No phone allowed at secondary school - Phone cards best option?

[mummymaz12]

Hi, my son is starting secondary school and mobile phones are completely banned at school. He will be travelling into London by train/tube but there will be times when trains go wrong & he will need to do a different journey or come into a different station & will need to let me know.

He will have money with him so can use a cash phone box (if he can find one) but are there any universal phone cards I could get that he could use on any phone box??

Thanks

One student was given a detention for being seen using one in school uniform at a mainline station on the way home.
Name and shame
None of the school's business who children speak to after school has closed.

One student was given a detention for being seen using one in school uniform at a mainline station on the way home
Using one appropriately or using one and say playing games with the volume on loud and pissing people off?
Whilst I'm generally of the view that to/from school isn't our problem (and that detebtion would be silly), if they were being a pain then I could see it coming down to bringing the schools reputation into question.

Like I say, I think journeys to/from school aren't our issue (other than school bus), but you'd be amazed how often we get calls from parent and the public demanding we sort issues on thr way to/from school.
The funniest was a complaint on the town's facebook page about how a couple didn't like the way some students (in pe kit) were skating back from a weekend fixture. Apparently they were very close to calling the police and will do in future if we don't sort it

DC school (in London) has a total phone ban.

In reality, as long as the phone is switched off and concealed whilst in school, the staff turn a blind eye.

If a phone goes off during a lesson everyone ignores it and creates a distraction so the guilty party can discreetly switch it off.

And of course, the PE staff openly acknowledge phones being used to call parents etc on the way back from fixtures.

Chippy
So they are teaching the kids to be hypocritical liars who break rules. Perfect lesson

Not at all. Why do you think that?

chippy
DC school (in London) has a total phone ban.
You then explained how the ban is totally ignored by everybody

So the kids have learned that rules are there to be broken
well mainly that some schools have dumb rules
and that adults will not penalise them for breaking rules

It works. The kids know that if they stick to the spirit and purpose of the rule they won't be penalised. Cross the line, they will throw the book at them.

I assume you never break a rule yourself?

if they stick to the spirit and purpose of the rule they won't be penalised
What is the purpose of the rule?

Wow I'm shocked. Can't believe schools are so draconian.

Yes it's hard to police but dds school has v clear rule about no phone use during the school day and they immediately confiscate any phones seen, which works perfectly.

I would ask the school what they recommend for safety on commute. Must be an issue for all students given school is in london.

Ta1ken I think learning how to break the stupid part of a rule gracefully and discreetly, while following the spirit of the rule is a very valuable life skill.

We are a no phones campus.
If we see or hear it then we confiscate them.

Students are told they are switched off in their bag.

We are a no phones campus.

Campus? Are you at a university? Everyone over 18? I strongly suspect you are not allowed to confiscate anything, and it would be regarded as theft if you did

Sigh. Schools are allowed to confiscate phones.

mary we are a school with more than one site.
Schools are allowed to confiacate phones.
Head teachers also now have the power to search phones as well now if they have the need to (granted over the summer).

Of course, the simple thing is 'follow the rules = keep your phone'. Break the rules and you lose it. It's not difficuly.

I'm glad I work in a school where parenta get the rules. A friend of mine said they get all kinds of parents who demand a meeting with the head to inform him that confiscating things are theft, isolation is solitary confinement and lunch detentions (after students have had time to eat) breaks their human rights. Makes me laugh, but then it it becomes obvious where those students get their attitude from.

My problem with "no phone" rules is that they are - by definition a joke

sensible schools have "no phones in use during lessons"
or "all phones on silent during school hours"
or "using phones for bullying will be treated in the same way as face to face bullying"

BANNING stuff does not work
teaching kids to have sensible approaches to privacy and responsibility
will work for the rest of their lives

There's always the Ownfone. We received one in a MN product test years ago and although DD1 has long outgrown it and moved onto a smart phone, the Ownfone is an excellent compromise if you feel your child needs a phone but the school has a ban on them. It's more mobile chargecard than anything - it can only call pre-programmed numbers.

Ta1kinPeece
I don't think they are a joke.

We don't want a rule that says on silent during the day and not to be used in lessons. I've been in a school that does that and break/lunches were studenys jist sat on their phones messaging each other across site, lots of drama, selfie taking etc. People had them on silent in their pocket but would try to check during class because the group chat was going mad 25 minutes ago abd they mighy have missed something.

We want a rule that says no phones should be on or seen across our site.Students are allowed to have them with them for travel as long as thry are off and out of site during the day. It's not a joke to have thay rule. It makes sense.