Phones in school

[Bree82]

Ok don’t know if I’m being old fashioned or stupid here. And I get times are changing ie technology etc. So I understand using computers more in school and for homework.
but why are mobile phones allowed in high school?

it bothers me that kids think nothing of filming fights etc at school and passing it around etc
so many teens I know can’t even look up from phone to say hi and I don’t mind people using phone a lot - but why does it make some people so rude?!
how can we let kids have their phones but still behave respectful etc?
I get this is not every kid maybe just the ones I know and I wonder if the answer is having their phones less, or just helping them learn the balance …
also if there are any teachers who can let me know benefits of phones at school and if they agree or not? I would like to understand more. :)

Phones are very useful in class if policed effectively. At a time when schools are trying to go paper- free and there are so many excellent resources online, we use phones at set times in class. There are not enough IT resources in our school. Any student misusing their phone will have it confiscated and returned after a short detention.

Oh I confiscate plenty of phones, don’t get me wrong. I stick a post-it with the kids name on it and stick it in my drawer til the end of the class, when I hand it back. I would never do this for an accidental phone call though! This would be for something like actively using their phone during class when they are meant to be working.
For more serious offences (like taking a picture of someone) I’d pass the phone to someone in management and there would be a phone call home. They’d still get it back before the end of the school day though.
I’ve only had to pass a phone on maybe 3/4 times in my whole career.

Prepare for non teachers telling us how to use common technology on classrooms.

We had phone boxes then, they don’t.

There are still phone boxes plus school offices still have phones.

The crime has increased significantly since we were kids

Reports of crime have increased plus what we consider are crimes so they are dealt with has changed.

Basically the old way of agreeing plans in advance with a contingency in case they need changing has gone out of the window.

I’m more worried about the non teachers suggesting we try to take a teenagers phone off them and keep it for months, which is most definitely less disruptive than throwing a kid a raised eye brow and continuing our lesson.

@GneissWork I agree this mumsnet mentality of all phones being evil is very unrealistic, my mum worked all throughout my highschool years, i also have chronic illnesses so i need to go to the doctors all the time and hospital appointments, my mum couldn't walk out of work to take a 30 second phone call but i could walk out of class to do that, it's how it worked best, i needed my phone on me.

I also agree that teachers cannot enforce kids going on their phones on their breaks just like teachers and staff are allowed to do that, it's their time to shut off and have a break

Phones are an essential thing for schooling, both for kids to have an independent social life and also for things like teams, homework being online so kids don't have to cart 2 dozen pieces of paper and so when they don't do it teachers have an actual log and can see they haven't actually attempted it nevermind just not done it. And yeah my teachers were nice, they let us take pictures of the board so we didn't have to waste 20 minutes for the worlds slowest writers to copy a presentation into their workbooks

My son's secondary had a blanket ban on phones. Parents were concerned about the journey on public transport without a phone but everyone survived.
I frequently work in secondary schools. I've been surprised at the variations in how phones are managed. One pupil told me that they messaged each other throughout lessons, filmed teachers and that pupils felt a need to 'perform' such as fighting, scenes etc so that it would be filmed and shared.
A pupil at a private, boys school I visit told me they never use their phones, he asked 'what for?'
Huge differences in how this is managed.

I went to secondary in the early 00s. Nokia 3310s were all the rage, but there were kids who didn't have them, and as phones weren't so ubiquitous, it wasn't seen as a big deal if you forgot to bring it in or it was out of charge.

You know what we had in my shitty school? Payphones. Clean, working payphones in the corridor to tell mum you wanted to go to Liz's house after school/check if you were being picked up or whatever. My mum and dad gave me a phone card for them.

The only time I've seen payphones recently, they've been outdoors ones that you daren't get close enough to see if they work, due to all the smashed glass and stench of piss.

They are banned in the school I work in for the exact reasons you have stated

Children do not need phones in school. There is just no justification for it. The fact that they WANT their phones is not a reason to pander to them!

why do people want to take away kids phones for months on end i don't understand it, confiscate them until the end of the day then let them go pick them up that's like a normal thing to do that won't endanger their safety

DD's school has a "phone in bag" policy. They can take them out if a teacher asks them to check on something, for visual art lesson for example.

If a phone is spotted during break you better have a really good excuse or you loose it until a parent comes and collect it. We had it once.

But, DD uses it on the way to and from school, bus app, phoning a parent, us contacting her.

Before mobiles there were phone boxes all over the way, that's just not there anymore.

we couldn't even have them at break which was shit because me and my friends were in separate classes so we had no clue where to meet.

This is hilarious

Same here although ours is a week and parent to collect. Obviously there is the odd indiscretion, but to be honest, most kids don't want to risk losing their phone so do comply. Zero tolerance is the only way if you want to implement a phone ban (my youngest dc school tried to implement it with a polite request to pupils and parents last year and you honestly wouldn't know - all the kids use their phones in school

I feel like so many people are talking about 'normal' kids but that's literally not the norm anymore teenagers are young carers, teenagers are responsible for younger siblings, teenagers have illnesses that need to be monitored through their phone, also nobody is saying let them have free reign in class but a two minute phone call won't hurt anyone and making them keep it away at breaktime is just unreasonable. Also fun fact this all gets undone in college when they're 16 and they're allowed their phones whenever they want

I teach in a (private) school where we ask that kids all have access to a device. The younger ones have laptops but most of the older ones use their phones for research, accessing apps like kerboodle, Seneca, kahoot, BBC bitesize, various maths platforms and most importantly Teams which we still use as our basic framework for communication - daily bulletin, messages about meetings etc, kids use it to tell me they're at a music lesson so I know what to mark them as in the register. They aren't allowed to have them out around the site or at lunch. Yes we have the odd issue with photos / filming etc but no.more than schools that "ban" them.
Whether we like it or not, they are here to stay and as evidenced on another thread about the amount of apps parents have to constantly access to deal with admin, they are a normal part of life. I think secondary schools pretending they don't or shouldn't exist just sets up a really poor dynamic of "us" and "them".

a week is kind of feasible but not months on end, that's complete overkill

My son can't monitor his diabetes properly because he's not allowed a phone in school. 😏

i don't get why they aren't allowed at break i really don't understand it

@Ohthejoyous very clever thanks for that

@Ohthejoyous , does he have that app thingy? DH was telling me about his diabetic coworker using it the other day, can't remember the details but it sounds really convenient for such a condition!

At my DS school, phones are banned and if seen teacher confiscates it and a adult has to collect, but they also ask the kids to bring phones in to do surveys and to take pictures of certain things so mixed messages.
My DS had phone confiscated, his own fault, but they they expected me to go and get it which I said I couldn't.
The homework is all on a app on the phone so I told the school whilst I back them they need to sort out another way for DS to do homework. They then changed and gave him phone back. DS is autistic and adhd and a little sod, so learnt that if phone is confiscated he doesn't have to do homework.

My ds's school did a great job. Phones were turned off and put in bags at the start of school . They were instantly confiscated if taken out for any reason whatsoever and a parent had to go and pick it up from reception after a 3 day confiscation period. Worked a treat.

Lots of lessons involved the use of phones so they do have their place in school just not between lessons.

anyway yeah we get it phones are evil and they make teenagers turn into rude insolent people despite the fact teenagers have been like that for hundreds of years, i'm over arguing some people are just determined to demonise technology and forget the bigger picture

Ds school has a very firm rule that phones aren’t used on site (including at dinner) and that if they are seen they will be confiscated for the day. Seems to work well.