To think parents are not teaching any independence?

[MrBlobbysNuts]

A local parent group is in uproar because their precious secondary school children are apparently "too vulnerable" to get the bus before and after school without a phone (phones have been banned from premises entirely)

How is getting a bus for 15 minutes without a phone unsafe? Back in the day we just had ourselves and we survived. Give the kids cash and teach them to stop relying on phones to get around. The world is no more dangerous than it was 40 years ago, if anything it’s much safer!

Digital inequality is a real thing in some underprivileged communities.

Exactly.

Society is telling parents not to give their kids smartphones, whilst schools are simultaneously making it impossible for children to do school work independently without one.

I had a 40 year old member of staff on the 00s who used to get his mum to phone in sick for him. So this is not new.

Not impossible at all. Use a laptop/pc/tablet - most homes have at least one of these.

Not impossible at all. Use a laptop/pc/tablet - most homes have at least one of these.

Writing a 6,000 word NEA (non examined assessment) complete with charts, images and other diagrams for a humanities A level subject would be rather tricky on a phone though.

Many families do not have a laptop in the home. Even if they did - how does that work if you have 3 children all needing to do their homework every evening?

My parents didn’t know I didn’t GO to school. Different times.

It's coming into law from September. No phones allowed in school.

DS school is dealing with it by locking the phones away in lock boxes during the day. Others are using the lockable pouches and other schools are just banning them completely.

They don't actually.

I feel the phone discussion has got a bit silly. Contact with your family, maps, bus timetables and passes, music, camera, podcasts etc. are all really useful things for all of us to have in our pocket. I want my child to know how to use phone well. If government/school don’t want them during the day then they have to manage that (phone pouch etc.) but I want my child to have one to and from school. Only primary right now but secondary is likely a long bike ride across the city.

SOME. A tiny fraction actually. Most households have a device bigger than a phone that a child could use for homework.

The vast majority do, actually.

6% of households still did not have access to the internet in March 2021 according to Lloyds Bank UK Consumer Digital Index 2021. That's a lot of people. (Homework usually requires internet).

1.6 million households. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/digital-inclusion-action-plan-one-year-on/digital-inclusion-action-plan-one-year-on

This is a 'check your privilege' situation. Digital inequality is a huge concern in some areas.

The problem with lock boxes at DD's old school is that there is only 10 minutes between the end of the school day and when all the school buses leave. There simply wouldn't be time to go and pick up a phone and catch the bus.

As it is a school in a rural market town these pupils need to catch that school bus because public transport to some of the outlying villages in non existent.

I feel that many posters on this thread live in towns and cities where public transport is plentiful.

And plenty don’t. It became obvious during Covid how much tech (including printers) schools/society expected households to have. DD spent a week doing online classes 6 hours a day, in y4!! At least we did have the device(s) - I also needed one as I did some work from home - and only one kid.

Not in my town. I work in communities where there is a huge problem with digital inequality.

Many of these children stay at school to do homework club as they have no access to a laptop at home.

If a family has multiple children it becomes very difficult.

Nice not to be aware of that. I know how privileged my family is in that regard.

This argument always annoys me. All the homework they get give can be done on any electronic device. Laptop/desktop and tablet no phones are not actually needed.

Also I think parents are letting children down if they don't have at lest one of these at home as kids maybe able to use a smartphone but the number of students who can't use a actual computer by the time they come to high school is amazing. You still need to be able to use at lest a laptop for a lot of jobs. Most are cheaper then phones to.

Yes so 6% is indeed a very small proportion, like I said.

And of that 6%, older people are disproportionately affected - they’re not doing homework for school.

That’s all very well if you live close to school and walk, as I did back in the 1970s. My children had a 15 mile journey to school that involved taking two trains. I wouldn’t have wanted them not to have a phone.

The difference was that in those days the phones weren’t smart. All they could be used for was making calls and sending texts.

6% is not at small portion at all. I couldn't be bothered finding out how many that is but I have worked with these communities. Generally they have phones but they and their children only have computers if they are given them by government programs (which are often short term). Again, I didn't work in the UK, but it happens there too.

6% of the population is a very small proportion, and mostly affects older people.

Well we’re in the UK and we’re talking about the UK.