That's just ridiculous. I can't remember if it was this forum or another forum where there was a discussion about the teacher attacking the pupil, but there was a point that teachers get so much stick from their pupils with not a lot of support. Add this revelation on top of it and it's just stupid.

I'm gobsmacked that mobile phones are allowed in school. If they are an absoloute necessity to and from school (which some claim) then they should be dropped off in a secure place on entering school and picked up when school is finished. And .......................it should be made such a hassle that hopefully they wont bother to take them. Anyone caught using a phone ...........it should be confiscated indefinately .......................FGS kids have managed a day at school without the use of mobiles since God was a lad ..............why do they need them now?

To be fair...  your child having a mobile phone (turned off) in their bag at school is a godsend!  Not only does it allow for any unforseen delays, incidents, missed buses, lost bus fares, late mother, kind of issue that regularly happens... but there is a peace of mind that if needed you can get a text to them.. or vice versa.

My daughter had hers with her throughout secondary school... and now my son takes his.  BUT.. they are switched off during the school day, unless discreetly switched on in the loo's at break to contact me about some school emergency (*sigh... forgotten homework, forgotten p.e. kit... or arsey Art Teacher problems)....

The policy at daughters school was... they could have them but they had to be turned off during the day.    The boys school is slightly stricter... we (parents) have to sign an agreement about the phone... disclaiming any responsibility from the school if its lost... and taking responsibility for ensuring that camera phones are not used within the school.   They are dead paranoid about phones with cameras, all photo taking is strictly against the rules!

ooh ooh.. and cos my son's school is out of area I ferry him to and from school...  things like after school rugby practise, football practise etc get cancelled with as little as an hours notice.... 

So.. phone needed

When I was at school we weren't allowed mobile phones, but it was taken into account that some students did walk to and from school and so as long as they were turned off during school hours and kept inside our bags we were allowed to have them on us. At college they had to be turned off or at least on silent and not out during teaching hours, and at university they are supposed to be on silent and not used in lectures (in fact in my lectures they are supposed to be switched off as we are based inside the hospital). I tend to not use my phone in lectures because I find it rude, and I would hate to be giving a lecture and look up to see everyone texting. Of course at uni it is understood that if a call is an emergency you can walk out the lecture to answer it, and the same goes for the lecturers.
Anyone filming teachers should have their phones taken off them, its ridiculous and is against the law if the films are being passed around and the teacher has not signed a consent form.

Oh god yeah... that is just basic courtesy (& yeah... I know there are people who seem be completely oblivious to how rude it is)

are you very very very close to ITU then?

The policy at our school is basically no phones. If they have them with them for the journey to school they need to be handed in to the office at the beginning of the day.

Never happens though

The majority of kids are sensible enough to make sure they're hidden and they don't use them during the day,but of course there are always the odd one or two who seem to think us adults are too blind/stupid to work out that both hands under the table and eyes glued to aforementioned hands = mobile phone.

They do come in useful though..... snow closed our school half way through the day before Christmas but no one could leave the premises without contacting their parents first........cue a gazillion mobile phones miraculously found in pockets and bags.

If we are then we are responsible for a lot of deaths inside Nottingham
I think its just our lecturers trying to scare us, I've seen real doctors wandering around on their mobiles plus it was proven that it doesn't actually affect the equipment recently.

'zactly!

Thing is... when I was at school there was a payphone in the library... a payphone at the office...   a set of 4 payphones at the parade of shops down the road (including a phonecard one)....

now there are hardly any payphones

"Oh actually I think I forgot to take my phone out my bag at home" ?

the excuses for not allowing mobiles were always highly sus!

I think at the very least kids should be made to switch off phones while in class... Still, in my day we never even had push button public phones..... so maybe I shouldn't comment

I am not clear about this (it's a bit hazy) but I think I read that some kids were texting during exams. Cheating I presume. Or did I dream it?

 Given what smartphones can do nowadays, I am amazed that they are even allowed to take them into exams.

I think you must have dreamt it brisket - in exams all students have to put their bags at the back of the room and ensure that their mobiles are turned off and are in their bags.

Now, don't get me started on pub quizzes - the misuse of mobile phones there ...

...its possible Brisket....   especially if not externally invigilated!

but for all my GCE exams at school... and when my daughter did hers last year, mobiles are not allowed in to the exam room.

In fact... no outdoor coats, pencil cases (only a see through one or plastic bag with the required kit in it)....  my daughters school even insisted on checking forearms & banned lucky charms (gonks in my day!)

OMG!!!!!! Gonks - I'd completely forgotten about Gonks.

how could you forget gonks!

When I was at school mobile phones didn't have video cameras on them *feels old* but we did use it as a way of communication without the teachers knowing if we were doing something where the teachers demanded silence. Hide the phone in your pencil case, pretend to be looking for something but secretly texting someone on the other side of the classroom. If we got caught with them we'd have them taken off us until the end of the day.

Yeah that happened when I was doing my GCSE's. We had to leave our bags etc in a locked room next to the exam room, but people did sneak their phones in their socks or sometimes even pockets and then kept them on their seats between their legs. They didn't frisk us before exams so they were none the wiser. A few people got caught with them though and kicked out of the exam.

I think it's a difficult one. They are useful for emergencies but kids can beaten up for them. If the phone is just a bog standard one and kept turned off I think that's o.k.

you'd have to have more money than sense to get them a decent one to take to school.  We never had any problems with kids taking other kids phones... it was more phones getting accidently flung out of bag across dinner hall & smashing, phone getting left in SECRET SCHOOL SKIRT POCKET THAT I NEVER KNEW ABOUT and washed, phone getting left somewhere... etc etc etc.

I was surprised at the number of kids that had decent phones.. contract phones too!!

Never thought about them going in the wash that must have been an unhappy event

It was her first new (as in not a hand me down) pay as you go phone.   IT WAS A WEEK OLD!!!

I was gutted... she was gutted....

and we must have had more money than we have now... cos she ended up getting a new one that night.

She did learn though.. its never happened again!

I bet she was mortified, it was lucky you could afford to replace it so quickly. I'm not surprised she's never done it again. It's something she wouldn't forget.

yes... I seem to remember there being tears!    and, back then, the phone of her choice came off a shelf in tescos for under £100!

The boy is a much simpler creature... he is very happy with his phone... is an oldish nokia.. has a camera.. but nothing special.   A £5 top up lasts him 3 months!!!!

LOVE THE BOY!

Phones have to be left at the office at my kids' school. They are useful for after school, but not needed during school hours. There have been incidents of things being filmed and sent around amongst friends, which is obviously not desirable.


IMO, all classes should be on CCTV, to prevent the behaviour I used to get up to in class.

I'd have no problem with that!

I've been using my mobile phone in a hospital for the last 2 months (except for 2 weeks in PICU). Those hospital phones/telly things are a total rip-off. The amount they charge anyone making a call to it is shocking (premium line almost).
My 11 year old has a phone which is deposited in the head's office every morning, and picked up at home time. Although it has spent whole weekends there when he's forgotten to pick it up. I agree about the pay phone thing ditty, there's just not enough around any more. I remember many a reverse charge call made home to pick me up from some place or other.

hahaha!

I was always doing the reverse charge call thing!

and re: hospitals...  the phone/telly/internet access for patients thing was part of the NHS plan...  patient facilities.  But it was without funding... so along came these companies and initially there was talk about them being done at zero cost to the hospital  (patient covers costs)... but its a bit like the car parks...  someone then realises that actually the hospital can get a revenue from this and so it begins...  car parks, vending machines, patient tellys etc... all profit making!

Because they're not students, whatever the current fashion says. They're schoolchildren or pupils. Students go to college or uni.
I think it's no wonder teachers have trouble keeping discipline, when they can't even insist on no phones in class.

The current parlance (according to my L.E.A) is 'Learners'.

Unfortunately the reverse charge scenario was no good for me - we didn't have a phone at home! There was always lots of worrying with missed buses etc. In that respect mobiles are a godsend but they have no place in the classroom IMO.

One wonders how our good selves and our children managed to get through a schoolday without a mobile phone, and survive.

Yes Joe.
In all my years at school I never felt the need to use a telephone.
Why do they do it now then?  Because they can I suppose. It's a toy.

I'm crap at maths and I still managed to pass it without a calculator, too.

listen to yourselves! 

.... but we were 'appy in them days.