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.

My son's school has introduced Yondr pouches and so far its working well. Bullying has reduced, behaviour improved and there's less disruption during lessons. They get to keep their phones, switched off, in their bags and can still use them on the way to and from school.

They have to lock their phones inside a pouch as they enter school, this is witnessed by staff and they can't be opened until the end of the day. The pouches have to be opened by a magnet that they 'tap out' on as they leave.

I quite like them.

My son is in the last year of primary and they all have phones in preparation for high school. They hand them in the morning, they go in a box, and get them back at the end. Some charming child decided to lob a bunch of them out the window 2nd floor. Wasn’t DSs phone but can imagine that policy will disappear.

'phone watches' are banned in every school I know of. You can't have a load of year nines texting each other in Maths. I don't think phones should be banned in schools but the idea of dc having smart watches is preposterous. At least a phone is out of sight.

Did not know that. The kiddy one my goddaughter has doendt have anything other than the ability to call amd answer the maybe 3 numbers that are saved there. And the parents can control it from their phones to make sure they are off during school hours. When it is on the school mode it just looks like regular digital clock and you can't do anything.

This is Ds1's Yondr pouch (name covered).
We paid a contribution of £5 to the school.

From aged 7-11 yrs (we moved house when I was 7) , I walked 1.5 miles to a bus stop to catch a bus at 7.45am that got me to primary school at 8.30am. I did the journey in reverse home. My mam walked me to the bus stop in the morning but I walked home alone from the bus-stop at night.

In the Winter, when it snowed, the buses stopped regularly mid-afternoon and I walked all the way home - about 6 miles, alone. We had no phone at home so I couldn't ring home. My dad would send a van from his factory to find me and drive me home.

At 11 I moved to a school that was about 2.5 miles away and walked there and back every day (no buses but I walked with friends).By then we had a phone. At 14 I moved to a senior school about 3 miles away and got a bus there but walked home every night with friends (until the last mile when I was the last one and alone).

We lived right on the edge of a village on a new council estate and it had appalling transport links.

I'm not sure the average reception would have room for hundreds of phones, though?

Yup, and generations of kids were subject to all sorts that might have been averted if they'd been able to call home and tell their Mum that a weird man was following them home in the dark at 5pm in December, so they'd be waiting somewhere busy and well-lit till a parent could come and get them.

This must be decades ago as the mass rise in cars in the 80s radically impacted on how many, particularly primary age children walked to school. So even that change is 30-40 years ago! It’s not how children travel now and there’s much more traffic . Also, lots of children, now we are more open about it we’re taken advantage of as they travelled at young ages. It’s just idealistic crap.

At DCs school they banned phones a few years ago for years 7-10. Y11 ok
in lessons if advised by teacher eg revision apps etc & 6th form free use of phones. But they just have to be off in bags.

We didn't have a car, ever.

Why do they need them 'in preparation' at primary?! What is to prepare?

It works at my DD's school. They aren't so addicted they can't engage in anything else! Do other people's DC really do nothing else but use their phone?!

They start walking home on their own in preparation for usually a longer journey to high school.

I just don’t understand how this works in areas where all travel passes are held in apps or similar? Or I know there are times when even if I tap my bank card to pay that I need to authorise the payment in the app? That’s before even starting on the ability to contact parents.
I think handing it in or the pouches mentioned by PP’s makes sense, but the rule itself is ridiculous.

I love the argument that previous generations had phone boxes. Yes, we did, but huge numbers didn't have anyone to ring even if we used one. We didn't have a home telephone until the 80s.
Most of my friends didn't have one. It was a huge novelty to go to the one 'posher' friend and see them use it. 😅
Although as a Brownie with my friends in the 70s, we had coins to 'make a call in an emergency', we didn't really understand who we could ring. 😆
As kids, we roamed all day without being in touch with parents apart from descending like locusts for cakes at times with friends in tow

How about a tiny phone?

Zanco Tiny T1 - Black - World's Smallest 3GB Mobile Phone : Amazon.co.uk: Electronics & Photo

I was more thinking the risk of a box of phones getting nicked. But yes that could have been a pricy moment of daftness!

I totally get the logic of last year primary kids having them.
I'm sure a chunk of young kids having phones is driven by separated parents wanting to contact child without going via other parent. Then you have the kids who stop going to wrap around care - latch key kids. And the rest is peer pressure and generally just learning to be responsible with phones in the relatively safe and cozy primary school.

I do get the issue of the use of apps for buses, tube, trains, etc. Presumably, the school don't put stuff on Apps or refer to online stuff if they don't approve the kids having phones

It’s mainly preparation for the greater freedom that being older/ going to high school brings. Learning how to budget your food money, getting yourself from school to after school activity. It’s not walkable / no public transport where we are so he needs collecting if not on the school bus. Park , woods, mates house, I’d rather not spend ages hunting around.

It’s been a rubbish week for travel disruption into London on my route this week. If I can’t use the usual route, I need to check in real time which train/tube lines are running and check connecting bus timetables to find an alternative way to and from home before travelling. I would hate to travel without this ability, and be able to adapt to issues that spring up en route. They are currently too young to travel independently but I’d hate for my DC to run into issues and get stuck on an unfamiliar route without the ability to call me.

If I’m honest, I’d also be very wary of assisting someone who needed access to my phone. While I’d like to think I’d help someone in genuine need, I’d be worried about being mugged or scammed sadly.

OP can you set up alert on the relevant tube line about half hour before school ends. Any disruption, call the school office to pass the message to your DS and share info on how to get home. If enough parents do this, they might need to rethink?

If I’m honest, I’d also be very wary of assisting someone who needed access to my phone. While I’d like to think I’d help someone in genuine need, I’d be worried about being mugged or scammed sadly.

This is sad but very very true.
While many adults would happily give a stuck child 50p to let them use a phone box, few adults would happily hand over a £££ phone for a child to call home.
I'd be very wary incase they legged it with my phone and I'd have no chance of keeping up with them.

You do not need to hand over your phone. Just ask them for a number to ring.

But he would still have a phone that would be confiscated?!! How would that help/change the situation?

Unless you work in the school I don’t think you can really know. There could be a plethora of incidents on a weekly basis created by phone usage that you wouldn’t even know about. I’d take a guess there is, particularly in the toilets or lesson change over.

To answer your last question, unfortunately yes! Social media, games, watching Netflix, listening to music, pictures etc. It isn’t just a phone and many of them are addicted to it. Why would I be making this up? They can still engage of course but with phones removed as a distraction. I’m not saying this is every child of course but there is enough for it to be a real issue.