To be annoyed by total phone ban

[TeleGardenGnome]

My child's school which is a busy city location has a total phone ban. So you aren't allowed to take any type of phone to school at all even if it stays hidden in a bag and is on silent and never used. They do bag searches and use metal detectors to find students breaking the rules.

If your child's phone is found they get a detention and you can only get it back by visiting the school in person.

So yesterday my child's phone was found in a bag search and removed. There were awful transport issues and it took them several hours to get home. In the meanwhile we had no way to contact each other.

I can't get the phone back due to work and my husband being away for work. It just stresses me out that he won't be able to get in touch if there's a problem. Expressing my feelings here as there is no point complaining to the school. They don't listen to parental feedback.

Get better at disguising the phone. For example a secret pocket in the lining of a bag or in a trainer sole?

Ooooo wrapped in foil in a lunch box, disguised as a sandwich

The schoool have driven you to this.

Several hours to get home?

Do you have a closer school?

Can’t you get watches with GPS tracking? So you can see where DS is even if he can’t call you.

You can also get watches that have the ability to contact a limited emergency contact.

They don't allow phones to be handed in to the office in the morning? That seems unusual. Most schools will allow phones to be handed in and then collected at leaving time.

We've just received an email from the police about mobile phone thefts - a downside of allowing them while children walk home. There have been been reports of children being threatend with knives in the local park and phones etc. being taken from them. We have to balance whether to let DS take one or whether it would be less risk for him NOT to have one so in one sense I'd welcome an outright ban - very difficult.

If he'd complied with the rules, there would still have been the problem that he had no way of contacting OP when he had major problems with his journey back home. Do you think that is a remotely sensible use of school rules?

I wonder how many hours is several

Horrendous idea. Who's going to be responsible for collecting, labelling, storing and redistributing 1200 phones each day? Not me!

And in those days there was relatively easy access to pay phones. Have a think. Is that still the case?

Feeling so old. From the era of no phones, no school phone, no home phones. Even if you used a pay phone many parents wouldn't have had a phone, and even if they did, some didn't have cars. We all survived, got home on foot or by bus. This was the countryside so no public transport either.

The school could install a pay phone. And for those, when I went to boarding school, we had to queue. The horror.

I was thinking the same thing. That could easily be thousands of pounds worth. Who'd want to be responsible for making sure none are damaged (or accused of damaged) in the schools possession?

I'm assuming some schools won't want the responsibility if a phone was to go missing in their care?

I'm another whose school takes this approach and it doesn't seem to be an issue. Taking them in and handing them back during form time seems to deal with the 1200 phones to one person at once concern 😂

Anyway the feedback from the school is that the teachers like this approach as much as parents do.

It's because the tube line shut down. My child then wasn't able to call home about it to let us know where he was.

Seems excessive action on the school's part. Has there been any consolation about this or reasoning for the rule change?
Sounds like the school can't be bothered to manage 'no phones ' in school - which imo is reasonable. Youngsters do need phones for travel before and after school, particularly with the number of transport issues.
Possibly contact the governors about it, as it is about a child's safety being put at risk travelling to and from school.
Whilst we use to manage without phones, life has changed since in so many ways and we've adapted to having mobiles. We can't just go back!

there really was not in many areas. There was one phone box half way through my 45 minute walk home from school.

They should have lockers to put the phones during the day. Or have a phone box installed for the school children who need to phone their parents.
But on the whole I agree with no phones policy of schools. In fact children should be banned from using smart phones.

This will rarely happen. Can you get him to memorise your number and if it happens again ask a stranger to text or call you to tell you what has happened?

I think that is why they have the metal detectors. Apart from anything else does seem like a waste of the teacher's time to do all this bag searching. I mean you could just confiscate any phones that you saw!

Yep, it's really, really common in schools who don't want the disruption of phones.

Since the OP hasn't said they don't do that (I don't think) perhaps they do but she doesn't fancy that solution.

I am afraid this is not very rare in London at all and I don't wish to encourage my child to approach strangers.

I bet they'd have been others on a slight de-tour. I maybe only passed one on a similar walk but school had one, if I'd taken a couple of slight detours they'd have been others, one in the sports center, one in a shop, out side the sub-post office.

Any kid who's changing buses are probably in a town with a phone box.

We'v got one coming in - youngest Y10.

We don't have the travel issues and mostly expect it will be fine in bag turned off. However school often pushes messages during day via their app and teams which kid snow won't see but this doesn't see to have been understood.

I assume samsug smart tags would help know where child is but won't help with communication with you. It does seem overkill form the school and journeys on public transport these days are fraught with unexpected problems but if they won't listen to parents not sure there is anything to be done.

Possible solutions:

GPS tracker so you know where your child it (not a phone obviously)

I think you can still buy pagers - they are not phones but you would be able to communicate with your child (if not him with you).

AirTag is the obvious but you say not Apple.