Mobile phones

[LittleEsmeWeatherwax]

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.

Also how to deal with cyber bullying which is one of the big issue the OP is facing in her school?

"DS1 is only 13 and I didn't have a phone until after he was born. Somehow, people still managed to get to school and medical appointments."

I also didn't have a mobile phone til several years after finishing school. However, I went to a school much closer to home, didn't need to catch unreliable buses, after school activities were virtually non existent and my friends all lived local to me.

DD doesn't catch buses often but when she does they are often not on time. She makes arrangements to do things on the day - this is only possible because she can phone up and check first. After school events are sometimes changed/cancelled because of other commitments teachers find themselves under. DD usually walks and meets me after school - but she needs to phone me when there as she won't know whereabouts I will be, or if she can even come in the room incase I have a meeting or something. It is easier for u all if she can text/call.

Yes, they can cope without a phone - but having a phone does make life easier and more flexible.

I don't know about their homes - but it's clear who is used to having a phone with them, but not being able to access it, and for whom the mere presence of their phone with them in class is just too irresistible to cope with.

On the home bit ... Going through that dilemma with our own. Planning on not having phones until there is a need, but we are pretty strict on screen time, which has to be earned. A Mathletics Bronze certificate a week and half an hour or so of Minecraft is regarded by the DCs as a good week. iPad always used in family space - unless face timing Grandma.

I was at school before Mobile phones were invented.
I was at school when Mums did not work so were expected to be there
I was at school when there were 10p payphones at the gate of every school for emergency calls
I was at school when only private school kids were more than a mile or two from home.

Those days are past
get with it or look like a twit when you find out that your kids have a PAYG smartphone that you know nothing about.

Why make life difficult when it doesn't have to be? Give them a phone and communicate. It's what they are for after all, makes it all so much easier.

In the 80s I regularly rang my Mum from the payphone at school to get her to 'rescue' me.

I do remember when we didn't all have mobile phones, and I remember all too well what an utter PITA it was, and how traumatic it was when your DC went missing for hours at a time and you didn't have the faintest idea what had happened.

DD's after school clubs get cancelled or rearranged all the time at short notice.

However I do agree that having a smartphone present during actual lessons can be far too tempting and distracting.

But the issue isn't whether mobile phones are helpful and whether we can live wo them.
It's very clear that they are helpful and that they are here to stay.

The issue is how to handle the issues coming from teenagers having a mobile with them at school. Not if it's helpful for them to have it as soon as they get out (see all the examples given).
So how can we protect our dcs from cyber bullying due to mobiles been used at school?
How can we ensure that it's not a constant distraction when they are in class?

I think these are the very valid questions raised the OP seen that most of the options seen in different schools do not prevent any of these issues

I think all schools should have the same as DS1's policy. Switch off and put away at 8.50am and switch back on at 3.30pm. If seen between these times, instant confiscation.

For schools with a population that needs to travel more than walking distance then on balance I would agree Sparkling.

The rule would need to be very strictly enforced though with the exception of 999 calls any child with a dire need to make a call or send/check texts would need to go the the school office to get permission to do so otherwise a confiscation until the next day with a text home to parents to inform them.

Undecided
Cyber bullying will go on during the hours that kids are not in lessons - better to teach sensible attitudes than pretend phones are not there.

If teachers accept and embrace them - making use of the technology - then they are less of a distraction and more part of the learning scenario

What are they learning with their phone though? How can you make it part of the learning if the teenagers don't all have the same sort of phone or don't all have a smart phone?

At our secondary, all the children have to have an ipad for 'their learning experience'. It has been in place for the last 2 years now. It has also been proven a nightmare.

Serioulsy, I don't mind phones as such. But they are phones. To use to ring people or text. People from outside the school.
How are they going to help learning?

Not having the same phone is not an issue : even a £30 android can get twitter and news and google calendar and the VLE

Yup, some kids do not have smartphones - teachers cannot assume that they do but the percentage will be v small
same as the % age without home internet

I like Sparkling idea.
But ime, teachers can also rely on the fact the students can take photos like this (eg take a photo of the homework on the board instead of copying it)

Supposedly not allowed at DC's school, but the reality is that they can have them as long as they aren't flaunting them in lessons.

I like the idea of the taking a photo of the homework - DS might actually get it down if that was the case!

I assume at the school like DS2's where phones are allowed at lunchtime and break the children stand about playing on their phones?

I must ask him, I think he plays footy at lunchtime though.

Hmm I ike the idea that only a monority of children don't have a smart phone.

Seen how many 'non smart' phones are still been sold, I'm wondering who buys them. Clearly not teenagers then... Probably dinosaurs like you and me. Or people who just can't afford to buy a £300 phone or to pay £25 a month for a package that includes a smart phone for each of their children.

Sorry I haven't met a £30 android yet but I have found non android at that price.

What is VLE??

Virtual Learning Environment

What is VLE??
Blimey.
Virtual Learning Environment.
Are there really still schools that do not use them?

Smartphone for £30 PAYG
www.o2.co.uk/shop/phones/huawei/ascend-y330/#contractType=payasyougo

Allowed but must be on silent. They should not be seen either. If they are seen out in lessons then they are taken away and the children have to get them back from the office.

If PED is written on the board in a lesson then they can be used during the lesson. (for helping with lesson)

Dds school does not use it. But it's a boarding school with limited computer access in the boarding house.

& no wifi for pupils.

Lots of smart phones available at the cheaper price end, and on PAYG.

Every secondary school child I know have some form of smartphone. Not all top of the range, but all smartphones.

And no - despite being allowed phones at break times DD and her friends most of their time chatting and no doubt being a bit daft, as teens are prone to do. Never spent sat on their own, or in silence, or just glued to a screen. They still do some lunch time activities, finish homework in the library, etc.

Tescos will sell you a bottom of the range smartphone for 25 quid PAYG. You can get something perfectly acceptable (Android or Windows) for 60 quid up, and something desirable for 100 quid.

Sparkling, I have no idea if they play on their phones at lunch, but they always seem to be able to text me

Boarding school kids with no internet access.
One of my FAVE MN misconceptions