To expect school to take responsibility for DDs mobile phone when in their possession?

[knittwitt]

My DDs school has introduced a change to their mobile phone policy and I'm slightly uneasy about it.

Currently the school says no phones to be used on premises and they accept no responsibility/liability for loss, damage etc. If girls are caught using them the phone can be confiscated. TBH they don't particularly police this and the girls use phones in class, with teacher permission, to take photos of notes on boards, art work etc.

All well and good but a new head has has introduced a 'slight' change...
The school understands that students/parents may want/need phones for travel to/from school and therefore from September pupils may bring phones with them (very understanding) but must hand them in at morning registration to their firm teacher to lock them away. They are returned at afternoon registration (to avoid delays leaving school to catch buses etc) but must not be used. If you're caught using it then it's an after school detention.

If you don't hand your phone in at all and it's seen/heard then it's confiscated, parents asked to collect it & a detention.

I have no problem with the school comping down on phone use during the school day. However AIBU to expect the school to accept responsibility/liability for the phone whilst in their possession? The school is maintaining that they still cannot take responsibility/liability even though they are enforcing the handing over of phones.

It's not about cost etc. Just where does the responsibility/liability lie?

Advice gratefully received.

Yes that was the other thing...no pay phones like there used to be so kids HAVE to go to the office for help if no other way of contacting parents.

At my dd's school, they 'officially' don't allow phones, but it's a rural school so lots of messaging about lifts/buses etc.

Dd and all her friends take one, leave totally switched off in their bag. If they're seen with it they get a detention.

It seems to work well.

At my ds's Primary (he's Y6) they're only allowed a phone officially if they're walking home without a parent. They have to hand it in to the office before starts and puck it up at the end. It seems to work ok. The school receptionist is very good and knows everything and everyone .

I think you just have to trust it will be ok.

Our phones are insured against loss or theft.

The new policy will apply for Y7-10. Y11-13 are trusted to have their phones on them but not use them...as an example to the younger students.

Meh. Why do they need phones at school at all? We survived without them. Just don't take one in, problem solved

Our local bus company have an app with your ticket on so you need your phone to get on the bus.

If they insist on the children handing in the phones, then no matter how much they disclaim responsibility it won't be effective in law in relation to the period when they're in charge of the phones, at least in relation to potential negligence claims. It could be worth asking them if they've checked this out with their insurance company.

Is this primary or secondary?

Completely unreasonable in a secondary school, but completely understandable in a primary.

My Y6s don't take their phones due to a similar policy. My secondary school age kids do.

To the poster who said that they managed to get to school and back before mobiles were ubiquitous.

My son walks half a mile, catches a bus, a train and then walks a mile to school. When the train company for the fifth time this year stopped the train, then had taxis take the students to another station where the train still did not come, without a phone I would have had no idea where he was and what the problem was. It took him nearly four hours to get home that day - but at least I knew he was going to be late. It has happened multiple times and there is no way he is going to school without a phone. Yes - they could use phone boxes - but due to "ubiquitous" mobiles, phone boxes are few and far between in our area. And the station office where the taxis took them was shut - so not even a phone to borrow from the station manager.

Yes, but those sort of things happened before phones too. It doesn't invalidate my point in anyway.

I agree with this. At our primary school only year 6s are allowed phones because most walk to and from school on their own. They give them them to their teacher to lock away in the morning and they are given back at home time. I recently viewed a secondary school and in one school loads of children were on their mobiles messing around during class time and I thought it was distracting and wrong.

Policy is in place for Y7-10 at senior school.

I'd love it if they just said 'no phones at all' and kids had to keep them off/in bags.

It's this 'hand them in but we're not responsible' that I don't like. But I take the point re our insurance and will check on that.

It doesn't matter if they say they're not liable for any damage to it while its in their possession, by insisting the children hand it over I think they're creating a bailment situation. They therefore have to take reasonable care with the phones while they're in their possession. I would check what the teachers will be doing with the phones (i.e. will they be locked up somewhere safe rather than shoved in a drawer) and if the schools insurance will cover them if they are stolen or damaged whilst in their possession. You also need to check if your own insurance company will which they may not if its in the "care and control" of someone else.

WillRikersExtraNipple Of course they did, and we found ways round those problems, but with a lot of stress and hassle that could be avoided with mobile phones. I remember transport problems at secondary school when I couldn't access a phone often saw me walking six miles home while my Dad drove round frantically searching for me, or me paying a fortune for a taxi we couldn't afford. We managed, but technology allows us to avoid that now.

Absolutely agree on use of mobile phones being banned in school, but a 'turned off at the bottom of the bag and not to be got out otherwise you get a detention' policy seems the most sensible option here.

My DD3's secondary school are planning on introducing a similar policy from September, apparently. They too haven't explained how they will take responsibility for the phones when hundreds are supposedly handed over each morning. Nor how they will ensure that each of those is returned to the correct student at the end of the day, without keeping them waiting so long that they miss their buses home. In fact, they have conveniently ignored that side of it.

Since students have often been required to use their phones in some lessons (looking stuff up online, taking pictures, recording homework questions etc.), it will be interesting to see how the school hope to make it work at all.

our school has a mobile phone Blocker in the building.. you walk into the premises all mobile phones are blocked ...

Kids take their phones.. leave them in their secure allocated lockers ...
if they need to use a phone.. there are several 'free rooms' with phones the children can make a private call from...

My daughters will quite often call from the privacy of one of these Rooms .. if she has forgotten her PE kit or whatever... and the school are very supportive of this system.... because the school understands the difference between important phone calls and Playing Games on a mobile phone x

Gemini69 what a great approach!

Kirbs1979 very valid points and ones I will take up at my meeting with school. Thank you.

BTW the school's stance is that DfE guidelines say that schools cannot be held responsible/liable. I'm still waiting to see the document that says that for these circumstances.

Gemini, I like the sound of that idea. Sounds like it works in practice too??

Ah, what the school is actually doing here is a nifty bit of headology.

By making it The Rule that phones should have been handed in, 95% of the student body will now have the sense to keep them in bags & not whip them out in lessons.

Trust me, they will be quite surprised if anyone over year 7 (bagsey not being a year 7 tutor in this place) actually proffers a phone. 'Phones? Oh no miss. None of us bother bringing them in now this rule has come in' .

The incorrigible 5% who are too dim or bolshy to play the system will find their phones get confiscated much quicker, because suddenly they're the only pillock in the class waving one around.

Result: teachers have to waste considerably less time arguing over phones. All good.

I think CrowyMcCrowFace has it right.

They realise they can't ever stop the kids bringing them in, and are fine with them switched off in their nags, so its a way of enforcing that part without the massive battle!

bags

CrowyMcCrowFace (love the name) I like your thinking. I'll wait to see if it explained that way to me. There are lots of parents/girls deciding that they don't want to hand it over and will just keep in bag, switched off. Wonder if it will work...