Strict no phones rule at secondary school

[mrstidytraxxxx]

DS is starting Y7 in September. The school has a strict no mobile phone rule on site. If a student takes a mobile onto school grounds and it is found, it is confiscated for a minimum of 48-hours.

We live approximately a 30-minute walk from secondary school. There are buses, but these are apparently unreliable.

Either myself or DH will take DS to school at present (primary school is less than 10-minute walk away) and he walks home by himself, with one of us meeting him at home.

When DS plays out with friends, he has his mobile with him and knows we use Google Family Link to check he is where he says he is and he is happy with this arrangement. Obviously, we will not be able to continue like this for school journeys from September.

I would like to get a GPS tracker, either key-ring or watch, to make sure where he is on the way home.

Can anyone recommend an Android-compatible GPS key-ring or watch, that does not alert if it moves too far away from the mobile it is connected to, preferably subscription free?

Thanks in advance.

If parents want to really make their kids safe then take their phones off them.

People are terrified of rare events like accidents or kidnap but seem to completely ignore the things that are much more likely to happen- online bullying, sexting, nudes, revenge porn, grooming and coordinated attacks. All using phones.

I would bet my life that knife crime and teen gang culture would be very stifled if suddenly tomorrow no teenager in this country had a phone.

Because wherever a child is on their journey home, no matter where they are, they will always be outside a shop 😂

If they have family members close enough to actually swoop in and prevent a potential attack, then they would be better running towards said family members' houses (or their neighbours' houses) than messing about with phones and panic buttons.

A job of a parent is to help children navigate this stuff safely. You can't shelter them from everything. If they get their first phone at 18, they're not going to magically be immune from the above. Communication is key, and reasonable monitoring of their phone usage whilst they're still children. It's the best you can hope for.

I see your point with Knife crime, however it is what it is now, and therefore it is safer for a child to have a phone they can hand over if targeted. Sad but true.

Genuinely..where do you live?

I live in a Borough that have police outside schools for this very reason! Multiple stabbing after school due to phone theft.

At last, a school with sense! I work in a secondary school and would love it if they weren't permitted. No sneaky texting going on to organise a vaping sesh in the toilets 🙄

@Calloffruity - they're more likely to be outside a shop than somewhere where mum can swoop to the rescue.

@SweetNaffAll is that advice from the police? Make sure your child has a phone so they've got something to hand over? And multiple stabbings?

Is it not just fair to say that in some parts of the world, things are less idealic and there is a real reason to be overly concerned of a child's safety to and from school?

It's rather ignorant to assume otherwise!

My children's school have had numerous letters and meetings to tackle the knife crime epidemic and it has been agreed it is indeed safer to carry a phone than to not.

A teenager lost his life the other day to knife crime. 15 years old. In fact every week our community groups whether on 'Next-door ' or 'Facebook ' are flooded with incidents if knife related crime - usually aimed a young teenagerers.

Not everyone is privileged to live in a low crime rate area!

Mock away...

Islington... look it up 🙄

Your ignorance is shocking

Are they? My DD's walking route to school takes 30 minutes and she wouldn't pass a single shop on the way

Some people are too hard up on mocking pro active parents without giving any consideration to the fact that some areas are more safe than others!

@SweetNaffAll I absolutely understand that some children are more at risk than others. And some areas are more dangerous than others. My poor is that tracking a child won't reduce the risk or be any help at all.

It's proven it has. In several incidences. It's not guaranteed but has worked

I don't think, by the way, that parents tracking their children are "proactive". To me, "proactive" parents are the ones who work with their children to teach them strategies to keep themselves safe.

@SweetNaffAll I'd like to see that proof. Incidentally- isn't Islington the borough where McDonalds has declared itself a safe space for children feeling threatened? Awful that it's necessary, but great that they've done it.

@SweetNaffAll we have the knife crime team in once a week at the moment (am south east coast) so I get it.

Strategies like what? Run into non existent shops? 😂

Again, where do you live? Because as much as I agree with what you say, realistically it will be useless in protecting children where I live.

🤣🤣🤣🤣 that's hilarious! McDonald's is nowhere near my children's school, plus McDonald's has been central to where a lot of the stabbings have happened and where a lot of youths congregate after school.

Google Islington and you will see yourself.

We live it and breathe it. Our school has advised us to meet our children after school and if we can't, to arrange a system in which parents can rotate school pick ups to escort children to their homes.

Please don't talk about a situation you have no idea about.

My daughters friend was stabbed 4 weeks ago because she didn't have a phone to hand over. She was fortunate enough to have avoided a potentially fatal stab wound. Luckily two superficial wounds. This is one example of many in this area

But the knife crime is organised by phone. These kids have phones that they are using to get involved in crime. How would they manage to target and swoop in on victims without them? It would be much harder.

Most of the incidents begin online- someone posts something that they don’t like or someone sends private messages that start a fight. And these fights are impossible to track because they happen in closed groups with no adults present.

When stuff brewed IRL we could often see it coming in school and diffuse it. Or parents could over hear something and step in. But now everything is in encoded WhatsApps or Discords or SnapChats and it is a fucking nightmare.

Children are essentially bringing each other up and making their own culture online without any parental input and we are then all amazed at the sudden IRL consequences of that.

Anyone who is counting on their kid’s phone to keep them safe is kidding themselves- you’ve essentially handed them unrestricted access to some of the worst parts of humanity and then told them that it is for their own benefit.

Does the slight benefit of knowing where they are at all times outweighs all those other evils? Only the existence of smart phones makes stuff like County Lines and CSA so easy for criminals because it makes everything they do to children invisible to parents.

@SweetNaffAll I'm backing out for the time being-I'm obviously just winding you up.But just thought you might be interested in this. Probably the wrong school or the wrong place or the wrong McDonalds- but I'm relieved I wasn't making it up! www.times-series.co.uk/news/23557828.mcdonalds-branch-safe-haven-knife-crime/

Look I get what you're saying, but where I live, the biggest threat right now is muggings - for phones, and particularly targeting school children. We live in an overpopulated city in which police cannot keep up with the sheer volume of crimes committed daily. If you report theft you can bet your bottom dollar that it will not be investigated. You will be given a crime number, but you'll never see your phone again.

There are not enough resources and therefore these muggings will continue. I'm not prepared to make my children guinea-pigs by stopping them taking a phone in in hope that muggers will eventually realise that it's not worth the crime as children are no longer allowed phones at school... plus, realistically many children will take phones in anyway.

I've worked hard at fostering good relationships with my children, and teaching them the dangers of online bullying etc. I can only hope that it's enough, and so far it has been. They need to learn to navigate technology with guidance. Realistically, we can't go back to how it was pre smart phones so it's a pointless argument. Children will find a way, as will criminals.

Sadly it's a case of survival and street smarts. Again, we don't all have the luxury of living in well to do area.

I'm not wound up by you, but I live in this area and can tell you that every movement and campaign to stop knife crime has failed miserably and if anything it has gotten worse. Yes, they say its a safe haven, but in fact it has done nothing and stabbings and muggings have continued. Parents of children growing up in this area will know too well that despite efforts it is very much still going on, hence the need to allow mobile phones for our children's safety.

Every week we are reading and hearing of horror stories in our area, and as mentioned earlier, a 15 year old boy loosing his life only a few days ago.

For some people it is hard to grasp unless they are in the thick of it.