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.

They would still need sanctions for non compliance

If you don't agree with the school rules then move your child to another school. You do sign up to these conditions when you sign up for a school.

If your worried I will happen keep an old Nokkia charged at home. You don't even need a sim in it to dial 999.

I haven't rtft because I can't be bothered. But the school has absolutely no right to keep personal possessions overnight and this is not acceptable. They can ban phones outright if it's an issue but please feel free to enquire whether they have insurance that will cover replacement phones if anything happens to them while in the school's custody. Similarly, do they have a secure cupboard where the phones are kept and procedures to ensure that children definitely get their own phones back and not anyone else's! Secondary schools continue to treat children with utter contempt and it's no wonder that they can't get attendance to acceptable levels.
They have many other sanctions that can be used which don't require them to confiscate private property.

I agree 100%. Lack of parental support for schools is shocking and has taken a huge turn for the worse in the last 10 years.

I do wonder why schools create all these hassles for themselves rather than just having phones handed in during morning registration and returned at home time
Because it's a pain in the ass and another thing to do for school staff before they can get round to their teaching and pastoral duties.

The obvious solution is phones are switched off and in their bags.
If a parent doesn't think their child can handle a switched off smart phone in their bag for the day and are going to use it knowing they shouldn't and knowing the consequences, the parent needs to get a dumb phone for school days. Child has a phone for safety and contact bit without having a smart phone.

It wasn't that long ago mobile phones didn't exist. How do you think we knew our kids were safe and could get help in an emergency when NONE of them were contactable?

@ismu we kept ours in a safe in a sealed bag with information written on it. They were numbered and there was a log book. Your daft if you don’t think schools aren’t careful about this and that it doesn’t take up a lot of staff time.

Schools do have the right to keep them if that’s in the rules. You know they’ve always confiscated private property, what did they do about jewellery when you were at school?

I haven't rtft clearly

But the school has absolutely no right to keep personal possessions overnight and this is not acceptable.
They have the right, and the government guidance allowing it has been shown several times in the thread.

They can ban phones outright if it's an issue but please feel free to enquire whether they have insurance that will cover replacement phones if anything happens to them while in the school's custody. Similarly, do they have a secure cupboard where the phones are kept and procedures to ensure that children definitely get their own phones back and not anyone else's!
It's the parent that has to collect it, not the child. That's the whole point of the thread!

Secondary schools continue to treat children with utter contempt and it's no wonder that they can't get attendance to acceptable levels.
They have many other sanctions that can be used which don't require them to confiscate private property.

This is the third time they have confiscated the OP's child's phone. This is the first time the parent has to collect it. Clearly other sanction aren't working!

@TurkeyTwizlers you might think schools have the right to confiscate items but actually they don't. It's just something that's been agreed over the years. Fair enough during the day but actually when it comes down to it teachers have no right to remove items unless it can be proven that there is serious risk of harm. Keeping valuable items overnight in an empty building is not something that should ever be done.
I'm a teacher and I know what I'm talking about.

Sure I read this a few weeks ago

Your child has broken /flaunted the rules

Needs to be punished

Obv this has happened before so they aren't learning

So you the adult/parent having to go and collect the phone is annoying and hopefully you will then Deal with your child who is breaking the rules

If they didn't do it - you wouldn't have to go to the school

Maybe ban the phone at home in the evening till he takes notice

YABU. Although I think they should notify the parents that they have confiscated the phone, in case this makes it difficult for the child to get home.

More of a pain than the monitoring and the confiscating/detentions/complaints from parents?

Ours have lock boxes - phones go in at morning registration in the morning and get collected at afternoon registration. A couple of minutes tops, according to the form teacher.

Leaving more time for the teaching and the pastoral care.

We didn't even have a landline at home (my parents finally got one when I was 21) for me to call from a call box if there was an 'emergency'.

More of a pain than the monitoring and the confiscating/detentions/complaints from parents?
Yes because in many schools the majority of parents support the school and expect their children to follow the rules and not get their phones out.

In many schools it's more time managing a central phone hand in system than sanctioning the minority.

Even within the minority (who will include otherwise good students who forgot to put their phone on silent through to students who think the rules don't apply to them), the good students will have generally supportive parents who'll tell them to double check their phone is off in future and they'll collect the phone.

Arsey and confrontational parents who think rules and sanctions don't apply to their children shouldn't get to set school cultures.

Ours have lock boxes - phones go in at morning registration in the morning and get collected at afternoon registration. A couple of minutes tops, according to the form teacher.

Leaving more time for the teaching and the pastoral care.
What's the system for making sure the right students get the right phone?
Who is responsible for releasing phones at the end of the day? If its teachers then that's time at the end of the day not spent on their own preparation, teaching and learning.

If you'd been bothered to read the full thread, you would've seen that schools can in fact confiscate phones.

As a form tutor, I don't want to be responsible for 25 phones all day. So where do they all go? I'd like to hear from other schools how they manage this as I think it's a good idea in theory.

I think we'll have to agree to differ.

The form
teachers who implement this are enthusiastic about the overall impact it's having, my son's teacher was clear that they'd all pushed to have the original trial mad permanent, the process seems swift and uncomplicated, children seem unremarkably competent in identifying and taking their own phones from the box at the end of the day (they'll all have security on them and any missing phone means all phones back in the box and handed out one by pen and unlocked in front of the teacher - this has not happened so far). It gets rid of phones at break and lunch times, removes the temptation/disruptive element using them at the wrong times. As a parent, im a huge fan.

Ours have lock boxes issued by the school that are stored where convenient for the form teacher in question - it's a sort of padded secure case.

@JassyRadlett what's to stop someone walking off with the whole box?

@JassyRadlett but presumably they still have sanctions for mot handing in the phone? Such as... confiscation?

This would be my solution.
Morning - tutor time (registration)
Everyone walks in and the teacher is at the door holding a lockable box. As each student passes they say "Good Morning" and place their phone if they have one in the box. The phone should be a small pouch with the students name on - phone should be in that pouch before it's handed in.
Everyone sits down and takes the register and does whatever else happens at tutor time.
Afternoon - end of day tutor time. Everyone goes back to their form room, sits down and the phones are handed out. That should take about 10 minutes.
During the day the locked box is in a locked cupboard or drawer and if the classroom is empty it should be locked.
There should be consequences is a student is found to have a phone on them - but it should be a sliding scale of punishment (1st offence different to repeatedly having a phone etc).

I'm only 28 and if I ever got in trouble at school it was "what did you do?"- and my parents were laid back, very "don't ask don't tell", but you look now it's automatically "my angel wouldn't do that"; parents just can't seem to accept their child has done something wrong!!

she should have called you using the school phone to explain the situation. school know this - they did not "send her off without it". there were options.

Teach her to follow the rules. or give her a dumb phone which she is less likely to get into trouble with, if she can't be trusted at school with a smart one. and make sure that she knows she can use the school reception phone to call you if needed

😂😂😂 "definitely won't have heard that before" made me chuckle

I'm my school all of the classroom cupboards (general classroom, not places where sensitive info is stored) are all unlocked by the same key. They're also very cheap and the barrel locks are very easy to break. I wouldn't feel comfortable that your proposed solution would be sufficient in my school. I don't even have somewhere I can put my car keys that I'm confident is safe.