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.

You can’t give them the choice if a kid gets their phone out it’s an instant confrontation for the teacher and a massive standoff if they refuse to hand it over these phone cages are a massive time waster for teachers too people who think kids in school need a phone are delusional

My DD school allow phones but have to be handed in at start of each class. My DD gets the public bus to and from school I have life 360 for peace of mind for us both and she likes to ring me on her way home! Her school know this though so I think if they did a complete ban of phones they said they’d let her bring hers but keep it at office for day.

The world has changed. Bus/train passes are on phones, payment method is on a phone, train timetables/travel updates on an app.
We use phones for no end of things now. There’s a relative need and no harm having a phone to and from school. In school, they should be removed.

The safeguarding issues associated with smart phones way out strip any issues with getting home.

A phrase mooted to me was “The internet is a nightclub and Smartphones are the drugs.”

And that is changing

The over reliance on tech in some schools is astonishing.

What is?

I've read the first four pages so far, and there doesn't seem to be any real life examples of pouch use. I have teenage kids and work in their school. The pouches have been in use for nearly two years. The majority of kids keep an old mobile locked in the pouch, or a calculator, to show to the teachers when asked. Their actual phone is loose in their bag, and available to them when out of sight of teachers. The pouches, in my opinion, are a waste of money that the schools can't afford. I don't know what the answer is, but the pouches aren't it.

I'm presuming that the adults on here who don't think kids need them at all, don't take theirs out with them either.

I have bus tickets, train tickets, etc on my phone, I don't always want to print everything and with something like a railcard, where it's £5 more to have a physical card, I've chosen digital. (Next time, I might pay the fiver though).
I find it handy to look up buses on my phone, I live somewhere with irregular buses so there won't be one along in five minutes, I like to know when it will be along.

There is no doubt that phone addiction is real, children and adults, but until the world rows back on phone use in the adult world, I believe that some kids need them before and after school.
I support the pouches idea.
I think it works at DC school, although the older kids find it harder as they were used to sneaky phone use in the toilets and occasionally taking them out in class to do a quiz.
I presume though that as many kids carry vapes/cigarettes, etc that people will get around the phone ban - but at least it allows teachers to act swiftly when they see one - and pick up by parents only also works quite well.

What do you mean, 'would you support?'? It's the law for schools to operate a ban. It's not up to you.

But loads of schools don't have lockers. Kids' entire lives are in their blazer pockets.

Do they have a school bag? Do they carry their books in their blazer pockets?

I'm not sure you'd think this if your dc had to travel the distances to school some of our dc do. Back in "the good old days" the school provision for our area was state funded bordering, but that was removed to cut costs.

So, yes, I absolutely want my dc to have a way to contact me if their bus breaks down or their taxi doesn't show up to meet the bus in a deserted area on the 1 hour 45 journey they take each way. This happens at least a couple of times a term. I consider that the biggest risk to my rule abiding dc.

The pouches seem a good compromise to me. I'll expect my dc to use them properly, and hope that other parents teach their dc to follow the rules too.

As others have said, phones are needed for travel. My DS goes to a fairly rural school where a large proportion of kids bus in from surrounding villages on public buses using an app. Yes it is possible to buy a physical bus card but you have to buy an entire term in one go - not every parent is able to afford this and many prefer to pay monthly or weekly. I did actually buy one for DS in year 7 and it was quite a faff to get hold off, it’s far easier to purchase a weekly bus ticket using the app on a Sunday night. I also need to pick him up from the bus stop as it’s not possible for him to walk directly home without walking along a 60mph B Road with no pavements, and it’s convenient for me to see where he is so I can leave at the appropriate time. I’m not going to be changing this.

My guess is most schools will allow just this.
Bit there need to be consequences if students go against the rules.
I am so glad I was a teen before phones. Our parents never knew where we were!
I went to school from a sleepy village, on a bus. If I wanted to sneak to a friends after school, I just said I stayed behind for a club. Or missed the bus.

Swift card is going app only from September. How many times am I going to have to say this.

It’s not saying that online- Transport for West Midlands (TfWM) has not announced plans to make the Swift scheme app-only. Physical smartcards remain fully supported.

My son’s school introduced this last session. The kids moaned about it to start but it was fine.

My kids school banned smart phones and allows brick but had to be handed in. We need it for my child when they have late dance classes etc. we can’t park near the school.

Our school banned phones a year ago. They’re allowed to have them, switched off, but not use them on school premises. This has been enforced since Day 1 with detentions and seems pretty effective.

But parents now choose schools that are not walkable distances and part of that decision may well be that the child has a phone.

I'm fairly unusual in that I did go to a school the other side of the town to my home.

Some things about that were not great. I'm not saying abusive, just things a phone would have made a huge difference to.

We had my aunt and two cousins living with us, they and my brother all got home 30 mins to an hour before me.

As I said not abusive but annoying eg if they decided to get a take away they would pick something for me, a simple text or call would have made me feel not left out.

Which just goes to show it's not phones that's the issue. It's games and social media

@BeRedHedgehog what happens when they get caught with a phone, as they have no excuse to have one in their bag? Think local schools who have just introduced pouches will go with suspension for having prohibited item on school site

When did someone last use a phone box? Most of them round here are either libraries or house defibrillators

I went to school via bus from primary school through secondary as did many. This generation aren’t more delicate. They can manage and telling them they can’t is not helpful.