Ban on mobile phones in schools

[bytheby]

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.

DD’s school banned phones during the school day. Of course they can get it out of their bag for the trip home.

A proven need (eg the diabetes) or a SEN aid could be accommodated.

But otherwise the pros of banning far outweigh the cons. You can’t possibly have 30 kids sitting in class all on their phones. You might as well give up.

We have a signal blocker at our school.
In fact all the schools in the area have just moved to making either chrome books or ipads necessary and all lessons will require them. So I can't see the difference banning phones will make.

sorry but why is this an issue? Schools themselves can decide what they do or don't allow.

Why isn't Gavin Williamson looking at the bigger picture? Sufficient funding for schools? The long term issue of getting people into the profession who stay more than 5 minutes? The fact that children's education has been disrupted for the last 18 months and what can be done to ensure genuine catch up, where required, actually happens?

@YoutubeZoom

sorry, forgot to do it on the other thread.
😁

I have said for years phones shouldn't be allowed at school.
If safety is a concern then have the child hand in the phone at the start of the day and collect at the end of the day.
They shouldn't be using phones during the day, they are at school to learn not to Snapchat etc

I would be more than for a ban on phones in school. All schools could have tablets for use in lessons. My main concern is what other children and exposing to each other on their phones. And I agree, I managed to get myself into a lot of trouble and danger as a teen without a phone... I would have caused absolute carnage if I had a phone. Either way, no need for them in schools at all.

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

No they're not. Children are much happier than they were.

(I have no evidence either way, but OP doesn't seem to mind blanket statements with no evidence whatsoever so I'm sure she/he won't mind.)

I generally hate the idea of kids having phones, and for all the advantages of using them in school that people have put forward there are alternatives.

However - I want my DD to be able to let me know if her plans change for any reason and without a mobile phone she can’t. There are no public phone boxes around any more and I’m sure the school won’t ring parents every time a child wants to let parents know they have missed the bus/have to stay late. I note that none of those posters supporting a phone ban have come up with a suitable alternative for this issue.

For that reason alone, I don’t support a total ban but do support a ‘turned off and in bags’ policy.

@Aroundtheworldin80moves

Just phones or tablets and computers as well?

A smartphone is basically a pocket computer. They have their advantages and disadvantages.

Building up better control of SM and porn etc for all devices would be better.

School computers are heavily controlled to prevent misuse. Privately owned devices are not.

My school banned phones during the day. They had to be left in our lockers (smartphones were only first invented during this period so at the start it was only dumb phones anyway). It worked well, mostly.

our kids can use their phones in break time.
during class phones must be switched off/on silent and not being used
break the rules and your phone gets confiscated till end of day and you get a detention.

problem solved.
I'm happy for them to not use their phone on school grounds at all. but outside of school it's nobody else's business what my kids have and use.

and not having laptops? that's just ridiculous. I can not even

@YoutubeZoom

DS has to use his phone in certain lessons, and not allowed to use it in others. Teachers communicate with them via Teams in-between lessons, so he needs to be able to pick up his messages.

What kind of messages do teachers need to send their pupils between lessons?

Both my high schoolers have to hand their phone in at reception at the start of the day and collect at hometime on the way out of school. I think many schools already have their own policy in place regarding mobile phones.

Parents won't comply. I certainly won't. I used to get the school bus pretty much from my doorstep and there was a phone box on every street.

My child has to get two public busses because the school bus is over subscribed. And we have had issues where she has needed to contact us on the way there or home.

I have no issue with the school policy of phones turned off and kept in bags during the school day.

@bytheby

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.

What you're describing is parenting.

Banning phones from schools is completely separate. If you suggest cut down features on phones for the walk home, does that also mean the weekends? At home?

Not sure what this proposal is supposed to bring? Every school I know mandates that they're put away at the school gate in the morning and not taken out till the children leave in the afternoon, any deviation results in confiscation requiring the parents to pick it up.

Banning something is very rarely the right way to teach moderation and proper use.

I'd go a step further and ban under 16s from having a unique phone number. They can have access to their parents if they want to but are unable to register for a number.

@Jackofallsorts

I'd go a step further and ban under 16s from having a unique phone number. They can have access to their parents if they want to but are unable to register for a number.

I would say that the majority of under 16's have mobile phones that are registered under their parent's names.

My phone is a work phone and dh is a teacher so access to our phone numbers would absolutely not be appropriate or allowed.

Why do people seem to think that you can teach children about the many uses of modern technology by banning it in schools? They trot out the claptrap that it wasn't available in their day and they survived etc. etc.

Times change. It is here now and here to stay. It will progress and form a huge part of the future of children today. You can't learn about something or use it as a teaching aid (apps, homework portals etc.) by blanket banning it. That just makes no sense at all.

Increasingly too, people are starting to manage their medical conditions using mobile phone technology. That includes children sometimes. Covid testing in schools is one such example. The government wants the children to have tests in schools, which will require use of phones, but wants to ban the phones. It is utterly nonsensical. Others sometimes use theirs to monitor conditions such as diabetes or seizures. Banning them would be discriminatory, and possibly dangerous.

As for a shared family desktop being sufficient. Well, years ago when I was a rather idealistic younger mum I began with that notion. I soon abandoned it as the impractical bullshit that it was. You've clearly never had several children at once all having to do (and submit online) their secondary school homework. Or doing computing courses at college.

Also, it would never have worked during home schooling over the last year. Schools were unable to provide sufficient laptops or tablets for children who didn't have them at home for a long time. So you would be banning something that has more than proved it is necessary.

Stop harking back to the good old days. They never existed and we aren't going back into the past.

@SoupDragon

Banning something is very rarely the right way to teach moderation and proper use.

There are plenty of things that are banned in school, for the good of the school community.

I think, as always, the government is focusing on the wrong thing in an attempt to prove they are doing something to help children and the education system. Most people are aware that our current government does not actually care about children in state schools.

I work in a secondary school and we have a clear mobile phone policy - no phones out during school hours and if they are caught using them they get an immediate detention. The majority of schools already have rules in place to control the use of mobile phones and a blanket ban is pointless.

@ChessieFL

I generally hate the idea of kids having phones, and for all the advantages of using them in school that people have put forward there are alternatives.

However - I want my DD to be able to let me know if her plans change for any reason and without a mobile phone she can’t. There are no public phone boxes around any more and I’m sure the school won’t ring parents every time a child wants to let parents know they have missed the bus/have to stay late. I note that none of those posters supporting a phone ban have come up with a suitable alternative for this issue.

For that reason alone, I don’t support a total ban but do support a ‘turned off and in bags’ policy.

The solutions could be:

• phones handed in to reception.
• basic devices (dumb phones) allowed switched off in lockers.

@Jackofallsorts

I'd go a step further and ban under 16s from having a unique phone number. They can have access to their parents if they want to but are unable to register for a number.

Bollocks. All the phones my teenagers had had their own numbers and were registered to me. Most phones for children are in that category as the contract will mostly be in the parent's name.

@Topseyt

Why do people seem to think that you can teach children about the many uses of modern technology by banning it in schools? They trot out the claptrap that it wasn't available in their day and they survived etc. etc.

Times change. It is here now and here to stay. It will progress and form a huge part of the future of children today. You can't learn about something or use it as a teaching aid (apps, homework portals etc.) by blanket banning it. That just makes no sense at all.

Increasingly too, people are starting to manage their medical conditions using mobile phone technology. That includes children sometimes. Covid testing in schools is one such example. The government wants the children to have tests in schools, which will require use of phones, but wants to ban the phones. It is utterly nonsensical. Others sometimes use theirs to monitor conditions such as diabetes or seizures. Banning them would be discriminatory, and possibly dangerous.

As for a shared family desktop being sufficient. Well, years ago when I was a rather idealistic younger mum I began with that notion. I soon abandoned it as the impractical bullshit that it was. You've clearly never had several children at once all having to do (and submit online) their secondary school homework. Or doing computing courses at college.

Also, it would never have worked during home schooling over the last year. Schools were unable to provide sufficient laptops or tablets for children who didn't have them at home for a long time. So you would be banning something that has more than proved it is necessary.

Stop harking back to the good old days. They never existed and we aren't going back into the past.

Just because something is new, it doesn’t mean it represents progress. I think it’s fine to say that for some people (kids) in some contexts (school), use of some types of technology (smartphones) is not appropriate.

@SoupDragon

Banning something is very rarely the right way to teach moderation and proper use.

Well, lots of things are banned at school and people can still use them properly. Most things in fact. People just aren't as addicted to giant teddy bears, skateboards and spud guns and lots of other things that you just wouldn't bring to school! Because you know they wouldn't be acceptable at school. But fine to use at home.

@Millysaurus

I think, as always, the government is focusing on the wrong thing in an attempt to prove they are doing something to help children and the education system. Most people are aware that our current government does not actually care about children in state schools.

I work in a secondary school and we have a clear mobile phone policy - no phones out during school hours and if they are caught using them they get an immediate detention. The majority of schools already have rules in place to control the use of mobile phones and a blanket ban is pointless.

As posters have said, a lot of schools actually encourage use of phones during lessons, so this policy would target them.