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.

Many schools in the South West have pouches, do a search.

What age should someone get a phone?

Many have had extra money for this.
We need to tackle our blocked drains, rat infestations, crumbling buildings…
In all fairness we are tackling the phone ban gradually. New year7s will have to hand them in and they are getting firmer with the other year groups who get caught with their phones.
Personally I would make them all hand them in.

Sorry, smartphones are too useful for them to be banned entirely. DS is going up to year 7 and the school has said brick phones only for his year - DD up the school already hasn’t received the same email. Given we got this email last week and most of his cohort already have phones of some description it’s a bit late. Interestingly several of his friends have brick phones.

His train ticket and bank apps - and homework app - are all on the smartphone. He has no social media, only Apple messenger. The secondary has always had a no phones in school rule which is well managed, so he’ll be taking his smartphone which will be turned off in his bag during the day.

In school yes but there has to be a way of them having them on the journey to and from.

My eldest is moving to year 7 in September and our school have the lockable pouches which seems a fair compromise. I'm not sure we will get one though since the school is only a 5 minute walk away plus I'll be walking past the school not long after he finishes. Definitely would if he was further away though.

Why is that ironic?

When they are mature enough to handle it, and if they’re under 18 they are absolutely not able to deal with having the world at their fingertips like this.

The harm is well documented.

I would fully support an absolute outright ban. How phones ever made it into the classroom is beyond me.
When my kids were at school they came straight home at the end of a school day (unless they’d made plans well in advance).

My children (youngest yr 12) both went to school which has always had a complete phone ban so honestly I don’t understand the panic from parents about their children not having phones. So we have never experienced them being allowed phones in school. When I hear stories from friends at other schools with bullying taking place online during school time am so relieved that my children’s friendships were,at school, formed away from screens. Admittedly we are in London so those who got the bus would have an Oyster card. Onus needs to be on bus companies to provide physical cards here again. Muggings of children attending this school didn’t really happen or very rare as known in area that children in that uniform wouldn’t have a phone.

Smart phones yes, brick phone no. My yr6 daughter begged for a smart phone, the secondary school she’s going to have brought in a smart phone ban. She has a brick phone and isn’t bothered about it at all, normally forgets to take it and rarely uses it. What’s a shame is that so far not all the parents are following the ban, apparently lots of yr6 kids on transition day had smart phones. I’m really hoping it’s enforced and parents get behind it so there aren’t the WhatsApp group dramas etc

It is awful how stretched for money schools are.

Both my son’s schools have brought a ban in on phones, 1 of them provided pouches that lock and then they are unlocked by staff at the exits at the end of the day.
If they lose the pouch we have to buy another but it was free to begin with.
School 2 do similar although we had to buy the pouch if we thought our child had to take his phone with him, his bus ticket is on an app and he travels 45 mins each way so a phone is needed.
Most local secondary schools in the area do the pouch system and it works well. They have their phones but can’t access them, if they are caught with their phones not being locked away, they are confiscated and parents have to go and collect them.

So no internet?!

I’d support this.

As of September my DC’s secondary school (DD yr 10 and DS going into yr 7) are clamping down on phones in school. If any glimpse of a smartphone is seen it’s a 3 day confiscation and parents have to collect, if it’s a brick phone it’s a one day confiscation and child can collect at the end of the day.
I completely agree phones should not be used in school but after school it is handy. Whilst my children don’t need to get a train they are able to contact me and let me know if plans have changed or where they’re going to be. I know my DD sees this as her safety blanket and can call at anytime.
However so much emphasis is put on teens and phone usage yet everything is accessible on phones and the irony that most homework is done through an app! Why can’t homework be done in books / worksheets like it used to be?!
My DD does have social media platforms and from a young age to “fit in” but looking back we gave in far too early, luckily my DS has no interest in any and is quite happy to just message and have his few games on his phone.

I work in schools, including one that has the phone pouches, and those schools report better behaviour and kids actually talking to each other.

I didn’t say that. They are can use the internet on a computer for research.

They have absolutely no need for it on a device in their pocket. No need for phones or social media.

I do they should be allowed a phone for travelling to and from. Some kids have long journeys/after school clubs/jobs, bus drivers dont always stop , bus could break down, safety concerns travelling home etc, have an accident...
Ive put those suggestions because as an adult. I forgot to take my phone to a local meeting less than 500metres from my home. On the way back (around 6.30pm, winter) I was followed. I ended up calling into a residential home to use the their phone I was so freaked out (never happened before or since Im not that type of person)

Walking between two stops for a connecting bus I tripped and went over on my ankle, couldn't walk, NO ONE stopped to help, called DH and he came for me (went to a&e, broken ankle).

Travelling from work my bus didn't show up. That meant I had an extra hr to wait for the next one.This was a little village in the NE. and would mean a 3 mile walk on country roads with no paths. I called my DS as he would worry why I wasn't home, and my DH and he was able to alter his route and puxk me up on route.

I was a teacher for 15 yrs, 10 of those travelling using public transport and I NEEDED my phone travelling home as an adult. It was a brick style one as they all were at that time.
There are NO (not 1) public telephones in our area which we would have used as kids. Some areas, major cities/towns may have them with great and frequent bus links etc. Much of the UK does NOT have that infrastructure.

There was a pay phone in my school in the early 80s. I did use it occasionally! Although I do agree that smartphones in schools do more harm than good.

I’d accept with a ban on everything if it meant smartphones completely out of schools. I think that’s not necessary though and brick phones would be fine. I can’t see any argument for banning brick phones where I can see abundant arguments re smartphones.

As a secondary school teacher, I think the best way forward is using the pouches a lot of schools have adopted. Phones locked away the minute you step onto the premises and then handed back at the end of the school day. No child needs access to their phone during the school day - any comms with home can be done via the school office.

We’re in central London and parents would not be comfortable with their kids not having their phones for their journeys to and from school - with so much of their ability to move around being app-dependent these days, it’s a non starter asking them all to revert to brick phones. But I think the ban on access to phones during the day will be a huge game changer and massively reduce phone dependency, even when they get them back at the end of the day.

That being said, I would like the government to go even further than banning phones in schools and ban the purchase of smartphones for children under the age of 18. There’s no point banning social media when the main means of accessing it is still available.

The problem is children have not listened to ‘off and in your bag’ and the parents will be partly to blame for that, so really what can the schools do if children and teenagers are provided with these hugely distractive devices and refuse to leave them off?

These phone pouches are just such a huge waste of resources for stretches schools already when the solution is easily solved.

I was so glad autistic DS had a phone when he went to an after school club, walked into town to catch the bus home and then got on the bus going in the wrong direction (Both buses come around the same time at the same stop and sometimes the drivers forget to change the sign). He was speeding down an A road aged 12 on the last bus, it was getting dark, with no idea how to get back home. God knows what would have happened if he didn't have a phone.

I am absolutely fine with phones not being allowed to be used in school though and think the pouches are a good idea - will that work in a school of 1500 kids though? That's a lot of pouches.

Hmmm my school are going to hold phones at reception for kids that need them for such reasons after school.

Dead easy to say let's ban phones..

How do you actually police it?
Kids aren't allowed to carry knifes but some do.

Then there is the practical stuff, schools want kids to be able to look stuff up but don't have enough school devices to go round.

And how's this one, secondary the kids can order school lunch on an app, and check the balance on there Young Scot card on another app ( the only way to pay for food in a cashless school).

Government actually needs to think what is happening in the real world before they do stupid things.

Phones aren't the issue, social media is.