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AIBU?

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Original poster

Ban on mobile phones in schools

249 replies

bytheby · 29/06/2021 07:55

Gavin Williams has proposed this and announced a 6 week consultation. Does anyone know how we can feed into the consultation?

I am in favour. In fact I don't think children/teens need phones at all. If people are worried about safety walking home then there should be a simple phone with a map function and ability to call available.

I am a sensible adult and I find it difficult to control my own mobile phone use so how can we expect children to.

Children accessing porn. Children unable to 'switch off'/addicted to screens. Children being contacted by older strangers. Children having unrealistic images of how they 'should' look pushed onto them by social media. Children unable to escape school bullying (or just a break from their peers) at home. Children losing the ability to converse. Children more anxious than ever. etc etc.

If your childhood was pre mobile phones do you think it honestly would have been improved by having one?!

Anyway, if anyone knows how to become a part of the consultation please let me know! I have googled to no avail.

OP posts:
Original poster
bytheby · 29/06/2021 08:18

All of your in favour of phones do you really think your child needs a smartphone?

You wouldn't rather them have a device that would be created to suit their needs (SEN or otherwise)?

I despair! It is so clear that children are unhappier overall.

OP posts:
Messyplayallday · 29/06/2021 08:19

The biggest difference i notice in the town I went to school was that there were phone boxes all around! So I didn’t need a phone as I could jump in a phone box and use my BT card to ring home.
All my friends had landlines too so I would ask to call home if I was running late or mum could ring my friends to check what time home.

Last time I went back I didn’t see a single in use phone box, so not having a mobile phone as a teen now would mean not being able to have contacted home if needed.

KizzyWayfarer · 29/06/2021 08:19

Our school bans smartphones (or any phone with a camera) completely and all phones have to be turned off during the school day. On some things I think the school is overly strict but this policy I 100% support and very glad they have it.

GrandmasCat · 29/06/2021 08:19

I think there is far more to be achieved by banning tablet use in under 3s, than this. These days the screen addiction and lack of parent’s monitoring are well established before the kid joins school.

I do believe however than any blanket rule is discriminatory and not beneficial to large segments of society but we all know that Gavin Williams is not one to give a hoot about things like this, don’t we?

TeenTitan007 · 29/06/2021 08:19

I agree with laptops in school and internet access in general but internet on the phone seems to be a secret way of wasting away hours with no one able to see or supervise what teens do.

dreamingbohemian · 29/06/2021 08:21

Not fucking worth it. All because Timmy's mum wants to know he got on the bus safe? Timmy's mum needs to ask herself what she did as a kid.

Well as a kid I would have used a public pay phone but they've all been ripped out haven't they

RubyGoat · 29/06/2021 08:21

I had to travel 5 miles on public transport from the age of 11 for school, so a simple phone would have been quite useful. However I don't think we'll be letting DD have a smartphone until she's at least 14 or 15. The amount of porn & bullying that goes gies on now via SM these days is horrendous.
Regarding homework, we were all given a homework planner by school. Spaces for each lesson, each week of the term. New one issued each year. Pretty simple. Just columns drawn in an A5 notebook.

KizzyWayfarer · 29/06/2021 08:22

They don’t need a phone box! The kids at our school have old style Nokias, and of course most have smartphones for out of school, but not all. (It makes it easier to push back the age of getting a smartphone if they already have a phone for calls and texts)

SoupDragon · 29/06/2021 08:22

@bytheby

All of your in favour of phones do you really think your child needs a smartphone?

You wouldn't rather them have a device that would be created to suit their needs (SEN or otherwise)?

I despair! It is so clear that children are unhappier overall.

Do you actually have teens?
Howshouldibehave · 29/06/2021 08:22

If I am being honest all of it to go please! A family desktop computer in a public room acceptable.

But you can impose whatever rules you like about technology in your own house-go for it! What’s stopping you?

I think Gavin throwing stuff out there about phones is just a distraction. He’s screwed up so many other things, this is just giving parents something slightly controversial to discuss in the hope they forget how crap he’s been and how little funding schools now have.

TheDrsDocMartens · 29/06/2021 08:23

Phones can be used to control cochlear implants too.

I’d rather see tighter controls on social media, porn, gambling etc. The government doesn’t want to challenge private companies.

KhanaSimmons · 29/06/2021 08:24

They shouldn’t even have a phone in school I didn’t let my eldest kid have a phone until 18

TeenMinusTests · 29/06/2021 08:24

To be fair, they do need a calculator for GCSEs.

Text books aren't a 'thing' anymore. The government mucks about with the syllabus so often there isn't a lot of point in investing too much in textbooks.

It's not 'lazy' to take a photo of homework, it is using an efficient appropriate tool. It is using the tool they will use in the 'real world'.

My DD has actually always struggled with using computers. But since using her mobile more this year she has become much more adept at searching and finding information.

GrandmasCat · 29/06/2021 08:25

You wouldn't rather them have a device that would be created to suit their needs (SEN or otherwise)?

Are you on glue??? Honestly what fairyland of a planet are you on? Many people need to fight years to get their special needs officially diagnosed so the can get any help whatsoever but yeah, we can trust the government to pay for a speedy provision of personalised phones?
You cannot even get them to provide a grippy pen you child could hold, a personalised device? Jesus!

Treehaus · 29/06/2021 08:25

I remember how distracting pokemon cards and elastic bands were at school, I can't even begin to imagine. Having a rule where if in lessons, or at lunch etc they can tell them to put them away isn't an issue, they then have them for the journey home if needed. As an accessibility aid surely it would be better for schools to provide appropriate equipment?

ineedaholidaynow · 29/06/2021 08:25

Many schools don’t have the budget for text books anymore

Forrrestttheout · 29/06/2021 08:25

I left secondary school in 2011 so smart phone where around. The rule was no phones in school but it was pointed out by the head that nobody was searching us so as long as they where turned off in a bag and not turned on until off school grounds it was fine. This worked well and the school was very strict if phones where found they where confiscated and had to be collected by a parent 24 hours later. Repeat offenders would then be expected to hand their phone in each day to the office and collect it at the end of the day.
We also had laptops which where ours to use in class, at home etc and it was expected we brought these to school each day. However I think having laptops/ipads is different, they do not have an independent internet connection like a phone so they have to be linked to school wifi where blocks and restrictions can be put in place network wide

dreamingbohemian · 29/06/2021 08:26

@TheDrsDocMartens

Phones can be used to control cochlear implants too.

I’d rather see tighter controls on social media, porn, gambling etc. The government doesn’t want to challenge private companies.

Exactly! Their priorities are clear
WhoWants2Know · 29/06/2021 08:26

[quote bytheby]@aroundtheworldin80moves

If I am being honest all of it to go please! A family desktop computer in a public room acceptable.

I think it is the constant nature of internet access that is the problem. Even if children are looking at harmless things (let's say a website on unicorns) they don't benefit from hours of this. They need to play, talk to their friends, read, just be bored and use their imaginations![/quote]
To be fair, kids do use phones to play and talk with their friends. I would go so far as to say they use their imaginations as well, creating new worlds and teaming up for homework projects. It doesn't have to be all bad.

Abraxan · 29/06/2021 08:27

Should be a decision for individual schools.

Dd was allowed opines at her secondary school and it genuinely was never an issue. In her years there I don't recall any online related issues, with Dd and her friends, or any big enough to have come the whole school notice. The odd mix it issue was dealt with via the school, as it should be.

They used them as a tool on occasion- their homework was via an app, canteen money was via an app. Plus they made use of the calculation function, Google searches, the camera and notes app for taking scans of work, etc.

lljkk · 29/06/2021 08:27

I am profoundly against a ban so thanks for the thread, I will try to feed back.

DS's school incorporates phones into lessons. So glad they are enlightened and that DC can do things like text/ring home that the bus has broken down, he forgot his lunch, is going to tennis tournament this afternoon or Miss says we didn't pay for the school trip -- unless you think it would be so much better if the student reception desk tried to handle all those messages. They'll have all the parent's phone numbers to hand, of course.

Sirzy · 29/06/2021 08:27

As an accessibility aid surely it would be better for schools to provide appropriate equipment?

And where is this money coming from?

Original poster
bytheby · 29/06/2021 08:27

Signing off now - but fascinating to get all your views - thank you! Eye opening!

OP posts:
AttaGirrrrl · 29/06/2021 08:28

It’s just a publicity stunt to get Big Gav higher in the popularity ratings.

Phones are here. Better to use them effectively than ban them. Things my classes used phones for just yesterday: researching etymology of words, taking photos of freeze frames in a play to annotate as part of an assessment, taking a photo of the board so they could refer to our notes when they did their homework.

Last week we did surge PCR testing in school. Guess what the kids needed to register their test? A phone. Guess what the government also said yesterday will be happening from September? PCR testing in schools.

He can’t have it both ways.

Macncheeseballs · 29/06/2021 08:29

I would love to to see less use of phones in schools, unfortunately not all schools have the resources to have them handed in every morning