School lost DS' phone

[ICancelledTheCheque]

I could use some perspective on how to handle this please.

Background - blended family, DHs children live with us. They aren't keen on sleeping over at their mums but they do it once a week. We gave them both our old phones when our contracts were up so they could stay in touch with us. They're 10, in Y6.

That means that once a week they have to take their phones into school. School have a rule that they have to be handed in to the office in the morning and collected in the afternoon.

However SDS phone has gone missing and wasn't there to collect on Friday afternoon.

The school basically just require the kids to place them in a drawer and it's transpired that they don't supervise them collecting the phones at the end of the day so anyone could take anyone's phone.

I can't help but think that if the school want to impose a rule that the children can't look after their own property, they should take reasonable steps to look after the phones on behalf of the kids! I feel that they've been negligent in allowing it to be lost or stolen.

The phone is worth £120. Should the school pay for it or do we just accept it's one of those things and suck it up?

[MuddlingMackem]

Haven't read all of the posts other than the OP's, but when DS was in last couple of years of primary, on the odd occasion he needed to take his phone to school, he had an envelope on which was written 'name's mobile phone' for him to put the phone in to hand into the office. It made it much easier for the office staff to return it to him. I don't know if other children did the same, but for me it seemed the obvious thing to do to make things easier for the staff.

[Probableunstoppable]

I know I'm probably a Neanderthal but do kids need phones at school at all? Ok so I have toddlers, but already they're mad for playing with my phone if its anywhere in site. My nieces and nephews just zone out and get on YouTube/games etc. One nephew says it's a relief to come to ours as it distracts him from his phone, he's only 13!!! School is for learning AND very importantly interaction. Let the kids use their own imagination as we used to, any emergency, well that's what the staff are for. I realise I will most probably be shot down in flames (and eat my words when the babies grow up a bit) but if anyone wants to go shares in a new island, we'll have our own laws and schools, be quite self sufficient...I might start a new thread, loads of islands for sale,...

[user1470269632]

Probableunstopable, I know mine used to phone me if they were going to be late home, etc. Also, they'd text me if they'd forgotten something important. With DD this was particularly important as any teacher losing their temper would put her back speech wise. She was also a selective mute for two years, so wanted to keep things as steady as I could for her.
Just a thought; have you actually tried phoning your DS's mobile number? Hopefully it'll ring and be answered, possibly even by a parent.
I know at the school where I worked, we confiscated phones if they rang in class and the parents then had to come in and sign for them and handed back. However,we kept all confiscated phones in a locked drawer.*
It made it a nuisance for the parents but ringing mobiles isn't great when you're trying to teach 30+ children in the 11-18 category🙄!

[Natsku]

Mine will be taking her phone to school with her once she starts probable like every other kid where I live. Its so she has a way to contact me on the journey to and from school (she'll be walking alone so a phone will give me an added level of security, especially one with GPS in case she decides to go off path in the forest and get lost!) and if she wants to go to a friend's house after school, or bring one home, she can text or call to agree it with me.

[SoupDragon]

School is for learning AND very importantly interaction. Let the kids use their own imagination as we used to, any emergency, well that's what the staff are for.

How do you think children get to and from school? The phones aren't for in school! DSs have to leave their locker during the school day, although this is not the case in all schools.

[MsDe]

Love this thread. High five to all the judgy judgersons wilfully missing the point that property has been stolen. Big love to those that snittily pointed out that they are merely offering an EXPLANATION - because otherwise it's inexplicable. Hats off to the Mumsnet Bingoers who ask why the children of a blended family wveb NEED a phone. They could just get Timmy to race across the village green with a message tucked in his collar, asking if their mum could perhaps send a reassuring message and a bottle of ginger beer back to them!

You all make mumsnet what it is.

OP, I'd be furious and it's definitely the school's fault for recognising there's an issue with having valuable items in school yet putting a safekeeping system in place that is utterly rubbish. Doubt you have a leg to stand on though. Infuriating.

[toptoe]

My guess is a child took it by accident thinking they'd brought theirs in and when they go back to school it will have been handed in

[BoffinMum]

Probable, kids need phones because some of them commute up to an hour to school and pay phones are pretty much a thing of the past. As are alternative forms of public transport such as buses (around me anyway) or kind strangers (people just don't come forward a lot if the time for fear of being thought to be paedophiles/weird/interfering). Many is the time mine have got stranded at rural stations because of signal failures etc and needed intervention such as me leaping in a car (taxi fare would be £40ish), telling Greater Anglia off, or sending money to debit cards so they can sort themselves out. They do use their brains a lot but there's only so much they can do themselves in a modern society that has made itself pretty child-averse on the whole, and which is increasingly predicated on the assumption everyone has a smart phone to hand.

[Yakitori]

The school is definitely liable. I wouldn't go demanding money off them to start with but ask that they make a request that the "accidentally" removed phones be returned. Surely they ought to know exactly which children have had access to the drawer at least. Next, they should review their procedures. Then if the phones are not returned the school should pay a reasonable amount of compensation.

These are not "expensive phones", they are older and used phones and entirely appropriate to give to ten years olds, and especially for the purposes set out by the OP. New, top of the range phones cost £600-£700.

[Yakitori]

Quite, boffin. No-one "needs" a phone and no-one one "needs" the internet as such but they have become highly useful tools of modern life. It is not the 1980s! DD1 travels ten miles to school and back every day, and yes, at one time she would have had to do this without a phone or relying on a network of payphones but I am much happier that she does have a phone when she does this. She has had a phone since Y6 as I wanted her to get used to having one and make sure she is responsible with it, before all the other new things to get used to of secondary school.

[HappyAxolotl]

I'm amazed the school is so lax with phones that have to be handed in. Normally if you have the option to leave something at your own risk, you also have the option to keep it on your person.

I am a receptionist though not in a school, on a desk that serves 5 companies and is always busy. Anything that crosses my desk in either direction has to be signed in/out, logged on a spreadsheet, and stored securely. My manager can (and often does) ask at any point for a list of what is in my possession and if contents don't match I could be on a disciplinary.

If anything went missing I could be made to pay as well as being lucky to have a job afterwards. -£120 would be a large hole in my budget and that's at the lower end of the scale of items I'm trusted with.

Absolutely stunned that kids are made to hand over valuables to people who DGAF about keeping them securely.

[Yakitori]

I wonder how many people posting "Why do kids have phones?" are doing so from a phone? They ought to really have their phones confiscated and locked in a drawer until they can demonstrate that they can make more sensible contributions on internet forums.

[MistresssIggi]

It will probably all be resolved by 9 this morning.

[user1470269632]

Have you actually tried to phone your DS's mobile number OP? Hopefully the person at the end who picks it up will then realise it isn't his/hers and give it back to the school Especially if you tell that person there's undoubtedly going to be an investigation as to who took the phone. I'd also mention that I'm seriously considering as to whether to contact the police. That may well galvanise the other child to hand the phone back in pdq.

[londonrach]

Of course school shouldnt replace it. If you worried about it dont bring it in. If you follow this up school should just ban mobiles. Cheap £10 would not be misplaced. Suck this one up and get two cheap £10 payg phones for them at school. If they want the expensive ones they can use at home etc.

[SuburbanRhonda]

I'm amazed the school is so lax with phones that have to be handed in.

Not sure if you've RTFT, but the child is 10 years old and it's a primary school. No child that age needs to keep their phone on them during the school day and no school should have to tolerate the disruption it would cause to a lesson if they did.

[HappyAxolotl]

I'm amazed the school is so lax with phones that have to be handed in.

Not sure if you've RTFT, but the child is 10 years old and it's a primary school. No child that age needs to keep their phone on them during the school day and no school should have to tolerate the disruption it would cause to a lesson if they did.

Which is exactly why they need some sort of system to securely store any kind of valuables in their care. Bunging everything in a box unnamed and letting any kids at it in an end of day free-for-all is an invitation for either any tealeaf that fancies a lucky dip or a genuine mistake to be made (as how do you tell apart 2 phones of same make & model in a hurry?)

[SuburbanRhonda]

The phone wasn't in a box. Please read the thread.

[HappyAxolotl]

The phone wasn't in a box. Please read the thread.

From the op, who I suspect knows more than SuburbanRhonda:
The school basically just require the kids to place them in a drawer and it's transpired that they don't supervise them collecting the phones at the end of the day so anyone could take anyone's phone.

So they are in a drawer, not a box. A different kind of open-topped container with 4 sides and a base. That any child gets to stick a hand in at the end of the day.

Go goad someone else Rhonda. I've better ways to waste my time.

[SuburbanRhonda]

Great! Does that mean you're leaving the thread?

[Mamadelou]

It is the responsibility of the school to keep property safe and if this system is not working then they need to know. Don't let a school bully you. Arrange a meeting and speak calmly and politely to them. Explain your situation and ask them if they would be prepared to find a solution? Replacement value is important, as well as the stress to you and your child.

The issue of your child having or needing a phone is secondary.

[HappyAxolotl]

Great! Does that mean you're leaving the thread?

What, the thread that your only 3 posts on are goes at everything I've posted? I have no idea who you even are. Have I upset you elsewhere without meaning to? Because your response to me saying that the school has been very lax with pupils' valuables is disproportionate to say the least.

[pollymere]

My daughter's phone turned up under the cardboard bottom of her bag after being apparently lost. It has her name written on it and a password lock. School's are pretty good at knowing whose is whose. They don't get that many! Do get him to double check first. A fancier phone should have tracking so you'll know where it is.

[ChocolateWombat]

Op, did you go to the Police in the end about this?
Are you now on half term?

Hope it all turns out to be a storm in a teacup and the phone is quickly discovered, either by the boy himself, at school or that another child had it by mistake. I really hope it hasn't been stolen.

And regardless, it would be worth checking with the school if they are doing as you describe .....insisiting kids put phones into a drawer, without signing them in, allowing anyone to come and collect, without signing out. If this is the case, then the school needs challenging on its approach, regardless of your DSS phone. It may well be that the policy isn't quite as it has been described though....because most places wouldn't be so lax....but it isn't beyond possibility of course, so worth establishing.

[ICancelledTheCheque]

Yes DH went to the police station yesterday to report it. Not holding my breath for any action to be taken though, they have more important things to do!

Unfortunately it's half term now. The phone has died so we can't call it anymore and it never connected to the internet whilst in "lost" mode so the find my iPhone app hasn't worked either.

I'm sure if it was taken accidentally then the child who took it would have noticed by now so I can only assume it's stolen or lost in school somewhere (although that's unlikely as the office staff searched the school after the kids left for the day whilst I made a noise on the phone).

I will speak to the school again when the kids go back next Monday!