Phones banned from schools from 1st April - what is your school doing?

[Kepler22B]

My school (teacher) is fully implementing the new government policy https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/mobile-phones-in-schools/mobile-phones-in-schools

Phones handed in at the start of the school day and not collected until they go home. It is a boarding school so they can get their phones for a short while in the evening. No change for us here, we already did this.

What is changing for us is no phones on trips or matches or Saturdays. Plus the rules now apply to 6th form (but there is some leeway that my school isn’t taking)

Is your school fully banning phones? How are they implementing this? Are you happy with the rules?

Genuine question for those saying, This is wonderful, Schools should have done this years ago, etc - given that you always had the option not to allow your own DC to take a phone to school (or even have one at all, let alone a smartphone), presumably you did this, and the fact that your DC's school didn't ban phones was irrelevant? Or were you waiting for the the school to do that part of parenting?

@MarchingFrogs if I don't give my child a phone but everyone else does and every other kid can use it in school, it's not a great outcome.

If I don't give my child a phone and no one can use one at school anyway it's different.

It's quite self evident. No need to be abrasive asking about schools doing the parenting for the parents

How on earth are schools going to enforce this in sixth form? If, when I was 17 or 18, a teacher had attempted to confiscate my phone (or anything else for that matter) they would have received a very blunt two word response.

@SpottyAlpaca DS’s (17) school has had a policy in place for a while. Everyone has to hand their phones in as they walk into the building, each person has an assigned slot for their phone so they can see if someone’s phone is missing. Of course, a pupil could have a second phone, but I don’t think anyone bothers.

They can check them out at 3:30 or if they have permission leave early for an appointment, they can get them. It seems to work.

Wanting to keep kids quiet seems to be a real driver in adults wanting kids to have access to phones and panicking when there's a prospect of them not having access.

we’re in Scotland.

all the kids have just had their chrome books replaced with iPads so banning phones would just be performative.

The reasons my daughter doesn't take a phone to school are the same reasons I think it's a great policy.

Yes, it should have happened years ago!
It's so annoying that it could have saved teachers and other staff major multi factor difficulties together with of course pupil bullying and theft.
I honestly feel most sympathy for the teachers because of how obscenely cut backs and the resulting pupil behaviour effects their experience and level of responsibility and amount of work.
I genuinely wish that the techniques of withholding use of phones in schools is sustainable and safe and immune from destruction together with not generating outcry and negative reaction from dickhead disagreeable parents.

No PE teacher but here's some new iPads.

It's ridiculous isn it? I'm so glad everyone goes to college at 16 in our area where students can be asked to leave for disrupting classes or study areas with (among other things) phones but are generally allowed to self regulate and manage their own time and devices, because they are not in year 7 anymore.

The thing is, your child should have gone to the school medical room, that would be the expectation.

Phones off and in bags all day here.

Thjng is they all come straight out on the busses home (rural). Not much to be done about that tho i guess.

Why is your school stopping students from having their phones on a Saturday?

This is such a non argument.
of course there are exceptions for children with medical need.

And that’s why there is another thread currently going about parents making teachers lives miserable…

DS school was/is part of a trial of the lockable phone pouches in Scotland. Some bright spark worked out how to bypass it…so the pouches (and the money spent on them!) is pointless. Prior to being able to hack the pouches the kids just used the school iPads.

Phones off and in bags

But they can still use them in the toilets and no-one in authority would know.

I think no phones at all is a good policy, but parents also need to do their bit in monitoring usage and removing them overnight.

If, when I was 17 or 18, a teacher had attempted to confiscate my phone (or anything else for that matter) they would have received a very blunt two word response.

It would presumably have been in the rules which you agreed to when you entered the sixth form?

Yes, schools are allowed to confiscate phones.

If you don’t want schools to confiscate phones then you have 2options. 1) never used in school (you dd could have spoken to a member of staff) or 2) don’t take a phone into school at all.

I know it seems harsh but the rules now apply has to apply to all (even good, nice kids) for it to be effective.

So children with diabetes or a hearing impairment are now in danger in school.

If children have a medical need then school will make reasonable adjustments. That isn’t a reason to not have rules in place for the majority.

My teens have finished school but this has been a thing in our town since at least 2018. My sons secondary confiscated any phones used in the school day. They were meant to be in bags all day.
If I popped to reception I'd often see parents having to go in and collect a phone.

Or school makes exceptions for medical monitoring etc.
I don't think this needs to be stated on every post about banning phones for 99% of children.
Unless you have reason to believe this isn't generally the case?

Ds is in year 11 and has never taken his phone to school anyway. His school currently has a clear no phones to be seen on site rule and confiscate them when they are seen.

for current year 10 down they are introducing yondr pouches soon.

How to unlock them is easily found online. Pretty much three options: bang the lock at the perfect angle on a hard surface like a concrete floor to get it to open, bend the locking pin slightly so it can’t actually lock but looks locked, or get a powerful magnet to unlock it. Bonus of the magnet is that you can run a lucrative side hustle of charging a small fee to unlock other students’ pouches. Some students have been creative and unpicked a seam and replaced it with press studs/poppers, or Velcro.

My son's secondary school is a no phones school - no phones allowed at all. If a phone is found its confiscated until the end of the term. Everyone survives, somehow (though I know some kids still sneak them in to use before/ after school).