Brick phone at an iPad school

[Walkingdisaster1991]

Just wondering what brick phone everyone is getting their children for September?
I've been trying to work out if my children would be able to get away with their smart phones if they're hidden 🫣. And also what are peoples view on this new rule? I understand why the schools and government are bringing this policy in but I'm also so frustrated as I've now not only got to spend out loads as my youngest is starting secondary school, but now I need to buy 3 children brick phones as well as a tracker to keep in their bags/on keys 😩 also the school my children are at before they even start you have to spend nearly £500 on an iPad 🫠🫠 madness how they can't have a smart phone but have to have an I pad Imo 🤦🏻‍♀️. Also not sure if I chose the right subject for this or not so sorry if posting in wrong place.

Mine will have her regular phone in her bag. That's that.

And I would not spend money on a fucking iPad. If the school wants them to use iPads the school buys the iPads.

How can they expect children to learn to use tech if they ban the tech. Let's give them all phone when they are older and we can't control or supervise yay.

At least now I check the phone, talk to her about the group chat and only allow certain apps. Supervision is key

Indeed, my parents didn’t have a home phone during most of my secondary years. I travelled 12 miles on a service bus then walked for a mile until reaching school. I never once missed the bus home, nor lost anything in transit.

"also the school my children are at before they even start you have to spend nearly £500 on an iPad"

Is this a private school? No public school will 'make' you buy an iPad.

Just to add, our iPads were fully funded by the school

My friend is getting her 10 year old a smart phone. She wishes she hadn’t said it - I said ‘be a parent, say you’ve changed your mind!’ She won’t.

she can’t believe I’m not following suit. ‘What about if she goes to the park and there’s a child molester there’ she asked.

1. I can’t get there quickly enough
2. how will a phone help?
3. he’s likely to take the phone and overpower her before she can dial me anyway.
4. my kid won’t be hanging around at the park. I chose a school 6 miles away for a reason, she knows nobody near us to hang around in local parks. Poor kid.

Our school already has this policy. Where by they are allowed to have smart phones but they are not allowed to use them at all during the school day. If they are even seen they are confiscated and a parent has to go in to school and retrieve it back. And if they refuse to give it they are automatically suspended. It does work. This happened to my daughter today. Her bag wasn’t zipped up and phone was seen and it was confiscated

I think it’s fine to ban smartphones from being used in school, but silly to ban them from the premises entirely. At my daughter’s primary school phones have to remain switched off and out of sight in their bags. Some schools have the kids deposit them in a box or something as they enter the school. I think the secondary school she is off to in August have a similar rule. I would worry if my daughter got into some difficulty on the way home and needed to contact me.
I also like being able to track her.
Having said that, I suppose we all survived without them in the old days lol.
No chance would I be buying her a brick phone or any kind of other phone if school was banning them entirely. She would have to go without. There is no way in hell this rule should be causing any parent to have to fork out for a second bloody phone!
I think it’s a bit backwards this rule, when the technology is there to help kids be a bit safer when out and about.
In our local authority there are also constant threats of them increasing the distance at which they will put on transport. Even more reason for kids to have access to their phones if they aren’t potentially facing a long walk home or having to use public transport.

No, the school are not making you buy a £500 iPad. (Well, not if it’s a state school in England anyway.)
“School governing bodies and local authorities, cannot charge for:
• an admission application to any state funded school - paragraph 1.9 (n) of the
‘School Admissions Code 2012’ rules out requests for financial contributions as
any part of the admissions process;
• education provided during school hours (including the supply of any materials,
books, instruments or other equipment);
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5af99c8ae5274a25e78bbe30/Charging_for_school_activities.pdf

Unless your kids have to get on a bus to school, they don't need to take a phone to school.
Generations of kids walked to and from school without phones tracking their every move. Slightly different if they have to get on a bus independently as probably good to know if they miss a bus.
We do really be smothering a while generation of kids.

Also, TFL live in London area in case tube line is down so you need to sort out another route or another transport such as bus or Overground. It is a very useful app with up to date status.

If parents actually parented their children properly, most problems with phones, bullying etc wouldn’t happen in the first place.

Just to be clear yes the school does make us get an iPad. They offer monthly installments unless you're on free school meals then there's a discount. This is a state school. Not private. They are also restricted.
I would love for the school to have the magnetic pouches for phones, they just won't fund it 🙄

They don't need a phone. It's all about trusting them to go to school and back again safely. I think it's great to ban them. There is no need and it's a distraction from learning and a tool for bullying

Plenty do. We chose one that didn’t! I think it’s ridiculous

My child takes her smart phone to school and switches it off and it stays in her bag. They’re allowed to switch them on when the last lesson ends.

Wow I can’t believe those of you complaining about this. The chance to change the trajectory of your child becoming addicted to a smartphone, that is actively harming them. I’d be absolutely thrilled if our school did this.

The whole point is changing the culture. Think now about the smoking ban coming in. Some people felt it couldnt happen soon enough because they understood the harms. Others felt it was extreme and controlling. Now it’s unthinkable that we’d allow smoking in enclosed spaces around children. The more of us that get our kids brick phones, the more normalised it is and we reduce the harms coming to a whole generation of kids.

Sorry, I used the wrong term - I realise 'public school' means private in the UK.

I meant to say no state school will make you buy an iPad.

They can't 'make' you buy an iPad. What they are doing is offering you an option to purchase one if you want. It's totally optional.

I didn’t even catch that! I meant state too :)

They give parents payment plans! I think it’s terrible.

One if my kids switched to an iPad school in year 9 - we had to catch up with the payment plan and pay a chunk in one go. I wasn't happy especially as many of them were poor refurbs. It was better than lugging school books back and forth or forcing the use of smart phones though.
All my elder kids had smart phones by year 7. My youngest will not get one until at least year 9 - the tide is turning.

Please support the school in this. I work in a school and we banned smartphones a while ago - the positive impact on students' mental health, readiness to learn, social skills, bullying has been extraordinary. We all wish it had been introduced sooner.

We use the pouches but I honestly think brick phones would be an even better solution. They're really cheap to buy.

Our secondary already has a phone ban, they confiscate any device they see and keep for 48 hrs, even if a Friday and this means over a weekend. My kids goes into the toilet to text if they realise they’ve forgotten someone or to remind me to top up their lunch money, but if I mentioned them getting in touch when I dropped whatever off they’d go find her and take her phone.
At our primary a parent has to complete a phone in school form and they are handed in at the beginning of the day but it done in trust really. Some kids don’t get their parents to authorise and just leave their phone in their bag in the cloakroom.
Be interesting if the schools double down and make the rules even stricter from September

IPADs and laptops at schools are monitored by a software system which prevents students accessing to dangerous websites and searching things that are considered dangerous or inappropriate for them. Headteacher / staff teachers gets notified if a child attempts doing something wrong on it and they can act on it on the spot.

Students are getting traumatised by the impact of online world and schools are doing their best to keep them safe. Why not support them in this difficult decision but choose to blame them. I am sure parents will see the difference and realise it's benefits.

Yes, I’ve been told that kids at our secondary school used to take their phones into the toilet when they had a “off and in bags” policy. They would then hog the toilet cubicles for ages while they sat there scrolling and messaging. The result was that other children didn’t have time to use the toilets and then had to go back to lessons without going - so got in trouble when they then got desperate during lessons. And the children in the toilets missed out on social time and developing face to face relationships.

I’m very glad that the school has now realised the out of sight policy wasn’t working and are introducing pouches.

Our primary has banned smartphones completely from the premises and quite right too IMO. No 10 year old needs a smartphone.

But that doesn’t say they can’t have smartphones. It just says they can’t use them during the school day.

So phones in bags, switched off. Much like pretty much most schools these days.