Does your school allow phone use during day?

[StrugglingGrief]

I spotted this article on the BBC this morning.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvgdx7ddz55o

Our senior school has never allowed phones during the day they are expected to be switched off during school hours 840-410.

i didn’t know other schools did. Does your’s? Children are told to go to reception if they need to contact parents and we contact reception if we need to contact them.

Last year during the trial form teachers collected them in morning form time and handed back in end of day form time - it didn't seem to be a major issue and the teacher feedback seems to be that they preferred it.

However, like I said, they've now shifted to Yondr pouches for the majority now and phones only get taken in if the kid doesn't have a Yondr pouch for some reason. The main reason given was some parents' concern that phones would get damaged in the locked box. So the kids have their phones on them but totally inaccessible.

I see. At our school they don’t go back to form at the end of the day so this would cause chaos with the buses - there isn’t a school bus only the public ones and the most popular leaves too close to the end of the day to allow for a return to form.
I’m not sure what a yondr pouch is? If the phones are not handed in surely there is a way around not using them.
Although it dawns on me as I am typing when I was at school if phones had been a thing I would have had an old no SIM card one to hand in and kept mine with me - but I found a way round most rules.

My younger two's secondary's policy is no they don't allow it for KS3 and KS4, would absolutely swear they don't allow, that they confiscate if they're out, send home letters on it, the works.

I'm a governor and have seen phones in use in the classroom. Last year I wrote in a visit report that included a mention of how a child with additional needs was using her phone under TA supervision because the laptop she was meant to use hadn't worked and was essentially told off by the DSL for including it, was told to add in more emphasis that that wasn't standard procedure and that he was going to have a word with the teacher even though he had been in the room with me when it happened, he was giving me as safeguarding governor and the trust head of safeguarding a tour of a new part of the school adapted for alternative provision, was there when the teacher had explained the situation, was part of the conversation around the issues with keeping tech in good condition and e-safeguarding.

So while it's great to read more schools putting in more to ban phones because it is a significant safeguarding issue and distraction, I can't say that I trust schools on it.

I’ve just read about yondr pouches this does seem a better idea logistically as long as there are enough unlocking stations, but yeah I’d have absolutely had a dummy phone and had my real one to use.

At my daughters secondary she used to use them in class sometimes but they now all have ipads so the phones are getting locked in pouches from Monday.

Another thought - do schools with sixth forms have these bans? I’m wondering about telling 18 year olds the must hand/pouch lock their phones.
I’m playing devils advocate really with all of my comments on this thread - my daughter is yr10 and has her phone switched off during the day unless her teacher asks her to send a message on a trip and walks home so doesn’t need to worry about missing the bus so using pouches wouldn’t bother her in the slightest.
I do genuinely think it’s the wrong thing to focus on and finding a way of improving people’s attitude towards education and respect for teachers would improve the working environment far more than not being allowed on TikTok at break time.

The majority of safeguarding issues related to phones ( and there are a lot of them - I’ve dealt with some awful things even working in primary schools) happen outside of school hours.

If this is to be addressed all under 16s should be banned from smart phones/social media altogether and have old fashioned phones that call and text only.

I’m a teacher, I thought all schools have banned now

DD's school - phones had to be left in lockers during the day. Any seen (or heard) during the day are confiscated, though they don't go to the extent of checking bags.

This whole 'first to ban' thing is just a publicity stunt. Unless they are going to search every bag, every day, it is no different to what 100s of schools are already doing.

Not banned from bringing but have to be off and out of site on school premises. If seen or heard phone is confiscated. They do let child get it back themselves at the end of the day, but if it's confiscated 3 times in a term a parent has to collect it.

I work in a city secondary with a high population of very low income family kids. At the start of the year our amazing head introduced this policy and we braced ourselves for serious pushback from students. Trust me, they are not backward in coming forward about anything they are unhappy with .

I was very pleasantly surprised with how well they accepted it.

It's completely doable

Ds school has a very firm rule of no phones to be seen during the day. Ds is in year 10 and has never bothered taking his with him.

Our school allowed phones until this year; now no use either in class or break times (this is secondary btw). Still allowed to physically have the phones with them but switched off.

What, you thought every school had exactly the same rules as yours?

Meant to add - I do believe that for some kids it's actually been a relief to be able to forget their phone and SM for the school day at least

How much are yondr pouches?

I dont think children should be allowed phones in school full stop, if for a life threatening condition then yes, anything else then no, that's what the school office is there for.

My DH uses Libre and was a mature student about 10 years ago - but it came with a handheld reader - he hacked his phone to use as a reader but I think he still had the reader.

DD is Y6 and phones go into the office for the day.
DS is at specialist and I know several bring them for the taxi ride but with such small classes I think they just keep an eye out during the day.

The rule at our secondary school is no smartphones on the premises, only brick phones without cameras (I’m sure there’s an exception for diabetic kids!). Seems sensible to me, teachers have enough crap to deal with and they have plenty of time to be on them out of school.

No, Yr 7 - Yr 10 have to hand phones in to House Master/Mistress every morning and then they are handed back on way out of school. They have school devices for all their work etc with very, very strict firewalls. We support this completely.

Well considering the safeguarding issues of having them on site- yes I would.

This is the only real solution to safeguarding issues. Ideally with the brick phone being the child’s only phone.
If everyone did it there would be no pressure for children to have social media and a big problem solved.

Yes, schools obviously need to have solutions that work for their own set ups.

Yondr pouch - gets locked in the morning, unlocked at home time. I'm sure there are ways around them but as parents have to pay for the pouch, and any damaged or lost pouches result in both detentions and parents having to pay for the pouch again, there are some deterrents. Like I said, I don't think any system is perfect or foolproof but the staff at DS1's school seem to be very positive about the difference it's made for the majority of just removing the temptation of having their phone nearby when they are used to being glued to it, and just looking/checking/posting quickly when they're out of sight.

For the other poster who asked, no the restrictions at DS1's school don't apply to sixth form.

My school's very lax on this. No phones in lessons but free for all everywhere else. It's a common occurrence to be bumped into by a student looking at their phone. The whole of break and lunch consists of them staring at devices or making TikToks. Teachers are often also on phones as we are encouraged to have various apps on them.

We have a huge sixth form and no year 7 or 8, which often influences the rules culture.

DD has just started secondary. I think our school would struggle to ban phones, as they’ve actually sent out apps for the students to load for things like ordering their lunch.

At primary they assumed all parents had smartphones, which created issues as DH didn’t so I had to do all the school admin; at secondary they seem to assume all kids have smartphones!