Mobile phone ban in school

[Scalagala]

Post inspired by comments on other thread. Would you support a blanket ban on mobile phones in your school? This means no mobile phones - including brick phones - to be allowed in school at all, so hence no access on the way home / on to other activities.
YABU - support a blanket ban.
YANBU - schools could adopt other methods such as pouches or phones off during school day.

Why do children need a telephone during the school day?

They don’t whilst in school. They might before/after school.

Smartphones yes.
All phones, including brick, No.

There’s a big difference between a brick phone and one with internet access.
Of course children with continuous glucose monitors will need their phones.

My son’s school has banned smart phones but they are allowed brick phones. My son is in year 7 and he’s phoned me twice this whole year using it. I feel happier knowing he’s got it but I have realised the need isn’t as great as I’d thought. He goes on a bus every day for context. He gets the school office to phone me to ask me to drop something off or top up dinner money. I actually don’t think it’s that important.

Why?

Its only in the last few years children have been taking phones to school. Every other generation has managed without.

My DD’s school phone policy works really well. They are allowed to take them on the bus. All phones get handed in at registration and are then given back at the end of the day. If a child is caught with a phone during the day (that hasn’t been handed in) - they get a detention. Works well, and DD still has phone for the bus journey/travel

The bus companies here use an app for passes. Train companies use an app for tickets and railcards. Our kids can't get to school without a phone.

Local private schools are moving towards total ban with brick option from sept

this makes sense to me. My local head told me most of the issues occur before and after school.

The issue we found with brick phone is that DS1 didn’t bother charging it or taking it as other peers had smart phones.

if it was more normalised to have a brick it would be better.

This is the third recommendation from the white working class inquiry:

This. YANBU lumping brick (or 'simple') phones in with smartphones.

Yes, and that needs to change.

Agree. Unfortunately the bus and train companies are not keeping up with the rushed government legislation around phones. They are being put under pressure to revert back to cards and passes. However in September kids will need an app, we can't ban phones in school for that reason. We're going with turned off and in bags. See a phone and it's confiscated and a adult collects it. From then on, that child has to hand it in but we don't have capacity to hand in and out every day without major restructure of the school day.

Many school buses are changing and I’m sure schools rolling in the system will ensure alternative provision for transport.

That doesn’t work.

Previous generations didn’t have to use apps for public and school transport, and there were public phone boxes.

I agree with banning smartphones in school but we also have to recognise that some things are different

It's not the school bus companies that are the problem, it's the public ones.

We already have a similar system in school proper to the legislation and it does work. I haven't seen a phone (aside from v high profile students) all year.

Please tell us how to solve the problem that doesn't cost any money, because we have none. We can't change the structure of the day either because of buses and directed time.

The irony is that once again it’s the private schools and middle/ upper classes who are doing what needs to be done from a screen pov.

Bus timetables are all still clearly visible at every bus stop around me.

We all had phones 25 years ago. And we did use them to send messages to parents.

I remember the phone call i got from my Dad on 11th September 2001 for example.

This is what my kids' school used to do until last September when they introduced Yondr pouches.

You can use the train and bus system without a mobile phone. You can purchase physical tickets or use contactless cards.

I was an adult in 2000, many didn’t have phones back then. Me being one. Generations before that didn’t either. We survived. The fear of this is telling, ridiculous and one of the big reasons why children shouldn’t be having phones at all.

Our local bus network has passes only available on phones. You can buy a ticket every day but that’s more expensive.

The secondary near us has those pouch things. I think the children pay a deposit at the start of the year, and then the phone is locked in it all day and the pouch is unlocked as they leave.

Not for the student cards you can't, or for the weekly/seasonal passes. Trust us, we've had extensive conversations and explored all options. They can't get to school without an app from September. Railcards also are on an app, I think you can get a physical card if you purchase one at the time, but once it's an app, you can't get a physical one.

Yondr costs money we don't have

You had physical tickets, a phonebox on most corners. Things were different then.

I agree that phones aren't a good thing for teens. However, phones now do have practical uses which schools can't ignore. We can't suddenly say to parents they have to pay for an expensive daily ticket when the app version is half the price.