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.

I work in a completely phone free school. You are over thinking it. All the students turn their phones off as they walk through the gate, they then turn them on as they leave school

DS(9) has an Apple Watch. He can call me and send me messages from it. I can also track him to and from school. No need for a phone :)

I'm a teacher and all of our pupils have their phones. They're only confiscated if they're found. If it's switched off in his bag, nobody will know it's there.

So do I, the freedom we had as teens was priceless.

Surely he is allowed to take a phone in his bag if it is switched off?

He turns it off when he enters the gates and turns it on again when he leaves. If the whole class have their bags searched and its found even when on silent it's not the end of the world is it. Mobile phones cause many issues at secondary, I'm sure most schools started with quite a fair stance ie can be in their bags but not used during lessons but have been forced into this by irresponsible people.

I have kids in two different secondary schools. That rule seems rather over zealous. In both my DC school the rule is they can have phones on them but must not turn them on or take them out during the time they're in school. This seems fair enough. Kids often need to contact parents straight after or on way home. I also track both my dcs phones. They are fine with it and it's really useful if I need to pick them up from a particular place and can locate them without them having to describe their location to me.

Our DCs' school has a similar rule. As long as the phone is switched off and placed in a bag or pocket before they enter the school grounds, it's fine to have it in their possession.
The rule is if it is seen or heard, then it's confiscated. Most school bags and blazers have some kind of zipped internal pocket that will ensure the phone is completely out of sight unless he takes it out himself.

I'm talking about tracking, rather than the phones themselves. OP is desperate to track her son if he doesn't have his phone. It's not healthy and there's no evidence that it keeps children safer.

https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20211105-the-parents-who-track-their-children

Sonia Livingstone, a professor in the department of media and communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science, believes there is in fact “zero evidence that any of these apps keep children safer”. "I’ve never seen any and I look at all the evidence,” she says.
As an expert in children’s digital rights and safety, who has written several books about parenting in the digital age, Livingstone feels the extensive adoption of tracking apps is an understandable response to constant headlines about the “terrible dangers to our children”. But she argues that in the longer term, tracking apps can have "unintended but also damaging consequences", not least to the parent-child relationship.

@MariaVT65 ah yes, “the school can just fuck off” and once again the mystery of why schools can’t retain teachers is exposed by the twattish behaviour of the utterly delightful parents 🙄.

whatever did we all do before we had phones or gps? remember calling my mom on the pay phone on reception lol

I feel so sorry for kids growing up today. Not only do they have to deal with the horrors of social media, they also have to put up with being electronically tracked by their paranoid parents. When I was their age, we had this thing called ‘freedom’, which we took completely for granted of course. Truly, you don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone.

He just needs to remember to keep it on silent and it will be fine. I work in a school like this. We have no interest whatsoever in checking bags or confiscating unused phones. What we do need to avoid is teachers being recorded in class, upskirting, child exploitation and all the millions of other negative things that can occur with modern technology.

Let him have his phone. Remind him of the need to keep it on silent in school. And please make sure that you have a good routine for checking / discussing what apps he’s using, who he’s speaking to etc.

When I was at school we had a pay phone there and lots in town- that's not the case anymore.

And besides, I left school 22 years ago and had a mobile 24 years ago...

@nancy2022

1. If they want to go somewhere they shouldn't be, they'll turn it off.
2. If they are abducted, the abductor will throw it away.
3. If they lose it or run out of battery, they will have no strategies for keeping themselves safe or getting home.
4. They will know that they are not trusted, which is not good for anyone.

A phone is a useful thing to have. Tracking is not.

No one is sitting watching the tracking constantly, you just use it if there's a reason to. They track me as often as I track them and I have no issue with that at all.

Tile tracker works with android. But let him take a phone. Everybody else will have onee. At DS school they weren't allowed but of course everyone had one secreted. When the school threatened to search bags the kids paid the schools neighbours to hold them. Which of course is super unsafe, but they will do whatever it takes I guess.

Are you sure the school don’t allow phones on silent for use in the journey to and from school? My son’s school are very strict on phones - if anyone is caught using a phone it is confiscated till the end of the day and they get negative “points”, and if anyone’s phone makes a noise in class it is the same. But it’s understood and accepted that all the kids have phones for before and after school. Also, they have on occasion been asked to use their phones for exercises in class.

I think you need to check the details of this OP. I would be very very surprised if kids weren’t allowed to have a phone at all. Much more likely they’re not allowed to use it during the school day.

@saraclara is there any evidence that it doesn’t keep children safer? If there’s no evidence either way because they are no studies it’s a pretty meaningless article.

I doubt many parents are sat tracking their children’s every move, it’s a pretty useful feature when your child wants a lift home or they’re lost. It’s turned on by all of us so not about trust, if they would like to track me on my weekly lidl trip the kids are welcome to do that 😆

the world has changed, and not necessarily for the better

You're absolutely right, it has changed. These days, girls and boys have to worry about being bullied and then seeing their bullying (or sexual assault) being filmed, photographed and shared across multiple social media sites and sent to multiple strangers as well as to other people who know them.

They're also used for County Lines, for grooming children into sexual activity, harassment and blackmail. Having phones handed in during the day reduces the opportunities, it doesn't completely prevent them, but at least the kids have the ability to spend 6.5 hours a day in which they are not everywhere.

A smart watch is likely to also be unacceptable in such a school - they're outright banned in exams, for example, and are still a distraction/can accept messages - and the limitation of any tracking device is that he is likely to leave his coat or bag on the field at lunchtime, take a little bit longer to walk home and you've convinced yourself that the unmoving signal means he's dead in a ditch for the ten minutes it takes for him to walk in the front door.

Tell him to use what three words if he doesn't want to give you tracking privileges. Or he could also send his location via WhatsApp (there's a setting there that allows it) or he could even open the maps on his own phone and get his locations from that.

You asked for advice on a good tracker. I would recommend the Tractive XL dog tracker, although it does require a subscription. I used this with my son fro 2-3 years when he was travelling 13 miles on public transport to school. Battery lasts a week between charges so it can be chucked at the bottom of the bag and forgotten about Mon-Fri. Connects to PC ot tablet or phone and gives very clear indication of location. Also silent and discreet so no chance of it being confiscated.

DS3’s secondary must be unusual then as they are allowed phones and can use them at break times.

Thry have recently had a consultation regarding this though as they have noticed students are taking the mick more which is disappointing as it’s the few ruining it for everyone else as usual.

DS will have his phone out if they ban them or not, as he needs it for medical reasons, so won’t affect him.

Surely he can just turn his phone off before entering the school and turn it back on when he leaves?
I personally don’t think he needs tracking when in high school.

Is it any wonder schools are such awful places to be for pupils and staff lately when parents have attitudes like this.

It's not a secret that children carry phones for use on journeys between home and school. If it's in a bag and not being used, it's not disturbing learning and it's not creating behavioural issues which need investigating.

The confiscation policy will be enforced if the child is found to be using the phone on school premises, which is entirely reasonable.

As I said, my view is it engenders a false sense of security and reduces real trust between parent and child

Once they are out of your sight, you don't know where they are, you know where their tracker is. I'm assuming you haven't implanted it.