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

But phones aren't stopping any of this happening. That's the point. A smart phone or a nokia brick isn't a magic forcefield preventing threats, muggings, chasing etc, frequently the prescence of a smartphone seems to be a factor in these incidents happening, hence the need for phone controls for kids.

Well it stopped it for my daughter. She ran away and hid and phoned me and I stormed over there like a crazy person. Otherwise she would have had to run back across the park on her own.

This is exactly what children have always done - used transport for long journeys, feet for shorter journeys without phones. I, like many others on this thread did approx an hour to school passing only one vandalised phone box.

In the workplace if Fred hasn’t turned up by 10am its assumed that Fred’s train is stuffed and we will hear when he arrives or has given up.

Phones are not the safety device people suggest they are, they can even make a child a target. They are not an alternative to children learning how to manage journeys and changes of circumstances alone.

The problem with this is that they won't stay there. Kids will be sneaking off at every opportunity on the pretext of needing the loo/to go to the medical room or whatever else they can come up with and locking themself in the loo on their phones.

It's been proven that even the presence of a smart phone on 'do not disturb' causes significant distraction.

I disagree with banning brick phones but am delighted to see the back of smart phones in school.

I can see a situation or many with a child getting caught with a phone and insisting its a brick, not a smart, then the teacher being expected to open up phone, see if there is a browser or apps, decide whether it's brick or not... then argue about their mates phone thats also a smart / brick whys that allowed then miss etc...
Teachers don't have time for this.
Simpler to ban the lot.
I've assumed that's why this choice has been made in the districts ( 😈 ) where it has.

Do you know what? I fully support you choosing for your kids to have no phone.
But don't tell other parents how to parent their kids. The smartphone free campaign group don't even advocate no phones at all for 11-14.

No one thinks a phone is a safety device.

I wanted my kids to be able to contact me if their plans changed so I didn't set off to pick them up unnecessarily, and so they could enjoy making spontaneous plans.

I also wanted them to be able to ask for a lift if the bus didn't turn up.

And if my kid was assaulted, and they could call, they'd feel comforted by being able to do that rather than be stuck on their own for longer.

If you want to do it differently, then fine. But other parents will make alternative choices to support their kids.

And you are wrong if you think having a brick phone for when the bus breaks down stops a kid being resilient or having initiative or having confidence. It does mean they are slightly less wet/late/cold than the kid without a phone.

But they can be part of the infrastructure of that journey including the most cost efficient tickets and accessing the timetables and live tracking online through the apps.

Bus stops often don't have printed timetables or tracking on them. It's common for my DCs' route to skip busses when they're short staffed, then the busses fill up in town and it's not uncommon for them to pass near my DCs' school without stopping, increasing the delays to them.
Having access to that information means my DCs can make an informed choice to walk a few miles instead and give me a heads up that they're running late.

If it's dark after an extra-curricular, that means I can often get to them after work before the bus would come anyway let alone their walk at the other end.

I can't see many adults choosing the tech-free inconvenient options in these situations even if they're capable of managing.

Last year I cut short a run and used the tracking apps to pick the optimal bus stop along their route to avoid standing around wet and cold by walking along the route to a stop with least wait. The apps enabled the most efficient choice. I wouldn't choose to hang around a bus stop with no access to accurate information and it's daft to expect young people to travel with less access to relavant information and communucation than adults. Back in the days of payphones, timetables and small change it was an even playing field for all age groups.

My DCs are already using more independence skill for their bus journey than my default of driving without pretending that we haven't reached the Millenium yet.

I don’t really care if kids have a brick phone but equally I don’t think kids “need” any type of phone at all to get themselves to/ from school. Nor do they need tagging! Personally I would be very happy to let my teens get to and from school on their own and I think it would be a huge benefit to them to be alone with their thoughts/ speaking to a friend for 20 min twice a day.

I do get really sick of parents bellyaching about this when the health/ personal safety aspects of having a phone as a tween/ teen are well known (not just mental health, I am sick of nearly running kids over who are walking into a road looking at their phone and not the traffic), when schools are spending so much time and money sorting out phone related issues (bullying, upskirting, theft, harassment of teachers), and where these phones have so few benefits. I just cannot understand why some parents are so keen to keep their kids addicted. To me it’s the equivalent of forcing kids to smoke 20 fags a day or giving them a G&T in their packed lunch.

Honestly, part of the problem IS the adults and the adults reliance too.

We should be having a conversation about the kids AND the adults.

After all the kids can't phone parents if the parents have their phones switched off and unavailable because they are working....

I was thinking that too, I'd be very wary of anyone asking to use my phone.

Some even young kids are huge, I was at a primary leavers service trying to work out who the guy was, it wasn't until have way through the service it twigged he was huge kid both tall and broad.

But really he was just a kid as vulnerable as any other 12yo

This thread is about brick phones. None of the problems cited are caused by brick phones in pockets or bags.

The phone isn't needed to get them to/from school. The kids still get to/from school on their own.

The phone is available when communication would be helpful.

Also I agree with the issue that kids having a brick phone or a “locked down”
smart phone in their bags is still a huge temptation/ distraction for them, especially if they are already highly dependent on them. Brick phones still mostly have internet connections, can take photos, and can be used to message/ call. And as others have said, I know for a fact the kids will just be disappearing off to the loo to use them/ message eachother and “doubling up” so that even if one phone is taken off the child at registration they have another one in their bag and a plausible excuse for having one.

And some of us believe the costs of that 'helpfulness' outweigh the benefits.

Edited to add: I hope your children can attend a school that doesn't apply this policy.

Sure but that doesn’t help at all if there’s a problem with the bus en route in the middle of nowhere.

This is just getting silly now.
I appreciate the concept of switching off, I have a do not disturb setting switched on regularly, but it's going to be a rare human who tells their CHILDREN they don't want them to be able to contact. It actually runs counter to human instinct. If you're a surgeon, your kids will deal with it of course.

The telephone has been around a long time. I used to call my parent on the work line. They would speak to me. Because they were my parent.

Your kid is y6 so you've no experience. And whilst your theory might end up being right for you, it's categorically wrong for me based on lived experience.

The benefits were benefits. There were no costs. It was a brick phone at the bottom of a bag.

Yes. I do.
For multiple & obvious reasons.
This very thread is proof society is fucked that’s why everyone here is dicussing if/why/how our children need to be able to contact their parents.
The world now versus when we all went to school has changed immeasurably, I dislike that fact as many others here do, but what’s the solution?
I don’t believe it’s a one solution thing, there are so many layers to this.

I can see a situation or many with a child getting caught with a phone and insisting its a brick, not a smart, then the teacher being expected to open up phone, see if there is a browser or apps, decide whether it's brick or not... then argue about their mates phone thats also a smart / brick whys that allowed then miss etc...
Teachers don't have time for this.

The above nails a key issue.

I agree the world is very different.

I think the people saying 'I walked to school multiple decades ago and it was fine' are missing the wide range of ways things have changed.

Then the schools can use the no phone in sight rule or pouches. It's bloody obvious and loads of schools are managing it fine.

The school’s expectations and beliefs are entirely irrelevant - neither the school nor the government is the parent of my or your children and shouldn’t be presuming to make parenting decisions for anyone’s children. I personally don’t agree with children younger than sixteen having smartphones or unsupervised internet access, but I am vehemently opposed to any attempts to regulate this by the government or schools, it’s none of their business if someone decides they want their six month old baby to have a smartphone!

Every day I’m more confused at the way some people truly seem to believe that the government should have the right to dictate how their children are raised. Smartphone bans, school absence fines, stricter homeschooling regulations - all ridiculous government overreach I’m baffled that people accept gladly.

It's not being silly though!

Having dealt with kids on camp (with phones they aren't supposed to have) and the fall out from them constantly pestering the adults with all manner of utter nonsense, the need of the parent (often not the child) is the ridiculousness thing.

It's creating this weird codependency which isn't healthy.

My kids don't have to not have a brick phone because your kids have a codependency issue.

The camp issue can be dealt with by sorting out your camp policies. Again your policy gaps are not my kids' problem.

I don’t get why more school won’t just use the pouches. Yes a few kids will bring in a burner phone but the total ban kids will still sneak phones in as well.

Oldest school have just sent a no meta glasses or smart watches as an add on for those in year 11 and below.

Are they allowing meta glasses for sixth form??