School confiscating phone

[Whatshouldmynamebe321]

AIBU to think secondary school should not keep confiscated mobile phone overnight?

12 year old dd walks home alone and school had confiscated her phone during the day (this I fully support as discipline for breaching rules).
But they refused to return at end of day unless a parent collects it.

I'm a single parent and work fulltime, so unavailable during school opening hours to collect it. I feel very upset the school see fit to send her off on a lone walk home without it. I was oblivious, at work assuming she has the device to call for help if there was an emergency. We don't have a landline so, it remains her only method of communication if a disaster happened at home.

Do other schools do this?
I don't understand the logic of it having to be returned to a parent. Surely most parents work and are unable to collect before the school closes which is about 4pm.

I think the point is it's an absolute pain for parents so they hammer it into their child not to do it again. I don't necessarily agree but I think phones cause extensive problems in secondaries.

I suppose that if you don't like the school rules, you move her. Or she stops getting it confiscated.

It's quite standard in a lot of schools for the parent or carer to need to collect a confiscated phone.

It puts a bit of friction onto the situation and avoids the cycle of students getting their phone confiscated, hand straight back at 3.30, repeat another day. The idea is that by inconveniencing the parents or carers, they might reinforce the phone rules at school.

If they make it as simple as the kid just collects the phone after school finishes, where’s the deterrent for not doing it again?
Its a punishment made to inconvenience you so you have to sort your child’s behaviour out.

Annoying for you unfortunately, as a working parent, but perhaps you need to have a stern word with your DD.

Was it a first offence? All the schools I've worked in have had this rule once the phone has been confiscated for the third time in an academic year. Students have been allowed to collect themselves at the end of the day on the first and second offence. In this situation I personally think it's more than fair. If you realised how much time a teacher wastes not teaching but dealing with mobile phone issues you'd be horrified. If it was a first offence I'd think it less appropriate for them to keep hold of it.

As an aside if the only communication tool you have at home is a mobile phone what do you do in a power cut with a flat battery or when the networks go down?

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/62d1643e8fa8f50bfbefa55c/Searching__Screening_and_Confiscation_guidance_July_2022.pdf

It's allowed. Inconveniencing parents is a good way to prevent it happening again.

There’s no deterrent if they are simply handing the phone over for safe keeping during the times they shouldn’t be using it anyway.

Our school keeps the phone for the entire half term, parents are not allowed to collect.

It's not really about it being annoying or inconvenient though, is it?

I'm in the same boat as OP - single parent and nobody else nearby. My son makes his own way home and is alone for up to two hours until I'm back from work - I want to know that he is safe and has a means of contacting me if anything goes wrong or he needs help.

I'd fully support them removing it during the day but I don't agree with that continuing after school is finished - they could send a text or an email to inform parents of the confiscation instead of leaving the child without.

I'd keep a Nokia style message only phone at home to act as a landline and tell DD to follow school rules.

Speak to your child about endangering herself by her inability to follow rules.

Hilarious that you think a child will be any safer at home alone with a phone than without.

for those parents saying their child needs a phone at home when they’re alone, just leave a basic phone in the house for any such occasion!

That's fairly standard.

There's an easy answer. This is your DD's problem. Tell her to put in at the bottom of her bag and turn it off during school hours.

Sorted

Ds' school has a system of Faraday pouches and all pupil hand in their phones each morning. If they are caught using a phone during the day, they lose it for the week.

Our school confiscates for 5 days and I’d be absolutely fuming if my child’s phone was taken for that long. They tried to take my son’s once and I rang up and advised that he was picking up his sister and needed the phone or she would be stranded. They did give it back but weren’t happy.

I do agree the world has changed, when I was growing up there were phone boxes everywhere and you could call for help without a mobile phone. Now you cannot.

That said, children and phones in school cause big behaviour problems and getting the phone back at the end of the day is no disincentive at all. So I understand the school's perspective. (I have also seen the queues in the office for collection when that policy was tried - the whole school admin team basically ended up on phone management duty and couldn't do anything else...).

I am surprised the school shuts altogether at 4pm. Are there no after school clubs or anything else? That is unlucky for you.

First things first, explain to your daughter that it is really important she follows the school rules so she is not left without a phone as it makes her vulnerable.

Secondly, would you consider getting a second cheap brick phone that lives at home? You say without her mobile phone (and no landline) she has no means of contacting you. That could also happen if her phone was stolen or lost so perhaps an additional "emergency brick" at home (or even deep in her schoolbag) could really help there.

How did you discipline your child for getting it confiscated?

Parents like this cause so many issues for the school.

I didn’t as he’s a good kid and isn’t usually on his phone in lessons etc, he was using it at lunchtime. In my opinion that’s not causing a problem to his education and he got top grades. Trust me there’s plenty of kids in his year that cause constant disruption in lessons etc and he wasn’t one of them. I just told him not to go on it again or he will be without a phone for 5 days. He’s at Uni now and that was the only incident with the phone. The school give mixed messages as they say no phones on school premises, turn them off at the gate and then in some lessons they say use your phone for whatever they are doing.

and your assumption parents like me cause problems for the school is laughable. I’ve had 3 kids go there. All perfectly behaved and all got top grades. Go and focus on those kids constantly disrupting lessons and my children’s learning. They are the parents that cause problems for the school, not one who needs her son to have his phone as he’s picking up his sister

As for at home, I have a standard land phone at home. Cost 7.99 in an Argos sale. It plugs into the broadband line and costs nothing if it isn't used.

You choosing not to have a landline is not down to the school to consider 😂 You’re just going to have to inconvenience yourself and tell your dd to follow the rules.

As someone above said I also have an old phone at home for this exact reason.

@Soontobe60 He isn't safer with a phone, but it gives him a way of contacting me to let me know if anything is wrong.

You have a strange sense of humour if you find that hilarious.

Alternatively.. give them the brick to take to school. Less chance of them wanting to play with that!

Now what aren't I surprised @Zanatdy !

My precious son does no wrong......

Poor teachers!

I agree with OP, it is not theirs to take beyond the school day.

Many schools have a policy that the pupils collect it from head of year/head of pastoral at the end of the day (or 15 minutes after).

Having to hang around after school and get a bollocking from a senior member of staff is enough of an incentive to not do it again.

Schools are also generally not insured if phone gets nicked overnight.

Teach your child to the follow rules. - Simple.
The phone won't need to be confiscated. I'm sure if there was a real emergency and she didn't have it she would be clued up enough to leave the house and as a neighbour for help. If not she shouldn't be left alone with or without a phone.
As for her walking home alone without a phone -has she no friends to walk with?
All else fails get her to learn your number of by heart then she can always contact you from a friend or neighbour.
I full back the school where phones are concerned. Left my sons there for 2 weeks he never had it confiscated again.

But what about the cries of you can't keep my child 15 mins late because he's got to collect his little sister and you haven't told me in advance they'd be late?

It's a wonder those who were at school before the invention of mobile phones ever survived