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Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

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Original poster

Do ALL children take mobiles to secondary school?

39 replies

roisin · 21/07/2008 11:00

At our school we have a policy of no mobiles, but know full well that most students have them in their bags. (Hopefully switched off and hopefully they don't get them out during the school day ). They are the root cause of all sorts of problems and I'm not a fan at all.

DS1 doesn't even have a phone yet, but we've agreed he can have dh's til Christmas then will get his own at Christmas when he knows what he wants.

He will have a 15 min bus journey each way, and would probably happily spend some of this time texting his mates, or phoning us to let us know he's going to be late/in detention or whatever.

So would I be ultra mean mummy to say "No, school policy of no phones means no phones and you're not taking one to school!"

Do any of you have children in secondary who do not take their phones in to school on a regular basis?

OP posts:

mumeeee · 26/07/2008 13:43

No not all children take mobiles to school. DD3 didn't have a mobile until she was 15 and then decided that she would not take it to scvhool. This was because a lot of mobiles were going misssing at school and the school advised them not to take them or to hide them in their bags.

Celia2 · 26/07/2008 14:00

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Blandmum · 26/07/2008 14:18

We ban them until the sixth form. They have been involved in bullying, are a risk of theft and the little beggers bugger about with them in the class.

and then lie about it. Ad nauseam.

Cue much wasted lesson time

so we ban them.

School will phone home/ recieve calls if needed and we have pay phones that the kids can also use if they wish

Original poster

roisin · 26/07/2008 14:40

But do the kids still bring them and keep them hidden in their bags MB?

I loathe them in schools and they do cause so many problems. There is a payphone right next to the bus-stop, so he could easily ring us if he is running late, and not risk missing the bus iyswim.

OP posts:

Blandmum · 26/07/2008 16:33

ys they do, and the more brazen will try to use them in class, while denying the very though once caught.

I'd like to have some form of supressor tat simply prevents any mobile use in school time. But sadly.....

swedishmum · 27/07/2008 20:11

I would be furious if my dds' phones were confiscated - fortunately they are are at a school where no-one would consider using them in class - because their school coach does not always turn up/ sometimes breaks down, and they are a mile away from home when they reach the bus stop in a deserted area with no footpath. If children were sensiblke enough to use them at appropriate times only then responsible children wouldn't have to suffer blanket bans.

fizzbuzz · 27/07/2008 21:50

I would like that MB, they have them in Japan.

What really pisses me off, is I have had 2 instances where parents have phoned their kids in the lesson! This makes me insanely angry.

Phones have rung (despite supposedly being switched off)and it is the parents!

Blandmum · 27/07/2008 21:52

I have also had a mother phone her 11 year old in the middle of a lesson

unknownrebelbang · 27/07/2008 21:57

It's stories like that that irritate the hell out of me, and would make me want to ban them completely if I worked in a school (even though I've already stated I've found it useful for DS1).

fizzbuzz · 27/07/2008 22:02

One of these parents was phoning from the labour ward to tell her daughter she'd just had a little boy!

fizzbuzz · 27/07/2008 22:06

There was also an incident where a member of staff confiscated an Ipod off a child

Said child phoned his mum about it. Colleague went to deliver Ipod to Senior member of staff for safe keeping. Senior member of staff told colleague that child had to have it returned as mum had phoned up and played hell. This all happened in the space of 5 minutes!

Loshad · 28/07/2008 23:21

my oldest - just going into Y10 has never taken a phone to school, ds2(going into y9) sometimes takes his, but usually never when needed

ReallyTired · 29/07/2008 12:49

The school I am working is involved in an experiment with Vodaphone. 15 year 9s children have been given a smartphone. Its a PDA device, with a camera, pocket word, pocket excel, pocket powerpoint and a wireless network card. Its called handheld learning.

The idea of the experiment is that if they all have the same phone then you will have less issues with jelously, theft etc. I am writing to write a script that when the phone detects the school wireless network that it switches off the phone part of the PDA. Admtially this is proving qutie difficult.

Last term the children did a trial with these mobile phones and it wasn't the disaster I expected. Actually the kids looked after them and put them to good educational use.

At the moment the biggest obsticle is cost. It costs about £400 a phone and unless Vodaphone heavily subsidise the cost of the phones then it will not happen. However as you say the cost of these devices are coming down.

Rather schools banning them, prehaps its better to think about ways of embracing them.

GrapefruitMoon · 30/07/2008 09:03

My dd is also about to start secondary... the school she is going to has a huge catchment area and lots of the children travel a long way by themselves so mobiles are useful. The school allows them to bring in their phones but they must be kept in their lockers during the day. I think most schools around here have similar policies - some insist the phones are left in the school office.

We have given dd an old one of ours for now....

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