Banning mobile phones in schools

[ICTChris]

An MP is bringing forward a Private Members Bill to formally ban the use of smart phones in schools in England.  Josh McAlister, Labour MP for Whitehaven and Workington, is a former teacher and intends to bring forward a bill to make it a legal requirement for schools to be mobile phone free.

Most schools have formal restrictions on phone use, with increasing numbers requiring pupils to put their phones in a secure location during lessons.  There have also been issues with pupils filming classmates or teachers on phones in school.

What do P&Bers think of this law?

What else would P&Bers ban from schools?

 

[Melanius Mullarkey]

I'd ban teachers and children from all schools. 

[Salvo Montalbano]

8 minutes ago, ICTChris said:

An MP is bringing forward a Private Members Bill to formally ban the use of smart phones in schools in England.  Josh McAlister, Labour MP for Whitehaven and Workington, is a former teacher and intends to bring forward a bill to make it a legal requirement for schools to be mobile phone free.

Most schools have formal restrictions on phone use, with increasing numbers requiring pupils to put their phones in a secure location during lessons.  There have also been issues with pupils filming classmates or teachers on phones in school.

What do P&Bers think of this law?

What else would P&Bers ban from schools?

 

The problem with any sort of ban in schools these days is that you don't get the required level of parental support. If the parents are on board then things like banning phones, having a school uniform, having lunchtime detentions and so on are easy to implement. The trouble these days is that there is a large number of parents who won't support the school in these matters - either by letting their own kids break those rules and then not agreeing with any punishments given out or by complaining to a friendly councillor, of whom the school leadership team are basically scared of. In my school we've got parents who have told the office not to send demerits home via text message as they don't want to know about bad behaviour, only good behaviour; parents who write notes allowing their kids to not wear uniform; parents who phone the school to insist their kid is allowed their phone in class "just in case"; parents who have insisted their kid can go to the toilet at any time; parents who have told teachers that they aren't allowed to admonish their child for being late into class... so basically the middle of the road kids who could go either way see the bampots getting away with things so decide to push it themselves and then complain (quite rightly) when they are treated differently. I'd suggest all these parents should be forced to home school their own b*****d offspring but unsurprisingly they don't seem that keen on having the Bairn at home with them all day for some reason.

[bennett]

A lot of weans will use their phones to pay for busses/transport to get to school, sadly we're stuck with clever phones.

 

[Barry Ferguson's Hat]

Teachers are lazy.

[steelmen]

my daughters school has a ban on phones. they need to be in a locked box for the school day... so she uses her watch to message/call home.

[Jan Vojáček]

I don't really understand all the chaos about this. Phones are already effectively banned in schools. Or they were in my day (and I left in 2015) and still seem to be where my brother works.

If you have your phone out in class, or it goes off in class, the teacher will take it. And you'll get it back at the end of the day/end of class.

Telling kids not to bring them to school, especially secondary age kids who'll walk to and from school/out at lunchtime etc, is a terrible idea on safety grounds. If I had a kid walking to and from school on their own then I'd not feel comfortable letting them do it without having a phone on them.

Telling kids to put them in their lockers during class and not have them in the classroom seems absolutely sensible and reasonable. But an outright ban is overkill.

FWIW my school was a new build PPP type when I started in 2009 too and you couldn't get a signal anywhere, apart from one room in art and occasionally in geography. And we were always told it was built that way; no idea if that was true or just some teacher-led urban myth.

I'd also say I use my mobile more for work/everyday life than anything else I own. So there maybe has to be an acceptance of how vital they are - and the useful stuff you could do with them. If I had my phone I could do about 90% of my work without anything else. And I'm probably not alone in that. It would be a bit like banning computers, despite the fact probably the majority of school leavers will go into a job that involves using a computer at least part of the time.

[bennett]

2 minutes ago, Barry Ferguson's Hat said:

Teachers are lazy.

Monkey Tennis will have a good frown at this.

[welshbairn]

9 minutes ago, Salvo Montalbano said:

The problem with any sort of ban in schools these days is that you don't get the required level of parental support. If the parents are on board then things like banning phones, having a school uniform, having lunchtime detentions and so on are easy to implement. The trouble these days is that there is a large number of parents who won't support the school in these matters - either by letting their own kids break those rules and then not agreeing with any punishments given out or by complaining to a friendly councillor, of whom the school leadership team are basically scared of. In my school we've got parents who have told the office not to send demerits home via text message as they don't want to know about bad behaviour, only good behaviour; parents who write notes allowing their kids to not wear uniform; parents who phone the school to insist their kid is allowed their phone in class "just in case"; parents who have insisted their kid can go to the toilet at any time; parents who have told teachers that they aren't allowed to admonish their child for being late into class... so basically the middle of the road kids who could go either way see the bampots getting away with things so decide to push it themselves and then complain (quite rightly) when they are treated differently. I'd suggest all these parents should be forced to home school their own b*****d offspring but unsurprisingly they don't seem that keen on having the Bairn at home with them all day for some reason.

Presumably these parents are told if they don't like the rules they'll have to take their child elsewhere?

[Michael W]

Think the ship has sailed here, to he honest. I left High School in 2007 and everyone, at least in the senior school, had a mobile phone. Phone cameras were just starting to become fairly decent, but the primary motivation was to listen to music on your way to/from school and, of course, destroying the music industry entirely by sending it to your pals via Bluetooth. What we lacked were of course the various distractions - social media and the entire Internet being at your fingertips. 

At any rate, they are now embedded and I don't see how that's reversed even with a ban. It will already be against the rules to use them in class etc, so perhaps the problem is really a lack of will to enforce these things. Parents who have become used to being able to contact their kid at any time won't be happy and many of them will kick off about it and will invent reasons their child should be exempted. 

[Salvo Montalbano]

3 minutes ago, Jan Vojáček said:

rks.

If you have your phone out in class, or it goes off in class, the teacher will take it. And you'll get it back at the end of the day/end of class.

Two issues with this - 1. If a kid refuses to hand it over (and many will) then you're onto a lose-lose scenario and things will probably only get worse. 2. We used to take phones off kids and they'd get them back at the end of the day but given a lot of teachers in our school are peripatetic there was a fear that a phone could go missing/get broken and then suddenly you've got an issue of who is liable for potentially a phone coasting a grand to replace. There was serious doubt that the council's insurance would cover it and no teacher or office staff member was willing to be liable for that either.

3 minutes ago, Jan Vojáček said:

Telling kids to put them in their lockers during class and not have them in the classroom seems absolutely sensible and reasonable. But an outright ban is overkill.

That's fine in schools where there are lockers (my school doesn't have lockers) but the issue with lockers in other schools has always been that kids will go to their lockers between classes and/or during trips "to the toilet" where they end up scrolling on their phones or arranging to meet their mates. It's a better problem than having them in class mind you, but it isn't a panacea.

[Salvo Montalbano]

2 minutes ago, welshbairn said:

Presumably these parents are told if they don't like the rules they'll have to take their child elsewhere?

Ha ha! Good one.

(That's a no, in case you were being serious. A child's right to an education seems to mean a child's right to an education in a place of their parents choosing these days. We even have children who are outwith our catchment area and so could in theory be made to go elsewhere that don't get told to sling their hook)

[tamthebam]

the wee sods have their nose in a phone outside of school (like a lot of adults) and are oblivious to what is happening around them. 

Ban them from schools and any idea of fun too. Kids should be made to go out in all weathers at break time like we were too. 

In fact my idea of the perfect school is a bit like this Giles cartoon (we hardly ever got to see any telly programmes either)

 

[Salvo Montalbano]

5 minutes ago, tamthebam said:

the wee sods have their nose in a phone outside of school (like a lot of adults) and are oblivious to what is happening around them. 

Ban them from schools and any idea of fun too. Kids should be made to go out in all weathers at break time like we were too. 

In fact my idea of the perfect school is a bit like this Giles cartoon (we hardly ever got to see any telly programmes either)

 

It's funny how times change. When I was at school I used to love a wee video. Half an hour when you could switch off and relax for a bit. Nowadays if you put a 20 minute film on for a class it's too much and they get bored after about 3 minutes. 

[Central Belt Caley]

I’ve seen a thing online that a school does where each pupil gets their own pouch and it gets sealed magnetically or something like that by a teacher at the start of the day. Then teacher(s) are deployed at the end of the day to unseal the pouch so they can get their phone out. 
 

Probably removes the burden if the phone breaks etc from the teacher/school/council 

[Shandon Par]

When I was at school this would have been a self policing issue for the pupils. The Oakley and Toon boys would have relieved the more timid kids of their phones at the start of each day and taxed them for their safe return at the end of the day. Scotland needs more entrepreneurs.

[BillyAnchor]

Who would call the cops during school shootings?

[ScotiaNostra]

Ban them everywhere, they are a load of shite

[BFTD]

I'm kinda curious about why MPs are suddenly so keen to codify the removal of mobile phones in classrooms. It's very much a Daily Heil hot topic, judging by how many times it's been on their front page, which makes me instantly suspicious.

[The Mantis]

1 hour ago, Salvo Montalbano said:

The problem with any sort of ban in schools these days is that you don't get the required level of parental support. If the parents are on board then things like banning phones, having a school uniform, having lunchtime detentions and so on are easy to implement. The trouble these days is that there is a large number of parents who won't support the school in these matters - either by letting their own kids break those rules and then not agreeing with any punishments given out or by complaining to a friendly councillor, of whom the school leadership team are basically scared of. In my school we've got parents who have told the office not to send demerits home via text message as they don't want to know about bad behaviour, only good behaviour; parents who write notes allowing their kids to not wear uniform; parents who phone the school to insist their kid is allowed their phone in class "just in case"; parents who have insisted their kid can go to the toilet at any time; parents who have told teachers that they aren't allowed to admonish their child for being late into class... so basically the middle of the road kids who could go either way see the bampots getting away with things so decide to push it themselves and then complain (quite rightly) when they are treated differently. I'd suggest all these parents should be forced to home school their own b*****d offspring but unsurprisingly they don't seem that keen on having the Bairn at home with them all day for some reason.

I'm a retired teacher so thanks for cheering me up  The phones were a large part of me applying for early retirement. There's an element of control freakery with teachers and that's a huge part of the problem - you don't feel in control any more. Especially when some chancer sends a text to their innocent mate just to cause a bit of chaos.
In my experience the boys just carried their phone to save them looking at a watch. The girls - that was another matter entirely...

1 hour ago, Salvo Montalbano said:

Two issues with this - 1. If a kid refuses to hand it over (and many will) then you're onto a lose-lose scenario and things will probably only get worse. 2. We used to take phones off kids and they'd get them back at the end of the day but given a lot of teachers in our school are peripatetic there was a fear that a phone could go missing/get broken and then suddenly you've got an issue of who is liable for potentially a phone coasting a grand to replace. There was serious doubt that the council's insurance would cover it and no teacher or office staff member was willing to be liable for that either.

That's fine in schools where there are lockers (my school doesn't have lockers) but the issue with lockers in other schools has always been that kids will go to their lockers between classes and/or during trips "to the toilet" where they end up scrolling on their phones or arranging to meet their mates. It's a better problem than having them in class mind you, but it isn't a panacea.

In my school, the heidie used to rant at assemblies that they were not to bring their phones into school, while we realised it was unworkable, so we used to have an unspoken agreement with the kids that it was ok as long as they didn't take the piss. If a phone went off, or they were caught texting or whatever, the teacher took it to the school office and the pupil collected it at the end of the day (and a letter was sent home iirc). Seemed to work reasonably well. I've heard of schools where it was the parent's duty to come for it.

The summer that I retired they moved into a new building and there was access to wifi for everybody. They also issued iPads to all of S3, which was to trickle down to S3 in the subsequent years. Not sure how that worked out though - I've heard stories about pupils gaming etc when supposed to be working. Mind you, the same thing happened back in the day when you took a class to the computer suite. You had to keep an eye on them having extra windows open to play games.