Legal ban on smartphones, schools in England

bump.
It wont be popular with teenagers but it's making school life more impossible to manage.

Brilliant news

It's good news. School prepares children for life, and being on your mobile all the time at university lectures, or at work, is not going to go down well. Best they learn to concentrate on something other than their phone while they're in school.

They don't need their phones in school and are better off concentrating on their work and using their brains.

I can see, though, that having a phone (not necessarily a smartphone) when travelling to and from school and especially if there's no-one at home when they get there is useful for safety in this day and age. Things were different when we were young...

Certain pupils should still be allowed their smart phones Type 1 diabetics for instance their phones monitor their blood levels.

Good news.

Few children need phones (apart from health reasons).

My granddaughter has just started walking to school on her own and she has a phone so she can contact her parents and they can contact her. But it doesn’t have any social media stuff on it unlike her friends phones.

How do people without a smartphone manage rosie1959?

Im very glad but I think it will be hard to enforce
It works very well in my granddaughters school.
They have no idea when there is going to be a spot check.
It could be in the middle of a lesson when they will all be told to assemble in the hall.
No coats and no bags.
The girls wear trousers in her school so many places to hide.
If someone is found with a phone it is confiscated for 3 days.

rosie1959

Certain pupils should still be allowed their smart phones Type 1 diabetics for instance their phones monitor their blood levels.

That comes under the heading of reasonable adjustments.

About time!

Jaxjacky

How do people without a smartphone manage rosie1959?

There are i believe devices that can scan the device but the smartphone app is far better for recording reading and has the abilty to report its findings to parents and healthcare professionals.
If they don't have a smartphone the school problem does not exist.
They could do finger pricks but this is not so efficient as continuous tracking.

Is this a complete ban on all phones or just smart phones

Long overdue. It won't hurt them to stay away from the rubbish which constitutes a lot of social media and concentrate on getting an education.

Also reduce the risk of certain sorts of bullying and taking photos which are inappropriate and that threatening feeling of always potentially being in the spotlight.

Make more actually talk to each other and socialise normally.

Although I am in favour of banning phones in schools, for all the obvious reasons, I have a few questions.
Who is going to ‘police’ this ban? Will teachers be expected to challenge students?
If they are put in the lockable pouches, at what cost? A large comprehensive school will have around 1000 students, possibly more.
Where will they be stored? In form rooms? Another problem for the form teacher.
Some schools have form time mid morning, as registration is electronic in the first lesson, then who will supervise the handing in of the phone?
I suspect all of these questions will be met with ‘ it’s up to the individual schools and their budgets’.
This could be very costly for the schools, money that could be spent on retention and recruitment of staff.

I worked in a secondary school nearly 20 years ago and phones were a problem then.
Heaven knows what it’s like now.

Our GD is 11 and has had a phone since 9 as she has a long bus journey to school.
As soon as she steps off the bus a staff member is there with a box in which she places her phone.

Yes it’s a private school and staff pupil ratios are high but surely it can’t be so hard to enforce

Glad they’ve realised how bad the situation has got.

rosie1959

Certain pupils should still be allowed their smart phones Type 1 diabetics for instance their phones monitor their blood levels.

Yes, my granddaughter has T1D and will be allowed her phone.

The ban will not be popular to start with, but many pupils will realise after a while that using phones, ipads and computers less while at school actually makes the school-day easier and less tiring.

The ban will presumably only apply during the time spent at school - that at least is what is being done in Denmark, where some schools have a voluntary agreement about no phones turned on in the classroom, or at break. Obviously, a child walking or taking public transport or cycling to school can have a phone with them - they turn it off at school, and some schools (to prevent theft) put phones in a locked drawer in the teacher's desk or a classroom cupboard at the start of the school day, and hand them out when the bell goes after the last lesson of the day.

Pupils were appalled to start off with, but now the majority find it easier to concentrate without text messages all the time, and enjoy talking or playing with their friends during break, rather than surfing the Internet.

Some schools are already doing it. One private school collects pupil’s phones on arrival and returns them at the end of the day, so on their way to and from school they have the use of their phone. This covers for emergencies. I can see no reason why they need a phone during the day. Parents and pupils have accepted this.

rosie1959

Certain pupils should still be allowed their smart phones Type 1 diabetics for instance their phones monitor their blood levels.

Other monitors are now quite reasonably available with dedicated monitors, no phone required.

25Avalon

Some schools are already doing it. One private school collects pupil’s phones on arrival and returns them at the end of the day, so on their way to and from school they have the use of their phone. This covers for emergencies. I can see no reason why they need a phone during the day. Parents and pupils have accepted this.

As I said above, my granddaughters school banned phones some years ago.
The children can’t take phones into the school.

I’m glad that this is going to happen, though some pupils will get round it. I was a voluntary pupil mentor last year. The pupil was a sixteen year old male, who was often in trouble, and, on occasion, he was asked to hand over his phone. He told me that it wasn’t a problem, as he had another one in his bag which the school didn’t know about. I didn’t rat on him, as, being a volunteer, it was important that I gained his trust. I would only report anything of a serious nature.