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. :)

Who supervises it? As a teacher, it absolutely won’t be me. My lunchtime is for eating, or setting up my own class. It’s completely unfair to ask staff to do this.

Aw no i never said it should be on teachers to police. I did say if parents aren’t bothered that makes it harder for teachers.
I also said this is my step kid and it does frustrate me that their dad and their mother are not bothered. I have spoken with with my step kids about it but it’s not so easy for me (or my place really) to implement something if their parents are not bothered. .
I think it’s disrespectful of the kids and the parents who are not bothered - that’s what I think makes it harder for the teachers.

My sons school must be an exception as they need a phone for some lessons. Kids that don't have 1 buddy up with a kid that does.

I did misread - apologies.

School size is relevant. I’ve worked in small schools (600ish) and larger schools (1600ish) - in the small schools, the corridors are far less busy, and I know most of the kids by names. In large schools, the corridors are a wall of children, most of whom I’ve never met before. It’s far easier to catch Jenny on her phone than it is to catch the boy with the blue jumper on his phone. Especially true of schools with a strict uniform/dress standards where they are all dressed identically anyway.

What people seem to be missing is there is a direct correlation between the kids that use their phones inappropriately and the parents who do not support the school to police it.

Almost every parent who I have discussed phone use with comes up with excuses like his gran is in hospital/he was texting me/he needs his phone for x,y and z. And almost every single pupil has a phone on them at all times; but only a minority ever bring them out in class unless asked (eg to add a reminder about homework, to do a kahoot, to take a photo of a textbook/board)

As a teacher, I believe access to the Internet in some lessons, some of the time has a useful place in the arsenal of learning activities we have up our sleeves. Lots of useful sites from the games in blooket/quizlet/kahoot to the more serious seneca, Bitesize etc. What parents don't necessarily realise is that many of these sites give us all sorts of insight into learning gaps in particular- we can see what students are getting right and wrong and can use results for targeted interventions for individual students and/or for realising we need to look at a topic again because no one understands it.

As the parent of a type 1 diabetic, I can tell you that the phone is used as a medical device and is used to effectively manage his condition. The use of a phone is built into his careplan and not allowing him constant access to it would become a disability discrimination issue. Banning phones all together is simply not possible.

GneissWork
What people seem to be missing is there is a direct correlation between the kids that use their phones inappropriately and the parents who do not support the school to police it.

Just to add to this

It is also those with the most expensive phones as well

No child needs a £500 phone.

@GneissWork it was teachers and SLT. School planned staffing (academy) so that teachers covered lunches in exchange for less work elsewhere. It was a positive point when recruiting teachers.

No teacher I know would rather be standing in the corridors monitoring mobile phone use than standing teaching a class. I’d question what kind of teachers would willingly take menial supervision over pupil contact time. Not to mention it’s a massive waste of money to use a highly trained professional for supervision.

It would be quite easy to ban mobile phones in school. If a pupil is seen or heard on their phone, take it off them and destroy it. If they refuse to hand it over, they're expelled on the spot, and removed from the premises, forcefully if necessary. No excuses, no exceptions, no appeals. Mobile phone use in school would drop to almost nil.

No I wouldn't like the idea of the phones being used for nastiness, and I know our head and some of the SLT have dummy accounts and check TikTok, Snapchat and the rest.

With the music for DD, it's only at lunch, not in class, but she had said during lockdown she would study with headphones in and Spotify on, so school very kindly allowed her to do so at lunch, quite a few now have the same but the school have said no speakers, just wired headphones.

😂 I hope this is a joke! Someone is bound to take it seriously and agree with you though.

I actually think it’s not a bad idea to allow music if it helps people concentrate on their studies and music is a great thing!

I don't know any secondary school that does allow phones!

I'm a teacher and if I even see a phone in a pocket I'm allowed to confiscate it. The parents then need to come and collect it.

If a child refuses to hand it over then someone senior will come and remove them from their lesson and put them in isolation.

Phones are a nuisance in school! The source of too much bullying.

Our office doesn't have phones, we'll not ones that students can use. We use Teams for calls so we are logged in on our account and we have our own headsets that are not to be shared since covid.

My daughter's school has a ban on phone use throughout the day from the moment they step on the grounds to when they leave. If they need to ring home they have to ask a teacher to contact reception.

Doesn't stop some kids from using their phones in the toilets though.

Do you have any idea of the cost to a school to permanently exclude a student?
And you wouldn't be able to permanently exclude for not following a rule once either.

Our school has a written rule that no phones will be visible at any time, unless sanctioned by the teacher for lesson purposes. (tomorrow morning one of my lessons is in a classroom with a whiteboard that's not working, the kids will use their phones) If the rule isn't followed, the phone goes into the school safe and the parents come in and collect it.

Nobody gets the phones from the teenagers. The teenagers accept the consequences of not following the rule. In the last couple of years I've only had one student whose phone went in the safe. It stayed there for a fortnight as his parents also decided to teach him a lesson.

Change the rules to make it easier.

It's not easy. Kids will get around phone rules. They often have a sob story or compelling excuse as to why they have their phone out. Some carry an old phone to hand over to teachers instead of their actual one. Parents often don't support the school confiscating phones.

Phone use at break and lunch time is impossible to police. As is getting phones out in the toilets. Students almost certainly ask to go to the toilet precisely in order use their phones. I know of students who have been filmed on the toilet. But parents complain about phone restrictions and toilet access restrictions. We can tell students they have to leave their phone with the teacher if they go to the toilet, but then they often say 'Oh I didn't bring my phone today'. Short of physically searching them, what are we supposed to do?

Change the rules to make it easier.

Schools don't get to decide those rules.

My kids school doesn't allow them to use the phone in the office no matter how urgent.
No phone boxes either

Yeah good one!!

@GneissWork no not instead of teaching time. Full classes but very little work required past 3:30 due to way school was structured. Actively encouraged to leave on time and things put in place to avoid evening work. No marking etc.

it does feel like you’re insisting on being negative. It probably was a bit progressive but it worked well and staff liked how it a structured.

@GneissWork also schools results were through the roof so something was working.