To feel relieved the school has now completely banned phones

[Eastie77Returns]

DD’s school has completely banned phones for all incoming Y7 pupils and this will last for the entirety of their time at the school going toward. Existing pupils are still allowed to bring phones in but have to keep to the old rule (if they are seen or heard they are confiscated for 20 days).

DD is Y9 so she will be able to follow the old rule but DS, who starts secondary next year, will not be able to take one in. I honestly feel a massive sense of relief. He doesn’t have a phone at the moment and I was planning to get him an old style Nokia as he isn’t bothered about tech or latest phones. However I was a bit worried that he’d feel left if all his friends had iPhones etc. The school seems pretty serious about it all, all pupils and parents have to sign an agreement and any child caught with a phone will be excluded - no questions asked. The mother of DS’ best friend has now decided she will not send her DS to the school as originally planned as she thinks the ban is reckless and dangerous?! AIBU to think the ban is fine and makes complete sense plus millions of children managed to get to and from school safely without phones a generation ago!

Exactly. Phones just make them anxious and think they can’t do anything for themselves or problem solve,chatgbt or mummy has to sort it all. There shouldn’t be any phones anywhere near schools.

There wasn’t in mine, or anywhere near my school.

My secondary school had a coin-operated pay phone on the premises so you could phone home if you needed to!

Yabu because it’s a false sense of hope. Kids will still use phones to do illicit and unkind things in their rooms, at weekends etc. And kids will just find ways to hide a phone in their schoolbag/ use it in the school loos/ put up with having detention if they get caught.

My DD’s school has today made it policy NO child, all the way to y13, can have phones out in corridors or class. All phones switched off and kept in bags. And y12/y13 can only use them in the sixth form common room.

Im happy she’ll have a phone for her journey to and from school.

Agree OP. I didn't have a phone until my mid teens and I have never once used a payphone. Will do them good to develop some resilience and problem solving skills. 99.9% of the time the solution will be wait for the next bus or find a safe adult to ask.
We live in a very safe country, that is safer than it ever has been. They honestly dont need phones 24/7.

Sending a text to your parent to say 'swimming has been cancelled, can I get a lift with you or should I get the train' does not make anyone anxious.

There is concern around smartphones and social media etc. There is no evidence that normal communication with family members causes anxiety.

And this There shouldn’t be any phones anywhere near schools is wacky.

What about if they need their phone for their bus pass? I know some companies don't give a paper weekly pass now, it's all on your phone.

I wouldn't be happy at all to send my DD to a school that bans phones completely. DDs school have just implemented the rule this year that phones are to be switched off and in bags when in the school premises which is fine, but she has to text me when she arrives outside school and leaves school, I would not be happy if she could no longer do this.

Enforce which rule in my own home?

In the 80s neighborhood streets rarely had a payphone unless located near a major bus stop or corner shop. Rather than dotting every minor residential street, pay phones were spaced out to serve multiple blocks, often positioned near bus stops, high streets, or local shopping parades.
The UK had roughly 80,000.

We still have pay phones at train stations, airports and ferry ports, busy shopping areas, tourist spots, and outside major public squares.Remote villages and countryside locations where mobile phone signals do not reach.

When i went to uni in the 90s we had 2 pay phones that often broke and had permanent queues for an entire massive hall of residence. We didn’t have the internet, email or online shopping.Over drafts had to be pre agreed. Guess what we survived.

Oh for 'resilience'.

When the train goes wrong the wait can be hours.

Disrupt your own life if you've nothing important going on. Other people have places to be and things to do.

Which bus companies are digital only? People say this frequently but I've never actually encountered it as an issue, and I dont drove so use a lot of public transport.

They mean you were worried about giving a brick phone but are happy to hide behind a blanket ban.

They don’t stick to that and get them out sneakily. Staff should be left to teach instead of managing phones.Many many schools have zero phones and it needs to be the same everywhere. I suspect county councils will change back to bus passes before long.

Nope, as a parent whose child uses their phone as a medical device it just brings more light and embarrassment on him as hell be the odd one out.

Many companies are digital only for longer-lasting passes, and charge more for paper tickets.

The train station is going to be one the easiest places to find a means of communication. Most still have payphones. If not find a guard, or another passenger or press the help button if really stuck.
It's not as though a mobile phone is going to magically fix anything.

Which bus companies?

So. Look it up on your phone if your kid isn’t resilient enough to wait for the next train like kids have done for centuries.

Kids will just bring them anyway, why do you think a ban will end the problem?

Other kids with medical needs manage. Diabetics have phones in them all through primary for medical need. They don’t care and neither do the other kids.

Sorry, look what up on my phone? What would that help with? I'm not the one waiting.

I'm sorry your kids struggle with anxiety but that shouldn't impact my family's ability to organise our lives outside school.

They can have their bags and pockets searched if it’s in the behaviour policy.

If your kid hasn’t turned up , look up their train. If you need to know before look it up before they get on it. Not hard.

Yes exactly - no time will be saved.

Well another local school went back today. The big no phones on site banned banned banned!!! Big thing about them being banned.

Hopped on TikTok clicked local and typed in the school name and well there’s plenty of back to school videos from inside the school posted 😅 There was even a teacher in one of the videos dancing away 🤣 so the ban isn’t being enforced anyway.

Schools are doing it successfully already.