Page 9 | To be annoyed by total phone ban

TeleGardenGnome · 2024-05-09T06:25:18+00:00

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.

Epidote · 09/05/2024 10:42

I understand both points of view, but I think they kids should be able to communicate with their parents at some point just in case. It is not like there are street phones anymore.

bluecomputerscreen · 09/05/2024 10:42

crumbpet · 09/05/2024 10:30

Did you choose to send your child to that school?

oh ffs there is always someone...

as if there is a choice in which school is allocated to the child.

CharlotteBog · 09/05/2024 10:43

Allfur · 09/05/2024 10:39

I wouldn't choose a school with such a long commute in the first place

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It's not unusual in rural areas.

SamuelDJackson · 09/05/2024 10:47

My sons school has a system where phones are switched off and placed in a box on the teachers desk, and collected at the end of the day? (His teacher was very amused when he was pranked by one pupil putting an old style calculator in to see if he noticed). But not practical in a UK school where you move between classes.
What about having some sort of locker system allowing kids with long commutes to place their phones in a safebox in the office and collect them at home time?
Or a Nokia Brick rule - where if you needed to have a phone during your school day a basic cheap phone that texts and calls but has no internet/smartphone/camera features, turned off in the bag during the day would be allowed?

RisingMist · 09/05/2024 10:48

YANBU. My child's school has a policy (strictly enforced) of allowing phones as long as they are never seen or heard at any time on school premises e.g. switched off in the bottom of bags. It works well. They have occasionally been allowed to take their phones out to text parents and let them know when a return from a school trip has been delayed by traffic, which has been useful.

Mobile phones can actually give children more independence. My DD takes her self off to various after school activities before coming home, and I can easily keep track of her whereabouts and help if there are any problems or changes of plans. I'd be less happy for her to do this if she didn't have a mobile.

Spywoman · 09/05/2024 10:51

I would be fine with a phone ban during school hours but would not be at all happy with a phone ban outside school hours, so they should have some kind of storage for phones or strict rules if phones are produced during the school day.

Allfur · 09/05/2024 10:53

User135644 · 09/05/2024 09:14

Safeguarding was also sub-standard for donkeys years.

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Was it?!

Allfur · 09/05/2024 10:53

CharlotteBog · 09/05/2024 10:43

It's not unusual in rural areas.

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Op is in london

PixellatedPixie · 09/05/2024 10:54

Our school is also in London and most kids take a public bus or cycle or walk to get there. There is a very strict ban on phone use during the school day but they all have Yonder pouches which are locked at the beginning of the day and then unlocked at home time. It’s a pouch that can only be opened with a special magnet that the school receptionist has.

Jeannne92 · 09/05/2024 10:54

Move your child to a school with policies you agree with.

Or suggest to the school that they have lockers or similar for students to leave phones at the start of the school day and pick up at the end of day, but not access during the day. However they may well reply that they don't have anyone to staff this, plus also perhaps no space/no money for such lockerd.

notacooldad · 09/05/2024 10:54

I wish more schools this tbh.

nearlyemptynes · 09/05/2024 10:55

My daughter hides hers in her bra.

Allfur · 09/05/2024 10:55

nearlyemptynes · 09/05/2024 10:55

My daughter hides hers in her bra.

You must be so proud

bluecomputerscreen · 09/05/2024 10:55

even in london for secondary school commuting 1 hour on public transport or walking is not unusual.

Allfur · 09/05/2024 10:55

notacooldad · 09/05/2024 10:54

I wish more schools this tbh.

I agree

Investinmyself · 09/05/2024 10:55

I’d take it further and ask to see what risk assessments have been done for journey to and from school.
Payment - if the ticket is digital how can they pay. If it costs extra for paper tickets that’s not reasonable.
It’s leaving children very vulnerable if there is any disruption. They can’t look up alternative route, contact parents.
The it was ok in my day. I remember bus deregulation day. The bus simply didn’t come after school so we all stood and waited. All the mothers on the street were frantic by time we eventually arrived.

PixellatedPixie · 09/05/2024 10:56

If they are allowed their phones and iPads etc at home then it doesn’t make a difference if they have it for the journey. If a Yonder pouch is used the phone cannot be used during school hours!

Allfur · 09/05/2024 10:56

bluecomputerscreen · 09/05/2024 10:55

even in london for secondary school commuting 1 hour on public transport or walking is not unusual.

Blimey, poor kids, you'd think in such an dense urban area, there'd be somewhere closer to home

Allfur · 09/05/2024 10:57

Investinmyself · 09/05/2024 10:55

I’d take it further and ask to see what risk assessments have been done for journey to and from school.
Payment - if the ticket is digital how can they pay. If it costs extra for paper tickets that’s not reasonable.
It’s leaving children very vulnerable if there is any disruption. They can’t look up alternative route, contact parents.
The it was ok in my day. I remember bus deregulation day. The bus simply didn’t come after school so we all stood and waited. All the mothers on the street were frantic by time we eventually arrived.

You can Pay by card

localnotail · 09/05/2024 10:59

My son is staring a secondary school n September and we were not able to get into any of the schools near us - so ended up with 4th choice about 40 minutes away on the bus/ long walk. The school has no money/ no phones policy - not even in a bag (I only found out after we got a place, had no idea this was even the thing). If found, you get detention and phone confiscated for a whole term. This is mainly to do with the shit area the school is located in, where kids were robbed of their phones on knife point on several occasions (we are in East London). So the solution was to make sure no one has a phone on them so not going to get attacked.

I fucking hate it, hate this school, been trying to sort out an alternative but there are simply too many kids where I live so you have to be literally on the school's doorstep to get in - and this school is new, huge and not very good so we ended up there. I will be transferring my kid into any school nearby as soon as there is a place - in the meantime, I will have to take time off work to get him to school/ pick him up. No way I'm allowing my 11 year old trudging around East London by himself with no way of contacting me and with no money for emergencies. Shit school, shit policy.

Digimoor · 09/05/2024 11:00

Our school had a similar ban but you could apply for an exemption if you lived far away/ had a difficult commute

Allfur · 09/05/2024 11:01

localnotail · 09/05/2024 10:59

My son is staring a secondary school n September and we were not able to get into any of the schools near us - so ended up with 4th choice about 40 minutes away on the bus/ long walk. The school has no money/ no phones policy - not even in a bag (I only found out after we got a place, had no idea this was even the thing). If found, you get detention and phone confiscated for a whole term. This is mainly to do with the shit area the school is located in, where kids were robbed of their phones on knife point on several occasions (we are in East London). So the solution was to make sure no one has a phone on them so not going to get attacked.

I fucking hate it, hate this school, been trying to sort out an alternative but there are simply too many kids where I live so you have to be literally on the school's doorstep to get in - and this school is new, huge and not very good so we ended up there. I will be transferring my kid into any school nearby as soon as there is a place - in the meantime, I will have to take time off work to get him to school/ pick him up. No way I'm allowing my 11 year old trudging around East London by himself with no way of contacting me and with no money for emergencies. Shit school, shit policy.

He hasn't even started, he may love it

Exasperatednow · 09/05/2024 11:02

VestibuleVirgin · 09/05/2024 07:44

Some of us lived in a pre-mobile phone world. We survived

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There were payphones then 🙄

rwalker · 09/05/2024 11:03

MissyB1 · 09/05/2024 07:36

Why can’t the school just collect them in at morning registration and the kids get them back at home time? That’s what ds school does.

How practical is that when schools can have over 1000 pupils

Universalsnail · 09/05/2024 11:03

Yanbu.

That said your kid shouldn't have got caught with it. I don't see how school would know if it was turned off and in the bottom of his school bag until after school.
I would buy a cheap phone and just tell him he has to keep it off and in his bag