for 5 years.

and yes, it can be useful in that event. however. it also very very unhelpful in many other events, and as mentioned my numerous people who actual experience running these trips, the disadvantages far outweigh the advantages.

The lack of phone boxes isn't a valid point, because the children are never that far away from the supervising adults nor are they ever alone.

No-one has yet top name an example of when a child would actually need a phone on a trip. And no- sorry, saying night-night is not a valid example.

marynary sorry, my experience is more than that one baby sitting incident. I have taken away guide units for 8 years. Secondary school groups for 5 years.

What age secondary school? Do 15 year olds cry hysterically because they are homesick in your experience? Regardless, at my children's school they can't be relied on to contact parents and therefore I do not feel the slightest bit obliged to follow any mobile phone ban .Thankfully, they have clearly decided it doesn't make sense to have one anyway so it isn't an issue.

The lack of phone boxes isn't a valid point, because the children are never that far away from the supervising adults nor are they ever alone.

You only know that from your personal experience. DD's school don't supervise them that closely as they feel the children can be trusted.

No-one has yet top name an example of when a child would actually need a phone on a trip. And no- sorry, saying night-night is not a valid example.

As far as I'm concerned being able to contact a child to find out when they will be back is a totally valid reason. Obviously the school could do that but if they aren't going to that is irrelevant.

YOU ARE NOT I REPEAT NOT BEING UNREASONABLE. I wouldn't let a 12 year old wonder freely on a family holiday let alone a school one. And for the people who don't get it, she doesn't think the phone will help if there is a terrorist attack its about being able to easily contact him to make sure he's okay. The school should have just done a form to say they will not be responsible for any goods on the trip eg phones iPods, if they are old enough to have the phone anyway there is no issue. I would probably have pulled him out myself or just tell him to sneak the phone and if he gets in trouble take the blame. Switch it off all day and call me each night.

I am with the school on this one. Not only do the children learn about Belgian culture, but to exist for a few days without a mobile phone.

I wouldn't let a 12 year old wonder freely on a family holiday let alone a school one.

In which case laurenwiltxx perhaps sending DC on a resi is not for you.

she doesn't think the phone will help if there is a terrorist attack its about being able to easily contact him to make sure he's okay If there is an attack the system will overload and she will have to worry like everybody else. I have read, and I believe and hope it is true, that in case of major incidents such as on 7/7 the systems switch over to arrangements which block the ordinary citizen's phone to leave the capacity for those who need it.

I would probably have pulled him out myself or just tell him to sneak the phone and if he gets in trouble take the blame. The first is a good idea - the second is just irresponsible. If the teacher finds the phone and confiscates it without telling the mother she's really going to have something to worry about.

Teachers who run these trips take a hell of a burden on themselves and it is the task of parents to cooperate with them - not to encourage their children to disobey rules set up for the good of all. And that includes the children who may actually interact with each other and not with a piece of hi-tech.

as i say the only people who think mobile phones are a good idea are those that don't organise and run these kinds of trips. But nooooo the hundreds of adult volunteers running these trips are being silly and unreasonable - if only they realised that the mobile phone would make everything wonderful and nothing would ever go wrong.

You are correct about the network switching Andrew. It's called access overload control. We have it on our work phones as we would have a role in certain types of emergencies and significant events.

as i say the only people who think mobile phones are a good idea are those that don't organise and run these kinds of trips. But nooooo the hundreds of adult volunteers running these trips are being silly and unreasonable - if only they realised that the mobile phone would make everything wonderful and nothing would ever go wrong.

As I said, not everyone who runs school trips ban phones, particularly for older children. I think that if the children will not be fully supervised all the time than it is reasonable to assume that the children are mature enough not to phone home hysterically etc or cause other problems. I wouldn't want my child to phone me until she was coming home but it would be nice to think that she could phone her friends or a teacher who was on the trip if she got separated for some reason. It's not as if there are any pay phones about nowadays as there were when I went on school trips as a child.
As for withdrawing children from the trip- that isn't really a good option for parents who have already paid out hundreds of pounds for their child to go on the trip. I doubt parents were notified of the ban before they signed up and paid.

When DD1 was 11 her year group had a four day residential in the UK and they weren't allowed to take phones, any electronic type things at all or any hair driers or hair straighteners. They were also told not to bring money.

We had written information on this plus a parents meeting explaining that due to a fire risk hair straigheners were banned completely although they would be a couple available for the last night party for the girls to use. They just didn't want them left on in the wooden huts they were sleeping in.

Spending money was included in the cost of the trip (£10 per child) and as there was literally only a tiny village shop with a phone box outside, it was deemed a suitable amount.

On the day of collecting the kids, the headteacher got off the bus with a cardboard box. All the kids collected their cases and then the HT started holding up phones, straighteners and wads of £10 notes which had been confiscated during the trip. She was seriously pissed off and the kids in question had to go and pick up their things in front of all the other kids and parents.

DD told me that a group of girls had been caught with straighteners and some of them had only straightened half their hair :o One girl had taken £100 spending money.

DD also told me they got up, had breakfast, did chores then were out all day doing activities which mostly involved getting muddy and wet, back for lunch and dinner and then more activities in the evening. She rang me from the phone box once for about 30 seconds to reassure me all was fine and then I didn't hear from her all week. She had a great time.

It doesn't matter what rules are put in place, there is always one person (or more) that think the rules don't apply to them.

I think it is very odd not to allow phones!! When my DS2 went on a whole-year trip to Belgium , the bus broke down and was delayed by 12 hours returning. How would the school contact a hundred and twenty parents at midnight? so much easier for al the kids to phone their prents.They did once go on an outward bound trip where phones were banned but everyone took them.

Surely a 12 yo is ok in a shopping centre for a couple of hours? If not you have gone wrong somewhere

kitkat1968

How would the school contact a hundred and twenty parents at midnight?

By a group email - the group being set up before the trip - from a teacher's mobile.

kitkat,

In that situation, the teacher would ring or text the designated contact person back in school, who would send a group e-mail or text to every parent. Such 'cascade;' communication systems are absolutely the norm for school trips, and indeed any risk assessment for a trip that didn't include emergency contact procedures for eventualities such as delay or breakdowns wouldn't be approved. Leaving it up to individual children to contact their parents is definitely not the norm, and wouldn't be seen as a robust risk assessment control.

OP, if you are worried about the 'children walking in groups together through the shopping centre' aspect of the trip, that is quite easily solved - you can just ask that your child should be seated or standing with the teachers who will be placed at strategic points around the centre discreetly supervising the others. It won't be any fun for him but it will keep him safe.

After reading some of the POV on here its no wonder we have a snowflake generation.

^After reading some of the POV on here its no wonder we have a snowflake generation.

Indeed, and it's a wonder we have any school trips.

If I were still teaching I wouldn't want to have anything to do with school trips given some of the comments on here.

Indeed andrew and also youth club trips, Explores and other voluntary sector group.
This is the second summer that I haven't run one. The last one I did was horrendous. We had exclusive use of a youth hostel and the young people were all supposed to muck in with the chores. Nobody would do anything even though that was he agreement long before we left and was reiterated over and over again. I asked some of the males to put the breakfast stuff away and I would sweep the room. I was told to fuck off and they wouldn't do anything. These were young people from nice backgrounds and not the targeted work that we do.
I can't be arsed organising ressi's any more.

(On the terrorist / emergency service thing: having been in an affected city during 9/11 - my DH was close enough to the Pentagon to see the plane hit - one of the scariest things for my family back home was the fact that the phone service was overloaded, as was the then-mostly-dial-up internet. So there was an illusion that I was instantly contactable that actually made things worse than an acceptance of likely delay IYSWIM?)

I don't think that access overload control will necessarily be invoked actually e.g. it wasn't after the London bombings because not allowing people to use their mobile phones can increase panic the consequences of which can be worse than communication problems the emergency services might have. Anyway, many services have/had their own communication systems and don't need ACCOLC to communicate in emergencies.
My brother was close to the bombing in London and it was very good that he was able to immediately contact my parents to say he was okay (before they knew anything about it).