To think student mobiles shouldn't be allowed in schools.

[Trebla]

I'm looking for perspectives here. Knowing how addictive and alluring screens can be, how they can change behaviour, reduce focus and create distraction away from real human connection with the people right next to you. Am I being unreasonable to be surprised that its is only just becoming a thing that phones are being banned in schools? AIBU to be surprised they were ever allowed in the first place. I'm not anti tech or screens for educational purposes, but adolescents are notorious for pushing boundaries and not being able to regulate their behaviour consistently (and most adults) that I feel it's highly appropriate that this boundary is set on their behalf to facilitate prescence, social connection and learning in school. Am I missing something?

@Isthisafreename - was formation on a recent CEOP course we were on. I have my notes somewhere at work with one such research which had been realised a few days or so before. Won't have access to it til tomorrow though. It was interesting what the bullet points from the findings we were spoken to about though.

My school has a sensible policy: you can have phones at your own risk but they are switched off and in your bags during the school day. If we see it or hear it during yhe day then we confiscate it.
It's brilliant. Everyone knows the rule and the school site is so much happier, breaks and lunch are more sociable.

What I can't stand are parents who'll whine at staff for confiscating phones that have been misused in class because 'but DC needs it for the way to and from school... they need it so I know they're safe... you can't confiscate it without my permission'. Umm. Nope. If the phone is an essential item in your eyes then tell your child they arent to get it taken off them. Don't back them when they choose to ignore the rules and your child lives a 10min safe walk from school anyway so stop talking bollocks. It's not hard to not use your phone for a few hours. That happens more in schools where phones are allowed break/lunch but not in class in my experience.

My dd gets the school bus. No public transport. Not walkable. Phones are banned. When she has missed the bus, school has phoned me. And any missed clubs, school sends a parentmail. The school does have to be organised. I strongly support the ban on phones, from my experience as a teacher.

They were banned at my school (2006-2011)

This made me feel old 😂.

Total ban in our school and its amazing. No more conflict every lesson with the same students having their phones out. No more SM bullying to deal with every lunchtime. No more searching for lost/stolen phones. No more teachers dealing with unflattering pictures of them being taken and shared for bants. No more gangs of boys gathered round in dark corners sharing porn and upskirting images.

Phones are a tool. It's what you do with them that matters. Used sensibly they can be a powerful learning tool. DS has dyspraxia, so a phone has great potential to enable him to organise himself in the future with no unintelligable handwriting, taking pictures of important information e.g. instructions, calendars and interactive lists like any.do.

I favoured a policy where the teacher had a policy on phones enabled at certain times e.g. for research (because most schools I worked in had poorer cross-curricular ICT access than my 1990s school). Most used them responsibly. Those that didn't were generally a PITA over anything else and would have still been problematic in a total ban.

I had more issues in schools that tried to uphold total bans.

I think those of us who support a ban aren't oblivious to the benefits of mobile phones in schools. It's a weighing up of the pros and cons, and in some schools the cons are very significant indeed. A bigger problem away from the eyes of teachers, IME, which is why it isn't just a matter of teachers policing their use in lessons.

If they are banned across the site beyond the classroom, it has to be enforcable and supported. Most secondaries don't have the supervision across the site to make it work. There always has been caledestine behaviour in the corners of the school site (at least smoking isn't what it was... although that has moved on too)

When I was at school pre-mass-ownership of mobiles, there were payphones. There rarely is now because the logistics of that infrastructure is no longer viable.

We have to work with the world we are living in, not just resist it. To be mobile-free, there needs to be adquate access to communication for last minute transport changes and adequate access to ICT and information.

Plenty of people who grew up pre-digitally have poor mobile habits. Abstention doesn't necessarily teach much.

They should absolutely be banned in schools.

The impact phones have on memory, attention span (not to mention happiness is appalling).

My daughter will be at secondary in a couple of years and they are v strict about no phones seen or they are confiscated. She needs hers for medical reasons and I’m so anxious the message won’t get to all staff as it’s a massive school I think I’ll have to give her a letter to carry round and show but my son who is already there said teachers pounce first so she’s lrobsbly going to get shouted at or is on her phone it worries me a lot

There are studies that show that even having a phone in your pocket, or being in the presence of a phone, even one that's not yours, or one that's switched off, interferes with your ability to form a good connection with someone, and stops you remembering the conversation you had with them.

So from my POV, you're definitely not unreasonable.

Children have managed to navigate their way home for generations. Its seems we are dumbing down, socially, mentally and in terms of developing a sense of resilience and agency.

Yes but society has moved on. The infrastructure was different. We had plentiful pay phones or failing that the school secretary would phone home for us. More buses were laid on for travel.

And my kids have GPS watches they can send messages from so we're covered for now! I can feel the pressure from my 9 year old though

AudacityOfHope smart watches are often banned in schools in this area. It's a good alternative to a phone. But not possible in all areas.

I would welcome a smart phone ban for under 14s on school premises like in France. However my kids teachers regularly tell them to photograph their homework instructions from the white board etc so it needs a total change in teacher culture at my kids school.

Really, even the kid ones that don't do anything fancy? All my son's does is tell me where he is and allow him to send short voice messages. Oh, and tells the time

I'm a teacher and I'm surprised and saddened by some posts here. My school has just implemented a "we don't want to see it" policy, but as we're in a rural location with a huge catchment area almost all have phones, and most of those have scored music (useful for the bus) and cameras. Fortunately, we have a "teacher's discretion" policy because I use them regularly in class. Behaviour in school is excellent.

To all those saying that they should be banned, how would my lot manage? They use them to record their group's composing so they can remember how their work sounds. I teach one class on Tuesday one week, then Friday the next. To expect them to remember a piece they have worked out themselves from scratch 10 days later is crazy. I can't record everyone every lesson and upload those recordings in a shared location after every lesson as I'd never do any teaching. My tutor group was given their exam timetable on Tuesday. I had one copy and no copying budget. The simplest thing to do was to pass it around the class and let them all photograph it on their phones. They all had a copy within 5 minutes. Once they had done it, the phones were put away.

I know I'm lucky that I have great students who almost all adhere to the rules. However, I would refuse to work in a school with a ban or worse, a blocker. I'm a professional and should be treated as such. I refused to send my own kids to such a school as they need to learn what is appropriate usage. Those children subject to blanket bans can go completely over the top once out of the restriction, which brings its own issues.

My DD’s school create apps/use them for filming (in lessons) etc.

A total ban in secondary schools would remove that.

I do however fully support their policy - phone off and away unless specifically asked to use it. Works very well.

Really, even the kid ones that don't do anything fancy? All my son's does is tell me where he is and allow him to send short voice messages. Oh, and tells the time

Yep. Any watch that can be used to communicate with.

Mobile phones are allowed in bags and not switched on, while on school grounds.
Smart watches, of any sort are banned

Wow, I had no idea they were contentious!

Banning them is an echo of the Soviet mentality

I think this is a stretch. I agree modeling and mentoring appropriate use is the best approach as it teaches self regulatory behavior, but there is such a broad spectrum in belief as to what is appropriate use that I think having phone free school (not other devices, properly managed for educational purposes) is actually healthy. I'm still struggling with integrating smart phones and apps into the classroom. I see the benefit for communication with parents. I'm not anti tech, I'm pro real life face to face connection to peers and learning. I also think its health to have boundaries set around being 'constantly avaiable' and attention focused on the here and now.

Primary here has a phone in a box rule for juniors only. Every morning they go into a tray for the class which is kept in reception. Kids with phones have to make a trip round to hand them in before they go into school. At the end of the day the teacher gets the box for their class and they collect as they leave. Most kids don't even bother bringing a phone. Max seems to be about 10 per class (of 30)

Anyone caught with a phone in school gets it confiscated and only a parent can collect it.

Secondary has a similar rule but they are allowed phones in bags however they must be turned off/silent once inside School gates. Same situation with confiscating. If a phone is seen or heard (unless a teacher has specified it may be used eg DT use phones to take photos of cooking) confiscation and a parent must collect.

The idea is that if a parent is inconvenienced by their child's rule breaking they will be more likely to encourage the child to follow it. It also makes parents aware of what their child is doing. This is the strictest rule in the school for both schools.

@Aragog - if you get a chance to summarise and post the citation, I'd like to see it.

Problem with a lot of this type of research is that, depending on the design of the research and its implementation, you can get contradictory results. It makes it really difficult for a lay person to interpret the results. Then you have the media spin which ends up exaggerating or misrepresenting it.

I'm still struggling with integrating smart phones and apps into the classroom.

Being able to video science experiments really helped my son as he could re-watch them whilst he was doing the write-ups etc., and also a very quick way of revising at exam time.

In Maths, most homework was online apps where the pupil works through each section, which is marked and then has to be re-done with different questions if the mark isn't high enough for that section,backed up with online tutorials and videos. The teacher logs in to see the results and extract progress reports so they don't need to do marking. My son's Maths went from strength to strength having that kind of resource at his finger tips.

JacquesHammer
I like a blanket 'not during the school day'.

Having had a school where students were allowed them break/lunch but not lessons and staff could opt to allow students to use them in class for certain things, I've decided it was more hassle than it was worth.
I can't be 100% certain all phones are being used for the task 100% of the time and I don't like the risk of someone jokingly taking photos of peers etc and that being a child on the child protection register. For a member of staff to tell 12 year olds they can use their phones to do x y z assumes that firstly all 12 year olds have a phone, secondly that the phone has the facilities to do what is being asked (usually meaning a smartphone) & thirdly assumes they have enough data to do what is being asked so have a contract with enough data they can just do internet research etc in class. It places undue pressure on having a phone, it being a phone with the right apps and money to pay for data etc. A child might feel the need to use their socialising credit to keep up appearances in front of peers, leaving nothing for out of school socialising.
There were some times when it was useful but I came round to the thinking that it's perfectly possible to plan and teach great lessons without relying on technology that not everyone will have or afford.
To me, the responsibility lies with the teacher to appropriately resource the lesson. (E.g. If I want to video content to make available for revision I can use school equipment and put it on the VLE/platform of choice. I don't need 26/30 14 year olds to film part of the lesson. If I want to do research lessons then make sure it's not a waste of time lesson and then book an IT room. If the task isn't good enough to go out my way to properly resource it myself then using phones in class was never the right thing to do anyway).