Told to use own phone as part of the behaviour system?

[stripycats]

I am a Head of Department and this year we have been allocated an hour per week to pick up students who are being removed from lessons. I'm not thrilled about this overall but the main issue is the way it is done. We have to walk around school with our own phones with the relevant app downloaded waiting for the alerts to come through. I find it really awkward. I obviously have a smart phone but it's pretty old - I'm not fussed about phones - and the alerts don't always seem to come and I can't always get them back to see the room number before they disappear. I then end up double-checking on my email and having to refresh that to be sure it's updated.

It came to a head yesterday as my ds, who's at uni and having a bit of a rough time, started messaging me when I was on this slot and I found it so stressful having his messages coming through, checking for alerts and a naughty kid in tow who I'd already removed and who wasn't being particularly respectful. I felt so 'dysregulated,' as the lingo goes now, that I just wanted to shut myself in a dark room. I did feel I was at risk of losing it with the kids or crying in front of them or something. It sounds silly but we also have to wear a radio headpiece so you have that in your ear with constant talking (and I'd forgotten to wear something with pockets or a waistband, so had to be holding the radio itself as well as my phone); phone going off, kids kicking off...it's too much.

Surely they should give us an ipad or something to use if we are doing this - it seems we only have one and the deputy always seems to have it (in her office, where she is the majority of the time...).

If the school is requiring the use of an app then they should be providing the device. In my last school, every member of SLT had a work phone and so did every department for this very purpose - it was shared between colleagues but the HoD always had responsibility for it.
I’d be pushing back about using your own device.

they can’t really expect you to use it.

Also a HOD.

Have I misunderstood something here? Sounds as if you're on-call for an hour a week and an extra hour has been allocated for this purpose?

Obviously, there needs to be some mechanism to alert on-call duty staff so they can attend promptly to support the classroom teachers. It seems like there are two devices, a radio and your own phone. From a union perspective, you don't have to use your own phone. Your employer can't require that you bring your own phone to school. This would leave you with the radio. Presumably, the ear piece is used so that confidential information isn't broadcast. I'm unsure why this is an issue. That said, I would be overwhelmed if I was trying to handle incoming personal messages while simultaneously trying to do my job which often involves dealing with tricky situations and vulnerable young people. As a HOD though, I do expect tasks associated with the latter to be my responsibility because my role shows that the school consider me to be highly experienced both in terms of curriculum and pastoral duties.

I think what's happened here is that you literally have your hands full. I could be wrong, but you seem to resent your on-call duty, i.e. you don't like the change. I would say that the current needs of Y7&8, combined with concerns about teacher wellbeing, mean that it's become necessary. I don't really know what to say re: not being able to cope simultaneously with both professional and personal messaging. Presumably, you know the answer to that yourself.

Not a hod but a union rep.

There are no circumstances in which I would be taking my personal device around school with me.

I don't have the school apps on my phone and if they wanted me to I would be insisting on a work phone.

Leave your phone in your car and only use the radio.

What would have happened had your DS been messaging you during a normal teaching lesson?

I can see why the radio wouldn't necessarily be sufficient on its own if it's the same as us, as the staff use the desktop version of the app to log requests, and the on call/SLT/pastoral use the radio to talk around those requests and other ongoing issues. Seems like they need a 'duty phone' same as they have a duty radio.

But equally your son messaging you when you're actively engaged in working with students doesn't really make any difference whether you are teaching or on call- neither is the time or place to be dealing with whatever issue it was unless it's a dire emergency in which case you would ask for cover, surely?

I have no issue with the radio really, just it's so bloody loud and half the things being said aren't connected to the removals but you have to have it on just in case. The volume control is shit and it seems it can only be inaudible or unpleasantly loud, but obviously I understand that there has to be some means of communication and I would choose the radio over my own phone any day, but we are told we have to use our phones.

It has nothing to do with how I would cope with my son contacting me if I was at work but not doing the removals. I don't take my phone into the classroom, and normally just check it a couple of times a day, if I get time. It's not that I feel I need to deal with his issue - I can't really. It's just that when he's messaging like that I know he is feeling bad and something is going on, and I have to ignore it. I'm not worried it's a dire emergency but it's a constant reminder that he's not particularly happy atm and that's difficult to deal with, especially at the same time as being told to eff off or kids shouting at me that they 'NEED A PISS,' which seems to be a major factor in this role.

Before students' phones had to be locked away you would often get kids checking them because mum/dad/gran/the hamster was in hospital and they needed to see if there was an update. I used to tell them they were better off trying to put it out of their mind and that they would be contacted through school if there was an emergency. Now I can't take my own advice as I have to have my phone in my hand. It's not helpful to me, seriously.

And sorry but this made me laugh:

As a HOD though, I do expect tasks associated with the latter to be my responsibility because my role shows that the school consider me to be highly experienced both in terms of curriculum and pastoral duties.

Having to do this role does not reflect the trust and respect the school has for me. It reflects the fact that behaviour is spiraling out of control, SLT are stretched and some of them would rather hide in their offices than get out and support staff, and this is a desperate attempt to get more feet on the ground. I get it and if I felt valued I wouldn't mind. I have always seen supporting my team with behaviour as part of my HoD role and have students on report to me, students from other classes in the back of mine, a high proportion of challenging kids in my classes, and also support with parental contact and anything else I feel will help my team. This is not that though and I don't feel effective doing it like I do when I support with behaviour in my department. I suppose the phone is actually quite a small part of that, on reflection.

Also a union rep. And as someone else has said, leave your phone in your car or something. I always refused to use my own device.

And yeah, I get the thing about behaviour, and the 'do as we say and not as we do' tensions around SLT and middle management (HODs). The thing is, if behaviour in your setting is spiralling out of control, and they've given HODs an additional hour so they can be on-call, then this isn't really unreasonable given the average school hierarchy and the expectations of those in positions of leadership - which a HOD is. I mean what is unreasonable is the overwhelming level of need in Y7&8 currently. It's insane. This is made 89 billion times worse because, due to our professional standards, we're not allowed to talk about it publicly. It's incredibly isolating and has a huge impact on teacher wellbeing. The current discourse is all about unmet needs and more and more adaptation, but very little is being said about what it's like to work, day after day, in an environment where you're routinely subjected to dysregulated behaviour bordering on the criminal. It's really hard.

No one wants to admit that the staff have unmet needs - because not being treated like shit by kids is my unmet need.

I mean ... the criminal age of responsibility is 10 in England, and one thing I've not understood for a long time is why the Public Order Act isn't applied in schools - section 4A and section 5 in particular. I'm not saying we should criminalise the kids, but I am saying according to British Values, Rule of Law should apply consistently and fairly. Currently, it isn't. And, to be honest, I don't know why the unions haven't stood up for this.