Buying a mobile phone for year 7

[miffyandsnoopy]

Hi, I didn't really know where best to post this? My ds starts secondary school in September and we would like him to have a mobile phone for emergencies/last minute home time changes etc. Do your children have mobile phones for this same reason, and did you go for PAYG or contract? Did any of your children land you with big bills from a contract? What works best? And what's your experience with negatives/problems with having a phone at school i.e.. breaking, or getting lost/stolen? I am worried its a bad idea? Hope this ok to post here.

Our primary school uses iPads for all sorts of things from reception up. PTA bought 30 iPads so a whole class can use at once.
Secondary school is ipad driven every child has one. I don't know how they use them.
Nieces school was laptop driven school provided laptop for every child but they picked them up in the morning each day didn't take home.

A grasp of technology is key for all young people.

Ds2 was given a cheap PAYG phone for last minute change of pans etc.
Waste of time as he kept forgetting to charge it or take it to school!!

Yes, it still does it. I don't think anything has changed.

I use giffgaff too so as long as you top up every 3 months, you can make free giffgaff to giffgaff calls. 99% of the calls my DCs make are to me to arrange a pick up. So, our bills are all very low.

Tesco mobile samsung galaxy young or some such is £7 a month direct debit and one of the only ones that will cap the data/calls at £10 so they cant go over and it cant be nicked and go over either.

Op have you had a look at Argos on eBay or Amazon warehouse deal? You can find good deal sim free / unlocked phones.

Old mobile that was at the bottom of the drawer for us too with a PAYG card.
dc1 is starting Y7 in september too and we are planning to increase his pocket money and to ask him to pay for the PAYG.
From talking to friends, I'm pretty sure he'll have a better idea by Christmas or what he would like/be suitable ANd how much text etc he is using. Then if he need be he can move onto a contract.

No way he will get the internet on it though.

re ipads, our secondary has made ipads complusory and every child has to have one (that of course as parents we are buying).
Not happy with that but....

phonemum - no, you only top up when you run out of credit...er, paying as you , well, go . My 16 yr old puts £10 about once every 18months - 2 yrs.

Hi NurNoch about the iPads in school Y5 at DD's school is an experimental year and she is in an independent school but I gather that state and independent alike are using them. At last informal parents afternoon where we get to see all the different teachers that they have in Y5 (it is a bit like middle school - not just one teacher) DD showed me the work she'd done on the iPad. It was mostly topic work and they'd created quite an impressive overview of the topic they were doing that term with pictures, writing, sound. They also use the iPads for research and also interaction with the whiteboard so the teacher can see instantly if the children are 'getting' the concept. They can submit homework to their portal area too and access via the iPad . I think they use them other ways but I don't know them all. iPads stay in school and don't come home. The girls all seem very comfortable with how they are used.

I'm sure DS got a text from Giffgaff saying if he didn't use his phone soon the credit would expire. He's year 6, we gave him my old Iphone 4s on Giffgaff PAYG in Jan for his birthday, but he never took it out of the house as if felt heavy and bulky in his pocket and he was worried about dropping or damaging it. So he never made a call on it. We then bought him a very tiny, basic non-smartphone for £15, again on Giffgaff PAYG, which he takes with him if he goes into town without us, but again the only calls he's made are the ones I insisted on to make sure he knew how to use it. He's still got the Iphone, I need to find out what his secondary school's policy is for next term.

Just checked Giffgaff, the PAYG credit will expire if you don't use any of it in a six month period. That's what happened to DS, but obviously it's pretty easy to avoid.

We went Sainsburys Mobile Sim (seemed to be cheapest) and a £9 Alcatel phone from Amazon. It does calls and texting, no email or internet.

Many kids had blackberrys, smartphones or iphones from year 4/5 in primary. So there is some peer pressure.

I'm going to get on my high horse here about smartphones and iPhones though ... sorry, I know we all make different decisions, but I'm going to say it anyway.

At our primary a 10 year old got beaten up for their smart phone on the way to school in the morning (city centre primary school). You'd think parents and children would change. They have't, because that, apparently, would never happen to their child.

We've also seen kids with separated parents go through £500 iPhones (lost one, broke one, dropped on in loo) like chocholates. The parents both want to "buy" their way into the good books and the child thinks these phones are disposable.

Finally, and sadly, I know enough A&E doctors to tell me that those adverts about teenagers getting knocked down because their using their phones whilst crossing road is not just a scare campaign .....

My dd does have a long journey to school and the phone has been essential - for times when transport hasn't turned up or I am running a few mins late or her bus is running late etc.

We got a basic smart phone (samsung Galaxy fame I think) and a promise that if she looked after it for a year we might upgrade it for something flashier. She has a contract but it only has a small data allowance so we said no internet except for at home or emergencies and she has stuck to that.

We have restricted apps - instagram and snapchat are not allowed until she is older and the same with facebook. A friend of hers had the same rule which she disobeyed. Her parents then took the phone away and replaced it with a VERY basic handset (calls and texts only) - it's been a great threat for dd too

The only problem dd has had is that the memory on her phone is very small and because she has lots of photos and videos she can only have a few games and some of the bigger games can't be installed. She does have a very long commute to school and she says everyone plays games on their phones on the journey.

I think that a cheap smartphone is a good idea. You arent protecting your children by not teaching them all about it at secondary level as all their friends have them and they are exposed to all the things you are worried about anyway.

The apps are really useful for knowing when the buses are coming and the trains are delayed etc. plus the Galaxy Fame etc are never going to get nicked and they can have their music on it etc.

Stopping children having tech is like trying to hold back the sea with your hands.

Wow Petts so they're very comprehensively integrated into the curriculum!

Primaries here use no tech - no interactive white boards either. The rational is that kuds use enough techat home and the basics need to be the focus of primary - II'm not saying that's correct, just how it is.

My kids have plenty of access to tech at home but very strict parental controls on the actual Internet (DH is a programmer) which are harder to put in place on phones taken out of the home.

I must say all the ipads so firmly embedded in schools sounds like a massive market cornering coo by Apple - could that actually be the way they make Android the Betamax of this generation ...?

*coup not coo!

I don't know whether this has already been said, but I think there's a huge difference between a Y7 ds having a phone and a Y7 dd. My ds had his phone on payg and barely used it. For dd, having already owned an iPod and used to messaging friends, we got her a low rate contract phone with unlimited texts. So glad we did as her phone hardly ever stops beeping and her friends get upset if she doesn't respond.
ds's phone use didn't really increase until he got to 15 and discovered girls

My kids and their friends (girls and boys call each other on the land line - 90% of land line calls are kids calling kids.) Mobiles are for them to call me in emergencies. DS would like a smartphone to play games on and dd would like one to use WhatsApp ...

Smart phone with very limited data sounds like maybe an option for dd in a while, though currently she has a 10 yo ancient basic phone for emergency use. ds1 is too young to need one.

DD was desparate for a phone from year 4. She didn't get one until her 11th birthday though.

DS1 is starting secondary in Sept he is dead against having a phone. School isn't far so we are going to wait until he wants one I think.

My line prover had a Xmas sale last dec . I got a 12 m contract for my dd1 for £5 per month with unlimited text, 500 main calls & 1gb data. But she never really use the data as she only use WiFi in school, home or in door places. She worrys it will cost money. Also I down loaded an app on my phone to monitor her and my phone usages. I also put parental control onher phone so she cannot down load apps without my knowing / password. She s not allowed to have games on her phone again it may cost money by accident.

Tesco mobile samsung galaxy young or some such is £7 a month direct debit and one of the only ones that will cap the data/calls at £10 so they cant go over and it cant be nicked and go over either.

^^ this. All mine (15yo, 13yo, 12yo) started with a phone like this. Any upgrade they have to pay for/have as bday pressie.

Phone pretty much essential IMO.

I think they need a phone to tell you if they are going to be late eg detention. Or they've had a last minute invitation to a friend's house after school. Or the after school club is cancelled at short notice and they need picked up early.

Ds1' s school doesn't give any warning about detentions and they can be for the smallest things e.g. not getting changed quick enough after PE.

I worry if ds is half an hour late and I don't know where he is.

I agree have a mobile phone is important as there are not many street phone boxes or places you can borrow phones anymore. I gave my very old payg phone to my 8 yr old dd. The sim card still work just without credit so we can phone her but she cannot make calls. It s useful because if she got lost in town we can phone her and talk to her or if she go out with older girls I can still in touch with her.

I don't think a phone is essential for all DC. The secondary my DD goes to gives a days warning for detention, and if school cancels things they text us. We live very close and to get to most of her friends houses she has to walk past here. I find the phone is more a cause of argument than it is useful.

Not essential but handy.

We couldn't organise our family life without mobiles and we are all on a Whatsapp family group which makes it easy to co ordinate last minute change of plans. My DS has a PAYG Android HDC and DD has an iphone 6 and is on a contract - it's important to have reliable tech if everyone in the family is commuting