Banning Mobiles in Schools ???????

Dominic · October 2023

In my little retro world they would never have got into schools in the first place .Nothing worse than the distraction from learning , youtube and Tik-Toking which kids seem to love watching.....all the silly pranking vids etc and of course their non-stop chat groups and snapchat stuff.
There is also the on-line bullying and filming a kid getting beaten-up in the playground etc
Obviously it's an impediment to learning and the cause of a lot of mischief
BUT,
The world seems to have moved on too far and the phone has become a bit of essential kit ;
They need them for bus,transport,trains.....lunch money....and above all for the school agenda.
It certainly seems from my younger children that the school themselves are using email and texts on phones for timetables ,projects,homework-setting ,alerts , info on the after school activities etc etc
That ship has long sailed I think

Grumpyrocker · October 2023

My kids high school has simple rules. You can have your phone on you. It stays off and in your bag.

So of course the kids can use it when travelling to and from school, and if in danger.

I support the school's approach.

ICBM · October 2023

No. They're a fundamental part of the modern world, a very powerful potential learning resource, and kids need to be taught and encouraged to use them responsibly and appropriately both in school and out of it.

I'm on the Parent Council for my kids' school, and the local authority tried to fight that battle, and lost - it was unenforceable of course. If they'd started from the opposite tack they would have made better progress.

Kilgore · October 2023

Grumpyrocker said:

My kids high school has simple rules. You can have your phone on you. It stays off and in your bag.

So of course the kids can use it when travelling to and from school, and if in danger.

I support the school's approach.

Same at my kid's school. It seems a sensible approach to me as well.

Dominic · October 2023

I don't disagree but I think they are trying to ban them completely whether switched on or off

SteveRobinson · October 2023

It's just another culture war fabricated by the Tories. The blue rinse brigade will love it.

Funkfingers · October 2023

The only guaranteed way to make British state schools run smoothly would be to ban the pupils.

A mobile is an object, suspended above a cot, to amuse a baby.

NothingOnTheTele · October 2023

It's a tricky one. There's a fine line to tread between being over-permissive and overbearing. But if you're going to give your child a smartphone, some degree of parental control and oversight is absolutely necessary - at least until they can be trusted to use it responsibly. In my line of work I see the harm a child can suffer from unfettered access to the internet and social media.

It'll be a good few years til my daughter's old enough for that sort of thing, anyway. By then smartphones will probably have been replaced by chips in brains or something.

CountryDave · October 2023

It’s all Tory bullshit & bluster.
The schools all have different rules, but most allow them as long as they are off/silent during lessons and away in a bag.
How do they propose to enforce this?
As mentioned above, the older, grumpy Daily Mail readers will love it ‘didn’t have mobile phones in my day and we survived’, etc etc

DavidR · October 2023

Anything that reduces exposure of the developing brain to the addictive and probably harmful TikfacetwitgramX has to be a good thing. Especially at school where they will be in a place of safety, surrounded by adults in loco parentis, and better focused on other things for the hours they are there.

That being said I certainly wouldn't ban them entirely at school. That's potentially dangerous. Have them with you but keep them turned off. That has the same effect, encourages responsible behaviour, shows trust in the child and is respectful.

These days parents will be reassured to know that their kids are contactable too and from school. Pretty vital in 2023 I would have thought.

And yes I agree, political stunt.

SteveRobinson · October 2023

DavidR said:

And yes I agree, political stunt.

It's all they have left. The general election can't come soon enough

Teetonetal · October 2023

Mobile phones have no place in a class room, a school can teach all about the safe use of tech and provide good tech education without the need of each child brining a personal phone to the class.

Whilst phones can be a learning resource, there is no need and outside of the class, in school, they are clearly not going to be used that way.

Given how society seems totally reliant on mobile phones to function, I think banning them from school entirely is a non starter, but without a ban they do end up in class and switched on.

Dominic · October 2023

I guess one way would be to allow them but upon entering the class the kids have to hand them over like the way Guns are handed in and checked -in in the films.......they all go in a big plastic tray with a named post-it note on them

drofluf · October 2023

It’s conference time; every announcement is designed to appeal to the Mail/Telegraph readers. Just a greatest hits set for the blue rinse brigade

Sporky · October 2023

Dominic said:

I guess one way would be to allow them but upon entering the class the kids have to hand them over like the way Guns are handed in and checked -in in the films.......they all go in a big plastic tray with a named post-it note on them

They never made me hand my guns in when I went to school.

Dominic · October 2023

They did at mine....
We actually had an Armoury and a shooting range . School had a cadet corps . I was a 2nd Lef in the Royal Signals Corps section that is now 18 Signal Regiment (as of 2005 ).
We had access to .22 Target rifles and the old 303 Lee Enfields from age 14. Although it was only a Cadet unit there was some quite serious weaponry that was pretty poorly supervised back in the 1970s .
They got serious about weapons security just before I left in the late 70s when a 16 year old pupil stole a hand grenade and there was a large scale break in at a similar school armoury (suspected IRA ) back in those days .

Chalky · October 2023

I find it odd how many parents think that if their child didn't have their phone "it could be dangerous". Certainly it could be a huge worry. But is it inherently "dangerous"?

DefaultM · October 2023

"Help! A man grabbed me on the way home from school and I'm in the back of his van!"

"Call back if you're still missing in 24 hours. We can't do anything until then"

Kittyfrisk · October 2023

Ban schools, teach kids at home via mobile phones. Sorted

fastonebaz · October 2023

Phones have airplane mode already. Why not develop school mode and enable that during school time.

Dominic · October 2023

Chalky said:

I find it odd how many parents think that if their child didn't have their phone "it could be dangerous". Certainly it could be a huge worry. But is it inherently "dangerous"?

Indeed , We never had mobiles( or the 2p for a phone box ) and are here to tell the story

scrumhalf · October 2023

Would a Faraday cage in the classroom help?

NB: I could be talking bollocks, I dropped physics as soon as I could in secondary school.

dano · October 2023

This is another old man shouts at cloud thread

CavemanGrogg · October 2023

scrumhalf said:

Would a Faraday cage in the classroom help?

NB: I could be talking bollocks, I dropped physics as soon as I could in secondary school.

Why bother signal jammers are dirt cheap, and can accurately cover a large area, as in block cell phone reception to individual buildings within an area.

Kittyfrisk · October 2023

dano said:

This is another old man shouts at cloud thread

Don't bring 'the cloud' into this too.

RobDavies · October 2023

fastonebaz said:

Phones have airplane mode already. Why not develop school mode and enable that during school time.

Often wondered that myself. As well as why music venues can’t block photo/video recording apps?…

crunchman · October 2023

Pretty much all schools already ban them in lessons. Some allow them during breaks. Not allowing them in breaks is essentially what the government is proposing. My daughters' school already does that. They have to switch their phones off when they get to school in the morning, and not turn them on until the end of the day.

Dominic · October 2023

scrumhalf said:

Would a Faraday cage in the classroom help?

NB: I could be talking bollocks, I dropped physics as soon as I could in secondary school.

I think it's pretty harsh to be putting kids in cages .....

RobDavies · October 2023

Until recently, my missus had worked in a secondary school for 15 years.

The biggest threat to ‘normal’ kids education isn’t mobile phones but is actually shit parents who are constantly defending their shit kids for doing shit things. Barely a day went by without some Mum or Dad coming to the school to threaten violence against teaching staff - usually for something like insisting the kid wears school uniform instead of a Nike tracksuit. Their kids are feral, weed smoking, knife carrying bastards - who not only terrorise teaching staff but then do the same to local retailers and other kids once school has kicked out.

euan · October 2023

CavemanGrogg said:

scrumhalf said:

Would a Faraday cage in the classroom help?

NB: I could be talking bollocks, I dropped physics as soon as I could in secondary school.

Why bother signal jammers are dirt cheap, and can accurately cover a large area, as in block cell phone reception to individual buildings within an area.

Aren’t they also…illegal for many good reasons

CavemanGrogg · October 2023

euan said:

CavemanGrogg said:

scrumhalf said:

Would a Faraday cage in the classroom help?

NB: I could be talking bollocks, I dropped physics as soon as I could in secondary school.

Why bother signal jammers are dirt cheap, and can accurately cover a large area, as in block cell phone reception to individual buildings within an area.

Aren’t they also…illegal for many good reasons

That depends on who is using them, and for what, for example they are currently being used in a number of prisons in the UK, which is legal. However if you and me where to order one off of Amazon to use for fun, it is most definitely illegal. Not to mention that there are numerous types of jammers, designed for blocking specific types of signals as well as multiple or all signals.

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Banning Mobiles in Schools ???????

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