School rules about phones.

[seeker]

My dd's school has always been relaxed about phones. The school places a lot of emphasis on trusting the girls generally. However, from after half term, they will have to put their phones in their lockers at the beginning of the day and not get them out til the end of the day. I have no problem with them not being allowed to have them during the day. However, I have two concerns. One is what seems to be a sudden change in the relationship of trust between staff and girls. Why not tell them that they have to be turned off and in the bottom of bags in school time? My other concern is the prospect of 1000 girls rushing to their lockers at the end of the day for their phones - they have shuttle buses to catch to connect to public buses home. Is is remotely possible that this "phone stampede is NOT going to create chaos and missed buses? Anyone have any experience?

If you were in a school with a "relaxed2 attitude to mobiles you would know why they school has changed its policy. Kids are constantly texting, girls tend to store them in their bras (which I find nearly as disgusting as boys trousers). Phones do get switched on accidentally. Girls can be cyber bullying others in the same class during the school day. Most phones have cameras which also creates a huge security risk and breach of privacy.

They don't need them in school amothers, but in these days of less local schools and more children having to travel miles away to larger amalgamated sites often on public transport they can be very useful.

The school my ds attends has a blanket ban on phones, which I support. The head's reasoning apart from the obvious is that children carrying expensive electrical equipment (ipods etc too) are more vulnerable to being mugged than without.
In extreme one-off circumstances they can be brought in and handed into the office for the day.
If a phone is confiscated, it will only be returned to the parent at the end of TERM.

So, marriednotdead - what would you do if you were me - dd comes home either to the railway station, the bus stop or walks home, depending on the vagaries of the transport system, the speed with which she leaves school and whether or not she stops for a ice cream with her friends. How would I know whether to to pick her up and where from if she didn't have a phone?

What if she wants to go home with a friend after school, or there's something interesting going on she wants to stay for?

I think a blanket ban could work in the sort of place where everyone walks to school. Sadly, there aren't meany of them nowadays!

The school dd wants to go to from September has a ban on mobiles (well they can be handed in at reception). She is planning to have a cheapo one in her bag - as she will be cycling a fair distance along country lanes to get there I feel she does need an emergency communication method in case she breaks down. In those circumstances I have no problem with her breaking the rules as long as she's completely discrete about it (I'm happier with it being in her bag rather than handed in as then it won't be forgotten which it might well be otherwise).

Really seeker I think the way forward is to encourage your dd to have a less black & white view of the world & do the same.

Also marriednotdead, back in the "old days" there were lots of public telephone boxes, one on every corner that seekers's dd could have used instead as I often did when doing various journeys to anf from school and activities.

Now they are hard to find, even in town centres.

Seeker, I don't pretend to have all the answers. I guess if I were in your position and mobiles were not an option then I would agree a 'latest' time and collect from a set point then.
We are luckily within walking distance of school- it's a community school so home to school distance is a major entry criteria. If ds wants to stay for an activity, he is permitted to use the office phone to call me. Otherwise we discuss in advance what time I would like him home, allowing for distractions stops along the way.
Island- I agree not many phone boxes around anymore.

?If a phone is confiscated, it will only be returned to the parent at the end of TERM.?

I?d just like to point out that this is, in fact, against the law.

Even if you happen to think it?s a good policy, confiscating items without any intention of returning them is theft in the eyes of the law and if a parent turns up at school at the end of the day demanding that the phone be returned, the school has not legal right to refuse. Confiscation is only legal if it lasts for the day, not longer.

My children have mobile phones because they both have chronic medical conditions which could, conceivably, become very serious during their 20 minute walk home (from different schools). However, I?m perfectly happy for the school to confiscate them during the day if they are used inappropriately.

?If a phone is confiscated, it will only be returned to the parent at the end of TERM.?

I?d just like to point out that this is, in fact, against the law.

Even if you happen to think it?s a good policy, confiscating items without any intention of returning them is theft in the eyes of the law and if a parent turns up at school at the end of the day demanding that the phone be returned, the school has not legal right to refuse. Confiscation is only legal if it lasts for the day, not longer."

that's such rubbish - of course it's not illegal a school can confiscate for the day, week, fortnight or term. If you don't like don't let them take a phone in the first place

It most certainly isn?t rubbish, been there, done that. It?s easy enough to check out if you really want to?

School rules don?t trump the law of the land, you know.

Interesting mattellie, I hadn't realised that. If they are returning phones, even at the end of term, then surely it can't be deemed as theft?
It is made very clear from the outset that this is school policy.

We return confiscated items at the end fo the day on the first occasion, but after that they have to be picked up by a parent. If the parent comes on the same day, they get it back on the same day. Otherwise - not.

You see, marriednotdead - that's my point. Moblie phones have been invented. Why on earth should dd and I have to make all those complicated arrangements, and her potentially miss out on fun or seeing her friends just because she is a child, and therefore not allowed a piece of technology that practically everyone in the world uses. She's not a second class citizen, she just not an adult yet!

Tis a difficult balance...

I can't see why any school would wish to hold onto confiscated items longer than it takes a parent to come in for them, mattellie.

Although I suppose if both sides wanted to get arsey, your 'ahah! You can only confiscate my child's phone for the day!' could quite readily become a headteacher's 'ah but we can also put your child into afterschool detention/isolate/exclude him for this blatant breach of school rules...'

I don't think it's a difficult balance really, marriednotdead. My phone's in my bag all day. I don't play with it when I'm teaching, but I do check for texts etc (& circumvent school's firewall as I access FB) at break or lunch. If I forget to switch it onto silent & my bag chirrups, my classes can be relied on to 'tssk' at me!

& ime the vast majority of students do likewise. As Seeker says, it is entirely silly for her dd not to be able to have a phone in school - they are part of everyday life.

All that's required is a general understanding that it's not appropriate to take your phone out of your bag during a lesson, & if you do, you can expect to have it taken off you.

My personal bugbear is parents who text their dc at school - I took a phone from a year 11 girl a couple of weeks ago, & it proceeded to beep at 5 minute intervals for the rest of the lesson, as her mum sent endless texts about, well, bugger all really. I really don't know what she thought her dd was likely to be doing at 10am, the week before her GCSEs...you'd think the possibility that the poor girl might be trying to concentrate on her revision lessons might've at least crossed her mum's mind...

ravenAK

It is, however, very unlikely that you will covertly film what is going on in your class and post it online.

This is about safeguarding. Schools can monitor online activity and block unsuitable sites on the school network but not on phones.

Many more students are being given smartphones by parents which have unlimited internet access. Schools have to do something to protect students from facebook bullying and unsuitable internet access while in lessons and on the school site.

Its not about trust, its about safety and its the future.

You would be shocked (maybe) how many kids have iPhones. Of course I confiscated one during a lesson, and I was sure that what I had seen was his ipod which I think went in the other pocket.
You also can not be sure your daughter doesn't get hers out during the day and text her friends etc. I am sure some are.
My DD and DS both have phones, and need them to contact me (DS from school or on way home, DD from the stables mainly). However I would support the in lockers policy (at least if the lockers were big enough to store more than PE kit). Your daughter doesn't need her phone during the school day.

It's probably cyber bullying that's the problem here, seeker.Unfortunately, girls seem to excel at it

Maggotts, I've been covertly filmed & uploaded to youtube! Not my finest teaching hour, I'll admit. The student concerned was disciplined because he'd broken school rules by using a phone in a lesson, & I made a mental note not to do that weird thing with my hands that I apparently do ALL THE TIME when I'm cross...

To be quite honest, there's far more embarrassing footage of me doing the rounds legitimately - a colleague filmed me making a complete bugger's muddle of a pre-planned peer assessment, & gleefully showed it at a training day as a 'how not to'. Thanks for that!

The safeguarding issue that pinkgrapefruitjuice raises re: use of 'smart' phones is something I would be genuinely concerned by, but tbh my experience is that cyber-bullying is far less prominent than it was, say, 5 years ago - it's no longer such a novel way to bait someone, & there's much more redress in that it's a recognised form of bullying. I'm not suggesting for a minute that it's not going on - but there seems to be much more awareness, among students, of how to deal with online bullies.

Phones aren't necessarily the problem anyway - LA firewalls tend to be pretty ineffective. Any of my tutor group, on any given day, could've told you the latest (ie. not yet noted & blocked) proxy URLs to use to access banned sites from school computors.

So even if you caused every smuggled mobile in a school to spontaneously combust - you wouldn't come anywhere close to putting a stop to inappropriate internet usage.

Far better to have sensible rules about the use of mobiles: ie. not taken out of bag in a lesson, unless your teacher has made a specific exception, & no using networking sites in a malicious manner. The vast majority of kids can see the sense in both of these, & will accept confiscation &/or other sanctions as the natural consequence of taking the piss.

Apart from anything else, given the tendency of technology to become cheaper over time, we're never going to win the war, however many skirmishes we might claim petty victories in.

Personally I think any teacher who SEES a pupil with a mobile phone during school hours should be allowed to take it and sell it on ebay for personal gain.

"Your daughter doesn't need her phone during the school day. "

I know she doesn't. I said that in my OP.

I think I'm also a bit pissed off that if this ban is in response to a nasty bit of cyber bullying then it is obviously a back-covering exercise - you know, "we have appropriate measures in place to ensure that inappropriate use of mobile phones does not take place on school premises". So not my problem, guv. They can then tick the box marked safeguarding, and who cares what the kids do to each other before 9 and after 4.

"back covering exercise"

I disagree.

"who cares what the kids do to each other before 9 and after 4"

Where does the school's responsibility stop and parental responsibility begin?

New technology - supplied by parents - put schools in a difficult position. They act 'in loco parentis' and schools have to protect students from themselves. As ravenAK says, many students are able to get around internet security but at least your school is doing something to safeguard them during the school day. With smartphones they can go anywhere they choose, how many teenagers always make wise choices when surfing online?

Smartphones are here to stay and, of course, students can use them in many different and appropriate ways. To record images on cameras, to download emails, to research topics, all can be relevant within lessons.
However they can also be a massive distraction, intrusive to privacy and yes they are used for cyberbullying. Facebook especially is a big problem within my school.
A ban on phones in school does go some way to addressing these problems. I would be interested to hear any alternative solutions you could think of.

I've suggested what I think should be done - phones off and in bags during school time - swingeing punishment for anyone caught breaking the rule. The school has a very efficient team of prefects - they could sort it.

Yes Seeker but the phones in bags thing is obviously not working or they would not be changing the rules. Why not support the school? Just a thought...