To wish schools would ban smartphones

[Sotiredofallthisnonsense]

Aibu to think that its the very least schools should be doing so that schools and parents can work together to minimise the harm that smartphones cause - which imo far outweigh any benefits. By allowing smartphones even in the classroom, schools are the largest contributer to the peer pressure to have one. Am I in a minority of parents who wish schools didn't permit smartphones?

Teacher here. I agree.

Phones aren't allowed in our school except in a certain area at break times but many teachers don't enforce the rule.

After being personally filmed and uploaded to multiple SM I take a hard line, confiscate any that I see taken out in class without permission and put them in the vault where they stay for at least 24 hours and can only be retrieved by a parent or other guardian.

That is the rule but as I said above - rarely enforced. The risks far outweigh the benefits of phones in the classroom, the number of times a student is victimised by material going viral around the school is countless.

I have a zero tolerance policy for them now.

I've received outrage from students, parents and even colleagues but senior management applauds my stance on it.

Sorry for the tagging below, I can't remove it for some reason.

@Sotiredofallthisnonsense

my sons school bans then as in turned off in bags. My son busses is and his bus pass is on his phone as it’s app based, his school also have its timetable and all homework on an app too.

my daughters primary has them turned off too.

A local secondary however who insists on All handled In has recently been in the paper after being caught on google class because students did record talking about what students they diss like and teachers having relationships with 6th formers and porn. I’m glad those children where able to record it because nobody would of believed that teachers where having those conversations with their mics and in some cases camera on because they where not paying attended to the fact that the children had actually joined the online class

CyberSpaceTraveller · Today 12:50
My DS has a medical reason for needing to have a phone in lessons so no they shouldn't be banned. He has his phone out on his desk as well

Your DS’s medical condition would make him an exception. His needing and having a smart phone, has absolutely no bearing on a ban on the rest.

OhmygodDont
A local secondary however who insists on All handled In has recently been in the paper after being caught on google class because students did record talking

Do you have a link, please OhmygodDont?

Phones are completely banned in my school and my kids school (different schools). Not allowed anywhere onsite, must be in bags and off/silent. Phones are taken off kids if they are seen or heard.

I’ve sent you a Private message.

I will add however the original child who shared these videos was threatened with expulsion because she recorded these lessons and the child spoken about as being annoying is a special needs student.

At high school around here the dc can use their phones in some of their classes, sometimes to listen to music with headphones in, or for research purposes, yes it did kind of blow my mind when i first heard about this (school confirmed this to be true in an email).
At primary school, all phones need put into a designated box at the start of the day and collected at home time, dc at primary are bringing phones as they often walk home themselves or going onto friends houses.

Chickychoccyegg · Today 16:54
dc at primary are bringing phones as they often walk home themselves or going onto friends houses

It would be better in my opinion if they had old style mobiles.

@ScrollingLeaves maybe it would, but in my experience of all DC's friends who have a phone, they are old phones which have been passed down from family members and used without a sim for a while (Music etc) before being bought a sim rather than parents going out to buy a new phone.

InsufficientMum · Yesterday 21:16

@ScrollingLeaves maybe it would, but in my experience of all DC's friends who have a phone, they are old phones which have been passed down from family members and used without a sim for a while (Music etc) before being bought a sim rather than parents going out to buy a new phone.

You can buy those old style mobiles new very inexpensively and use them with a sim for calls and texts.

They are regaining popularity seeing as they have the function for those aspects without all the pitfalls of smart phones ( like scrolling through mumnset!).

There are many problems associated with children owning smartphones and these go beyond what parental controls can help with. Smartphones provide unsupervised internet access with a camera and are mainly used for social media which use algorithms and persuasive design. This makes them addictive and potentially dangerous.
Yes parents have an important role to play but we worry our kids will miss out without a smartphone. We need to know that other parents of our childs friends share our concerns. We need to talk to each other and agree to delay giving our children smartphones.
This is starting to happen around the world. Thats why Ive set up a website and facebook group specifically to help parents to do this.
Yes kids need a phone to stay in touch. But they don't need internet on it. This is a good optio for younger kids getting their first phone. Unfortunately, there are no phones designed like this for kids available in the UK. Parents wishing to go down this route have to settle for an old Brick Phone. In America they have the Gabb Phone. It has no internet but has a colour screen and music player and a few apps and a camera. Appeals to kids. We need products like that here because it would appeal to kids and parents would be more liekly to get it than an old brick.

Schools need to have a clear and consistent policy.

It's all very well saying ban them but they can be great for learning. Things like 'Quizlett' and 'Kahoot' can be used in the classroom.

IMHO keep them busy using their phones for learning stops a lot of the filming / photos / chatting.

Not all kids want to put their hand up to answer a question but I've yet to come across one who isn't happy to press the 'A B or C' options on their phone.

You can also group children together in a team who would not normally work together.

I wouldn't call a child without a smart phone a nuisance I would have a tablet / laptop or other device for the children who do not have one, or the battery has gone.

@sashh

Schools need to have a clear and consistent policy.

Yes! At my DS's school, there was a "school wide" policy of phones turned off and in bags during the school day. Fair enough. Rigorously enforced for Year 7s at the start of their school life!

But then you had some teachers who wanted their pupils to use their phones to take snapshots of the whiteboard, or to Google for researching etc during lessons. So that gave them very mixed messages.

They also put all homework on "show my homework" including worksheets etc., so if a teacher was absent and hadn't left work, the cover teacher would tell them to do homework, meaning they had to log in with their smartphones to see the homework and do the worksheets or links to the online quizzes etc.

More mixed messages.

And yes, some teachers encouraged them to listen to music whilst doing work as they thought the pupils are less disruptive when listening to music than they'd be just working in silence!

So many mixed messages. I think the real answer instead of banning them, is proper education as to the benefits and disadvantages and a very strict, coherent and consistently enforced set of rules as to when and where they are used. Outright bans never work, just look at drugs, smoking, underage sex, etc - teens regard rules are made to break, especially those they don't understand or which are illogical.

Outright bans never work, just look at drugs, smoking, underage sex, etc - teens regard rules are made to break, especially those they don't understand or which are illogical.
I see what you're saying. But of course outright bans can work. School would be mayhem if everything was allowed.

I'd forgotten music.

Yep either the music is played via the white board of you bring headphones. That's my rule.

I'm so glad smart phones weren't a thing when I was at school. Just imagining the bullying uploaded online for millions to see, share, comment and laugh it could destroy a child