Using phone for school lessons

[BertBox]

I don’t know if me feeling weird about this, or if it’s normal. My daughter’s just started year 7, and like many others has a new phone. She only gets £6 a month credit on it, and I’ve locked it down pretty tightly, as she went a bit silly to start with and used her credit too quickly, and spent ages playing games on it. No big deal, and I kind of expected it. I only let her have 10 minutes of internet time a day on it, but she can use a laptop at home if she needs to.

Anyway, twice now I’ve received messages from her at school, in class time, asking if she can have internet access, as they’re on ‘Kahoot’, which is some fun online learning platform.

As they’re not supposed to even have their phones out at school, isn’t this’s a bit off? I presume they’re not given a WiFi password, so it’ll all be off her internet allowance, and I’m presuming not all the class will be able to participate. Her form tutor (it was in tutor time at the beginning of the day) is brand new to teaching, and I’ve not even spoken to her yet, and hate making a fuss...

I agree with you Bertbox. I don't know why a school would ask students to use mobile phones during lessons. I do not give my daughter who is in year 8 access to Whatsapp, Tick tock or any apps on her phone. In fact she only has a 'brick' mobile phone and so cannot access the internet at all on her phone, she can just call people and text message. She does have her own PC and email address to use at home as I am able to put filters on her PC to make sure she only accesses stuff suitable for her age. She is very computer literate ie doesn't need to access the internet on her phone to learn to use computers, in fact she often helps me with my computer questions! She is also able to make all her social plans using phone call/ text/ email. I think all schools should watch the Social Dilemma, it's very worrying.

Our children’s school has a policy that when using internet in school they must be on school WiFi. It is so they can block unsuitable sites etc. It is a school which allows fairly free use use if phones through the day. There are often Kahoots in lessons from what I hear. I guess there will be a few kids without smart phones so I do t know what they do...I think there might be school laptops or tablets too.

Why can’t all schools I’ve access to the school WiFi so that phones can be used when required by the teacher? They could still have no-use policies at other times?

I agree Wombat, it's better for kids to be allowed to use the school WiFi so that they can apply filters.

I'm slightly wondering if your DD and mine know each other @BertBox! DD2 has also messaged me to ask me to add Kahoot to the 'approved websites' list on her phone because the tutor group is doing quizzes every Friday. Her school doesn't expect phones to be seen unless teachers give them permission to be used for specific activities although that's tended to be further up the school from what I can make out. I've added Kahoot to the list but told DD she should be logging in to the school WiFi whilst using it. I believe it's a case of selecting the school WiFi and using their IT login details so will, hopefully, be straightforward.

@SE13Mummy - I do believe they're your guinea pigs, yes! 😆
Allowed websites is genius! I'm going to have to fiddle around on her phone for another several hours to work out how to do that. I've put the Kahoot app on now, and hope that works out ok. She's adamant no school Wi-fi, but could well be wrong, and it's fine once a week really.