To think knife crime might be a SLIGHTLY more pressing problem?

[MyLadyTheKingsMother]

I mean, really. In the grand scheme of things?

BBC News - Schools in England given new guidance on stopping phone use

Both are important and frankly they're also in many ways connected, so I think your thinking is flawed.

I think YABU because there’s a connection between phone use/ inappropriate content/ teen problems.

i think both need to be tackled.

They can be entwined issues tbh

And one is easier to tackle than the other...

Yabu, they’re interlinked and a big problem in schools in terms of bullying and many other problems

Phones can and are used for bullying. They are a distraction in the classroom.

Seems sensible to me.

Why bring knife crime into it? Are you saying that we should only concentrate on one issue at a time?

I hate whataboutery.

Phones are not needed in school. Pupils can hand them in at the start of the day and collect when they leave. No one can possibly think phones have a positive influence in a learning environment.

Of course knife crime needs to be tackled but our government should be more than capable of doing both and also MUCH more. We're too accepting of government failures. They're meant to work for all of us.

It's not a one or another. They're both issues that need addressed

I think they're separate issues and conflating the two is stupid.

Your thread title is disingenuous.

There are better things the Education Secretary can spend her time on which will have a bigger impact on children's education.

This is because the vast majority of schools have their own policies on mobile phone use, and have done for over a decade, how ever both problems still need addressing. This is probably by other Secretaries of State such as the Health Secretary and Home Secretary.

Luckily, knife crime is something that is rare in schools (rarer in some than others - basically non existent in the majority I’d say) whereas mobile phone use affects all schools, every day, many many times. So pretty important, I’d say.

@coastingcoffee I assume yours are young and below yr6
My teen schools has 1800 kids.
Can you imagine them all handing them in?!?!
They sometimes use phones in class.
Entire teen social existence needs a phone.

Fixing small things quickly doesn’t mean that the big things don’t matter or shouldn’t be fixed.

Refucing knife crime is expensive and complicated as it involves so many angles and agencies. We are also in an election year and the party in power avoids resourcing public services properly so nothing will happen in the short term.

I'd say they're massively linked given that if you read the sentencing transcripts for young people convicted for knife crime (the ones that are publicly available that is) there's often a period of swapping threats / trolling etc on sm platforms, whatsapp, text and telegram before the actual crime occurs

plus ofc a lot of knife crime is linked to street gans which are often linked to drugs trade which these days is primarily done on mobile phone

@deeprealisation at my daughters school they do this everyday. It's part of the school day and organised well so it's not a huge issue. I would be really unhappy with a school that allows phones in the classroom nevermind break time.

They use chromebooks in class. She's year 9.

They'd be better tackling the massive SEN funding crisis and the vast number of kids with no school places as no where suitable for them

@coastingcoffee where do they put 1800 phones? Time taken would be impossible at both ends of the day

Ours have to have them off in blazer pockets. It's not a significant issue.

Our gigantic secondary school has no phones out or in sight during the school day. They don’t hand them in but they must have them off, and away. I’m sure a tiny handful of kids turn them on in the loos etc but basically there are no phones out in school. They don’t use them in lessons. It’s very easy.

DC’s school uses Yondr pouches - when they go into school they put the mobile into their own pouch and use a device inside the main doors to lock it. At the end of the day they use the device to unlock it. Anyone caught with a phone outside a Yondr can expect automatic detention.

The registration teachers takes them in the morning so each class does it at the same time but with a different teacher. Same again at home time. Don't know where they are kept.

Because they are stored away, there is no temptation or blatant rule breaking. Plus no chance of them getting broken falling out of pockets, stolen or getting lost when changing for sports.

I would imagine the time taken up by schools dealing with phone issues would be significantly higher than 5 minutes at either end of the day. I would rather my childs school focus on teaching rather than dealing with students who need their phones every 5 minutes.

What a ridiculous post.
I genuinely can't see why anyone would be against it.
In the very rare cases where a child has such bad and anxiety that they need to be able to contact apparent at breaks etc this could be arranged.
The lovely lad that was stabbed on the next road was stabbed following a incident in which a group of young people had wild themselves up on line into such a frenzy over some perceived misdemeanor this young man done that they killed him.

My dd ( Yr 8 ) had boys taking photos of her under the desk with their phones the other week so I would definitely 100% be in favour of banning phones on school premises. Bullying with phones is a huge issue, apparently its called " mugging " they take photos of unsuspecting people in class and share them on social media, luckily my dd was wearing tights on that particular day.

@Changer123 thats horrifying and exactly the reason why phones should be removed from pupils all day. Next issue would be to understand why these boys think this is acceptable behaviour. It should be a crime to do that to someone.

@coastingcoffee getting 1800 back to their classroom