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!

The greatest danger overall the children will face statistically will be in their home from relatives, or from the driving of a parent or other family member. Whilst I think the school should have gone down the route of lockers for phones, I don't think it is reckless and dangerous.

I wonder if the other parent drives an SUV, or smokes, or vapes.

I'm not going to go into it in detail here because the Police were involved and I have no wish to drag it all up for myself but having his phone was very important after school.

The school cannot control children having a phone out of school though such as the journey home.

Many parents want them to have their phones on them and are enabling it.

And now they're whinging about phones being banned.
I really feel for teachers these days.

They can if they do not allow them in school at all and any parent of a child that has been bullied by phone or filmed should be pushing for schools to do this.

Turned off and in bag with punishments for infringements is the way to go in my view. My ds traveled to school on his own and I valued him being able to contact us. He's 17 now and seems fine!

We have this at my school hence my comment about old phones and burners, they’re getting around it

You’ve read the thread. Some even think they should have phones to be able to text parents as to what they need to bring bring in the next day. Heaven forbid they wait until they get home to tell them verbally or you know sort it out themselves. 😱

The number of kids killed walking on rural roads was higher back then. Is that the sort of thing you mean by 'figured shit out yourself' - kids walking home in the dark on rural roads?

Oh for goodness sake.🙄

Reality check… Anyone suggesting phones “off and on bags” is a solution has never been a school teacher!!!

This is the newly published guidance that schools must follow from this September:
Mobile phones in schools - GOV.UK

Round here the school bus passes are on an app. Homework is set via online portals too.

A total ban would not work.

My child is 9 and doesn't have a phone. My plan has always been to get him one when he's old enough for secondary school as that's when he'll start getting on a bus by himself, and I'll want him to have one in case he needs to call me. So I'm afraid I agree completely with the friend.

I thought you were rural? Do you have pavements along all your roads?

They don’t need access to homework in school and things can easily be changed. Ditto re bus passes.

I'm very glad my granddaughter had a phone on her first day at secondary school today as she got on the wrong bus home and had no idea where she was. Not being able to contact us would have been a nightmare.

Children have been doing that for decades before mobile phones and survived.

Interesting the policy refers to having the phone for travelling:

There are a number of ways in which schools can ensure that they are mobile phone-free, and it is for headteachers to decide how best to achieve this within their own unique contexts.

Some schools have chosen to use lockers to store mobile phones and other equipment, ensuring that pupils still have access to a device for safety reasons when travelling to and from school. This ensures that any potential distractions from mobile phones are removed entirely during the school day. To prevent pupils from attempting to circumvent this policy, one secondary school ensures that buy-in from parents is gained prior to transition from primary school, and that all families are content to accept all of the school’s policies. In return, the school ensures they are responsive to communication from home, where required, in their school office.

There are also schools who successfully facilitate pupils handing a mobile phone to staff at the start of the school day. Again, this allows all pupils to feel safe on their journey to and from school while removing digital distraction for the entirety of the school day.

Explicitly referring to the idea of: ensuring that pupils still have access to a device for safety reasons when travelling to and from school.

Ah, that was not the gist of my post.

Re-read and try again. You might have missed the bit where I said DS is not interested in tech or having the latest phone. I’m not sure how you arrived at the conclusion that I can’t enforce rules at home from that😂

I don't agree with a total ban but as soon as they enter gate in the morning any phone should be off with punishment if seen out. Once they leave at 3 or whatever, surely they can do what they want as it's their own free time.

Smartphones have been banned from secondary where I live. I think it’s fine but there needs to be the infrastructure in place to support people without smartphones to use public transport as children potentially have to travel quite far. At the moment it costs more without a phone as you can get a special pass on the phone app. Also all the bus tracking is on the phone app as lots of stops don’t have the electronic display.

Yes, and years ago there were far more payphones than there are now. Most have been taken away now and the remaining boxes where they used to be have either gone too or been turned into things like book exchanges.

Nobody wants their child having to knock on strangers' front doors either. Don't suggest "ask a policeman" because there are none of those to be seen around here. You'd have to go miles to find one.

We never used to have seat belts, we didn't for decades. Just like not every child git home safely, or rather the girls didn't, there were only a few child deaths because we didn't have seat belts.
@Eastie77Returns would you feel the same if his sister wasn't in the school and had a ohone?
I hope all those living rurally now take their share of asylum seekers, let's see how things change. A Sudanese man recently felt agrieved about life in England, so he took a hamner and knife to his most local school. A asylum seeker was walking around by me with a knife in each hand, around 7.30 in the morning. I'm not interested in being gas lit about dangers in the home, that doesn't apply across my family. Adult men preying on children does affect us. If they aren't white British, the police aren't interested.