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Secondary education

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Original poster

Mobile phones

117 replies

LittleEsmeWeatherwax · 14/03/2015 19:43

Are pupils banned from using them in your school? What are your policies?

Pupils in my school are taking the piss and I'm sick of being the ogre teacher who sticks to the rules.

OP posts:
balletgirlmum · 14/03/2015 19:46

They are not allowed in school at dds school. Those who need them for travel have to hand them into the office at the start of the day & collect them at the end.

At the school ds will go to they are allowed in school but be switched off in class. They can be used at break & lunchtimes v

Sobek · 14/03/2015 19:59

They aren't allowed in my DC's secondary school unless the school has given special permission. Those allowed to bring them in have to hand them into the office and collect at the end of the day. A lot of parents complain about this policy as most children travel quite some distance to the school. However, I fully support this policy and I'm delighted that the school has this rule. The reason they give for banning mobiles is that far too much time is taken up with the problems caused by cyber/text bullying if phones are brought into school. There are bag checks to ensure that the kids aren't bringing them in, although it is mainly the Year 7s subjected to these checks. The school knows that all children above Year 7 carry mobiles to school, but as long as they don't see or hear them, they turn a blind eye. If a mobile is taken into school and goes off in class, the punishment depends on the teacher. The official line is that the phone is confiscated, the pupil gets detention and the parents have to go in to collect the phone. But lots of teachers just ignore them.

AuntieStella · 14/03/2015 20:06

Allowed (big school, would be chaos to hand in/retrieve), but must be turned off and out of sight at all times between start of registration and final going home bell.

If a teacher sees/hears a pupil's phone, it will be confiscated and the pupil picks it up at the end of the day from school office, plus gets an adverse mark on conduct card. Too many adverse marks on conduct card in one week leads to detention.

coppertop · 14/03/2015 20:09

Allowed but are not to be used in lessons.

OddBoots · 14/03/2015 20:11

Not allowed at my DC's school - those with a good reason can request permission from the head to bring one and hand it in to the office in the morning and collect it at the end of the day but very few do.

Janethegirl · 14/03/2015 20:17

My dd would keep her mobile in her bra at school. No problem Grin

ragged · 14/03/2015 20:22

Something like what copper top said. Everyone comes on bus, would be ridiculous to try to completely ban.

TeenAndTween · 14/03/2015 20:22

DDs school has given in. Allowed to be used break and lunch, even it seems briefly between lessons. Occasionally used in class to photo diagrams.

ChlorinePerfume · 14/03/2015 20:32

Allowed but have to be switched off and has to stay in school bag.
DD2 now in year 6 is allowed a phone but must be put in a box at the beginning of the school day and collected at home time. I like my DDs to have a phone with them on the way to and from school. As a working mum I like to get a text when they get home and have the peace of mind that they can call me. We don't seem to have a problem with children who are obsessed with their phones, perhaps it is because we don't make a big deal about having one. I think banning them would make them want to use them more. I think it is about learning to use them responsibly and taking them away on the way to and from school or when they are out by themselves makes no sense to me. In our time there were no mobile phones but try to find a public pay phone that works in this day and age. I can't think of when I last saw one...

TheFirstOfHerName · 14/03/2015 20:40

Allowed, but not to be seen or heard in lessons. No earphones to be seen in lessons either.

DS1 (Y10) doesn't take his mobile to school at all, and DS2 (Y8) has his switched off in his bag.

mumsneedwine · 14/03/2015 21:23

Where I work they are banned. If found they have to collect from office and get an after school detention. We are realistic and know they have them, but if seen they will be confiscated. They try and we win. Last school I worked at the parents had to come in and collect them !! Mobiles in lessons are a pain - "oh miss I was just using the calculator" - via Instagram

rotaryairer · 14/03/2015 21:32

Not allowed in DS's school but in my school (I'm a TA) they are out in every lesson - the teacher doesn't always notice. I would ban them!

fuctifino · 14/03/2015 21:37

Pretty strict at our school, if they are seen, they are taken to the office and the parent has to come and retrieve them.

Kenlee · 14/03/2015 21:55

Allowed in lesson but can not be used at breakfast, lunch or dinner.

MsDragons · 14/03/2015 22:01

Not allowed in lessons, but are allowed at break, lunchtime, etc, some form tutors even let them use them during registration if there's nothing else that needs to be done that day.

Some teachers even let them use them as calculators, but that's officially not allowed and it causes the Maths teachers a lot of problems when they are enforcing the whole "you must have a proper calculator, phones are not allowed" in a class where the Science/Geography/whatever teacher has allowed them to use their phones as calculators the lesson before.

Teabaglady · 14/03/2015 22:24

Allowed in my DS's school not meant to be out in lessons but can be used at break times, teachers meant to confiscate if out in class. Reality is that kids text or iMessage each other in class, take selfies and play games and some teachers find it difficult to police. I also don't like the idea of my DS playing on his phone at break rather than socialising. The school say it's unrealistic to ban them but other schools seem to cope and some local schools also have rule that only phones allowed are non-smart phones .

ButterflyUpSoHigh · 15/03/2015 08:18

My Dd has been at 2 schools.

School 1: Phones could be used at any time no rules. Pupils encouraged to use phones to google things in class. They caused a lot of disruption in class. Numerous cases of happy slapping etc.

School 2: Phones not to be used or even seen on school site. If they are seen they are confiscated and parent must collect.

18yearstooold · 15/03/2015 08:24

In theory they have to be away, not to be used at all in school, even at break and lunch time
Phones are confiscated and are to be collected by a parent the following day -if it happens to be Friday, they lose them for the weekend

However there are a number of photos of dd and friends in the music rooms, science labs and tech rooms so i'm guessing some teachers are more lenient than others

UnikittyInHerBusinessSuit · 15/03/2015 08:32

In theory my DD's school says they have to be invisible during the school day, but given how often the answer to "what's your homework?" is "there's a photo of it on my phone" it's obv not strictly enforced.

PastSellByDate · 15/03/2015 09:05

LittleEsme:

Please, please - be OGRE teacher and stick to the rules for the benefit of those students who actually are there to learn.

DD1 doesn't have a mobile but an ipod but we have banned her taking it to school because we know they are getting stolen and because she has something of a playing games addiction with it.

DD1's school is officially NO MOBILES IN CLASS - but it's not enforced and DD1 reports that everyone is seruptitiously instagramming each other all day.

So the things I want to raise are this:

  1. At DD1s school most homework is finish work started in class type. So I wonder why not make the homework system separate to but dependent on class work - thereby punishing those that don't engage.

In this way those texting and not getting on with work are penalised with more to do. I suspect that will concentrate minds.

  1. I like the idea of having parents come in to collect the phone. Parents will be annoyed by that interruption to their lives/ delay in picking up phone will annoy the kids - all in all kids won't like it so it will be a deterent.

  2. This might just be an issue at your school - but the reason kids carry phones/ ipods at DD1's school is because the lockers aren't secure - I was taught how to work out combination of random locker in

OddBoots · 15/03/2015 09:21

I agree that the worst of all worlds is having a rule that is not enforced, it causes complete disruption and some distress to staff and students alike.

Davros · 15/03/2015 09:33

At DD's school they all have phones for travelling to and from school and for letting parents know if they will be late etc. but they fans them in to reception in the morning, she has a box for each year (maybe by class too?) and they get them from her at the end of the day. It is probably a relatively small school (maybe 350 kids?) but this works perfectly well. I am delighted that they are not allowed to have their phones all day, they don't need them and they can only cause problems

Sparklingbrook · 15/03/2015 10:00

Ds1's school must be out of sight and switched off between start and end of school. If seen they are confiscated. They have lockers.

DS2s' school they are allowed to be used at break and lunch, but no photographing/filming other children. They don't have lockers.

I think DS1's school have got it right. No idea what DS2's school are thinking.

Original poster
LittleEsmeWeatherwax · 15/03/2015 10:49

No lockers. 1,000 pupils.

We have a huge problem with cyber-bullying, and I'm all for an all-out ban. There is just no respite from cyber-bullying for some kids, and this is just one aspect of the problem of mobile phones. We've also had instances of parents phoning and texting their children whilst in lessons. It's staggering the issue we have with phones.

I know I'm going to get shot down in flames for this, but I constantly ask myself why on earth parents buy smart phones for their children. No matter how focused and clever a pupil, the smart phones are a massive distraction. Huge.

So frustrating.

OP posts:
JustAnotherMumAndDad · 15/03/2015 11:31

At our elder DS's secondary, mobiles aren't allowed period. Not in school, not on the journey to and from school (and many pupils come from a long way away -- DS uses two underground trains to get there). This worried us at first, but we've gotten used to it. The rationale was that they had a number of incidents of boys getting mugged on their way home, so they put in a very strong policy and let everyone know. Now all the muggers know that boys from this school don't have phones, and don't try to steal them. Seems sensible I guess.

I do have mixed feelings about the policy. On the one hand, I as a child used the London Underground every day in a time where there were no mobile phones, and survived pretty well. On the other hand -- in those days, pay phones were ubiquitous, and if I needed to call home for my parents to come and pick me up because there was travel disruption, it was easy. DS on the other hand once took four hours to get home from school, because he didn't have a phone and was too shy to ask station staff to let him use a phone.

I firmly believe that phones shouldn't be allowed in the school itself, but I do think that banning them on the journey is probably a step too far...

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