Banning brick phones on journeys from school

[Gridloch]

Are they seriously considering banning brick phones so children can’t be contacted before/after school? How is that sledgehammer to crack a nut rational or defensible?

https://www.scotsman.com/education/parents-allow-brick-phones-in-school-or-campus-ban-will-fail-8943319

In my family, the brick phone was tech with a specific purpose - to enable changes to after-school arrangements to be made.

It didn't prevent my child interacting with their friends and the world - it was about two texts a week!

DS has gone to school today without a phone.

The school is supposed to be phone free with pouches during the day for yr7s for those whose parents who insist they can't possibly manage without one.

DS has got his own phone. I didn't see the point in him taking it. He can't download and put any app on his phone without parental permission anyway. His walk is 20 mins. (A walk which has never had a phone box I might add). If he has a problem, his only real solutions are to run back to school or run home. Standing there calling on his mobile isn't getting him to a safe place / solving the issue, whatever it is. There are so many adults picking up their kids, I'm sure if a mobile phone was actually needed, it wouldn't be a problem. Not to mention that teenagers are notoriously bad at keeping their phones fully charged for this emergency situation anyway. Indeed if there was an incident the most likely scenario is half the kids present would whip out their phones to film it rather than actually calling for help anyway!

The kids getting the bus home, really have the same options too. And they probably won't pass a mythical historical site of phone box either.

Kids with a longer walk, can choose to pass through an urban area with lots of cars and occasional shops and offices. If they opt to walk on the other foot pathways, then there's other questions there's about personal safety and good choices which have fuck all to do with phones.

The whole thought processes going on are utterly bizarre and aren't in touch with reality.

Parents were saying about their first day that one of the things they'd be doing today is setting up the app on their phone. I don't know if it's true yet... I am sincerely hoping this isn't the case because if the parents are right and the school does this, there will be stroppy emails that will need to be sent about undermining their own no phones policy and being oblivious to parental phone controls which they should be supportive of.

Schools can not be hypocritical over this. It destroys the point.

Parents of older kids have been frustrated by the inconsistency and the continued reliance on phones by the school itself but there has been a big push to fully go phone free for this incoming year group. We shall see how this actually pans out.

The problem isn't just the kids themselves. It's mental parents and inconsistent messages from schools.

We need to teach life skills without a mobile properly, which needs us to properly risk assess and include the possibility of planning to survive with a mobile, but then not being able to use that phone for any number of reasons. If you don't have the phone in the first place, you don't have this complacency and you develop a plan to automatically deal with situations without a phone...

This isn't a need, its a convenience.

That convenience has been weighed against the value of letting kids make their own way unsupported, the distractions of phones in school, and the difficulty of policing those phones in school, and found to be less important.

I totally agree with this choice.

I'm also really confident everyone pissed off with this choice will find a way to cope.

Obviously they are all doing their maths homework on the long walk home past no phone boxes. Or on the bus with their mates.

I’m mid 30s and I had a phone for travelling to and from secondary school. As did everyone I know of the same age. Before that there were phone boxes, home phone numbers learned by heart and reverse charges. And it wasn’t because anyone couldn’t cope but sometimes you might want to go to a friend’s last minute or the bus/train cancelled. This school and the previous posters claiming kids need to learn to cope without phones need to acknowledge they’re asking today’s kids to do something totally unprecedented in modern times because without a phone they’re totally cut off from contacting anyone and that wasn’t the case in the 70s, 80s, 90s or 00s. No one needs a smartphone but given that there are no public phones any more a brick is sensible.

Until something goes wrong, an accident/broken down bus/adverse weather as a pp mentioned.

Nothing wrong with a brick phone for the unforeseen.

My mum used to go mad at me for the amount of reverse charge calls I did!

There was another trick that sometimes worked, if you rang the operator and pretended the phone box ate your money they gave you a free call!

Do you remember knowing the phone number of the box off by heart?

There is actually one phone box near me still. But there used to be hundreds.

I got the bus home occasionally from school in the 70s and 80s.
Once a bus had the wrong destination and I ended up in a neighbouring town. I used a phone box but would have had no way otherwise to get in touch.
DD school allows phones in lockers though as most of the pupils get the bus to and from.

If something goes wrong and the young person doesn't have a phone they will be forced to deal with that problem on their own or with the help of a friend or friendly stranger.

And dealing with that problem without parental help leads to increased self confidence and coping skills, the young person learning the world is a place they can navigate without fear. Even sometimes with fear.

I find it so sad that so many people think a young person needs a phone to problem solve. I actually truly think its at least partly responsible for the vastly increased levels of anxiety in young people today.

You need to justify why my family's liberty should be restricted in terms of harm to others. Removing the brick phone harms my family's ability to function effectively as we have interdependencies around transport. Yet having a brick phone switched off in a bag at school causes no harm to anyone.

And I bet you've got a bloody washing machine. That's a convenience not a need. Go to the river.

Your liberty relies on a phone?!

I don't need to justify anything. The schools nearby agree with me. They've weighed it up, like I said, and this is where they've landed. You'll cope.

I have a washing machine, dishwasher, 2 hoovers and an 11 year old who feels confident enough to get themselves to and from school without a phone.

Such a narrow-minded post, from someone unable to see there are MULTIPLE ways to raise empowered, resourceful young people.

My kids don't need a phone to survive.

They are entitled to have a phone so that if the interlinked transport arrangements change the family can communicate.

My kids were able to do MORE because they had the brick phone - because they could change arrangements and go.

There's no earthly reason why you should get to dictate to others just because you want to parent one set way.

I didn't dictate it.

I just agree with it.

Making personal insults never strengthens your points btw.

You don't understand what I've written.

'My liberty' means my right as a free person to organise my life as I see fit - not specifically about the phone, but about everything in my life. You only have the right to interfere if you can provide evidence my choice is causing harm.

My kids won't be affected by these rules. That doesn't change my view that the rules are wrong.

I think schools would argue that they can see harm in allowing phones in school property, and that is why they've taken this choice.

Either that or as some on here seem to think, its been done specifically to annoy people 🙄

We all know how great children are at complying with school rules don’t we 😂

This is meaningless: an 11 year old who feels confident enough to get themselves to and from school without a phone
Kids who have phones for logistical reasons are also confident enough to get themselves to and from school without a phone.

I think it should be lockers at school, locked away during the school day. Bottom of bags won't work.

Expecting BT to restore anything is not going to happen. Anyone who deals with them professionally knows how bad they are- I call them the enemy of business.

Absolutely this. Some of you describe walks to school of half an hour or less. Fine, they can probably manage without any sort of phone. What about the kids whose school is 15 miles away? My kids travelled 10 miles by bus to their local school. Others travelled further. The bus service was unreliable and did have the occasional cancellation or breakdown, or they just missed it. Some kids go to school by train to the next town, from age 11. We don't live in the same world now as those of us who grew up without phones. Kids travel further (though rural kids have always done so), local bus services don't always exist any more, and kids may no longer have the alternative options that might have existed when we were young.

This was my response to my son’s school in London - they were trying to stop all phones coming to the school. When I was at school we all had 20p pieces or phone cards or could do a reverse charge call if we had to.

But they aren’t switched off in the bottom in most cases. They are constantly being got out in class and used sometimes discreetly, sometimes less so. Teachers have to just try and ignore it as it’s already hard enough to try and teach a class of 30, half of whom don’t want to engage anyway.

The head of our comp filmed NQTs from the back of a classroom for training purposes. When they watched the footage, every time the teachers wrote on the board or turned away, most kids whipped their phones out to check messages, take mugs of each other or go on tiktok etc. He had previously been against a ban but changed his mind after that.

Since it’s been in place (locked in a pouch all day so inaccessible) behaviour has improved massively. Some kids still sneak them in but the sanctions are high and it’s now the minority.

How many children do you know that have been in a genuine emergency and the only way to deal with it was to phone someone?
Earlier this year, a girl was kidnapped whilst walking home from a late class at school. She had her phone with her. The kidnapper took her bag and phone off her immediately so she wasn’t able to use it. She was located via CCTV and ANPR.
Phones are not the safety devices people think they are and in some instances there more likely to cause an incident eg when someone is robbed of it on the street.

God forbid we ever had an actual situation in this country and the kids were forced into working out what to do without a phone

Look at the news. The likelihood of hybrid attacks is really high ATM.

That's not a nuclear attack or disaster. That's stuff like the phone networks go down temporarily. Or the bank system has a disruption. Or there's a massive issue with a traffic gridlock.

Kids might actually have to use their initiative and god forbid, walk one day without being able to contact their parents. By high school all kids should reasonably be able to work this out.

The whole world should not be coming to a standstill when we have issues like this. We need to be resourceful and contingency plan and make sure our kids know what to do if there is a disruption or they can't make contact for whatever reason. That comes back to old fashioned and basic solutions.

We worked it out when there was a problem. Because we had to. The reality is our kids might need to work it out too. At some point.

This is a really good way to ensure they think in that way on a daily basis and don't rely on their phones for everything.

Phones remain a luxury. They are not infallible.

And realistically they cause as many issues as they solve: Your kid isn't visible on the tracker. Zomg call the police they've been kidnapped. Nope they just dropped it and it got squished by a car...

This.
I teach at a secondary school and lots of our kids take trains and buses, sometimes in the dark after activities or after school clubs. I wouldn’t do that without a phone so I wouldn’t expect a 13 year old to! Phones have to be off and out of sight. If one is seen, a parent has to collect it from the office. It’s strict but the kids all obey it with few exceptions.

I dont let my child have a smart phone (which is draconian to a lot of people Im sure) but he will be having his brick phone in the bottom of his bag for when he travels to and from school. We live rurally, buses often break down. It’s non negotiable for me. Last year the school bus broke down and the driver (external bus company) turfed them out at the side of the road, it was winter and already dark and 6 miles from our home.
I fully support the no phones at school ban, but outside of school i think it’s out of their control and as a parent should be my choice.