Banning mobiles in schools or clutching at straws?

Disposable vapes are to be banned in the U.K.

My granddaughters school have a system, where, without warning 2/3 classes are told, into the hall now with your bags.
The parents are informed if their child’s phone has been confiscated. It’s working.

They should have been banned years ago, but parents protested that children needed to keep in touch with home 'in case they felt threatened'.
Vaping is a huge problem. Whenever schools attempt to ban items the protests come from the parents.

At my DGS2's school, mobile phones are permitted and are sometimes used to support learning where research online is part of the lesson. There isn’t enough funding for other devices (eg iPads) to be provided for all. He is 13 and attends a state comprehensive in the next town to where they live so depends on lifts at times when attending after school clubs.

We have a school here in Southend which is described as an Alternative Provider school.
Drive past at break time and you will see teachers vaping with the pupils.
These are children who are there because for whatever reason they don’t fit with the normal school system. What hope for them?

Tricky one. NB I have no grandcholden.

From the age when children are walking to school alone, I would think parents would be happier for them to have a mobile.
But in the classroom no. How can/do schools deal with that? Mobiles in a box on the teacher's desk? Mobiles on the child's desk upside down and switched off? Are individual schools going to be allowed to decide? Or will it be like the 20 mph speed ban which Rishi will apparently sweep aside irrespective of what local councils want? Sounds a lot like a conference dog whistle sound bite to me.

When I was teaching in a private school about 15 yrs ago it was parents who insisted on keeping in touch with their children!
A typical text would be; I'm waiting outside in the car darling.

Very much a case of stable door by the Tories.

When are disposable vapes to be banned * grannygravy* ? It was a mere suggestion last time I heard.

CoolCoco

When are disposable vapes to be banned * grannygravy* ? It was a mere suggestion last time I heard.

There are reports in The Guardian, Independent, Telegraph and most news outlets that it has been leaked that they are to be banned.

I'd like to see them banned in the House of Commons. Maybe then some MPs couldnt watch porn and others could concentrate on the proceedings.

Mobiles should never have been allowed in the first place. Also vaping should be totally banned.

Generations to come will look back in horror that we gave these devises to children 😡
Don’t assume I’m a Luddite Re tech, I’m not it’s just that I have first hand knowledge of the grief that can happen with mobiles in the hands of children.

FindingNemo15

Mobiles should never have been allowed in the first place. Also vaping should be totally banned.

Goodness. Back to clay pipes, roll ups and yodelling then.

I’ll be thrilled if disposable vapes are banned, but as it hasn’t been enacted yet, it’s still more of a sound bite. So I’ll believe it when I see it. The businesses that make £££s from them are probably Tory donors.

Casdon

FindingNemo15

Mobiles should never have been allowed in the first place. Also vaping should be totally banned.

Goodness. Back to clay pipes, roll ups and yodelling then.

Very funny 😄

Mobiles aren't being 'banned'. It will be statutory 'guidance' apparently, which doesn't have to be followed.

Savvy schools have already banned them. The school I retired from 10 years ago banned them in lessons. It was instant confiscation if they were spotted and parents had to collect at the end of the day.

I really don't understand how all of those people now over the age of 40 managed to survive their entire school career without having a mobile phone at all...

I guess it depends what kids are using their mobile phone for. Presumably it’s switched off or on silent unless it’s part of the lesson for research where there aren’t enough computers to go round. Or perhaps they are playing downloadable games on them or looking at porn with the mobile on silent? I can’t see that they will be used for safety reasons except on the way to or from school so yes they should be banned during school. If there is an emergency the school office can be contacted.

As for vaping the disposable ones are aimed at children. They are in colourful cases and have different attractive tastes. These should definitely be banned. All vapes are bad for your health but maybe adults should be permitted choice although I did read second hand inhaling of the vapour is as bad if not worse than cigarette smoke.

I think everyone can get behind the banning of disposable vapes, I think it should happen, whichever government is in power.Vaping was intended to get smokers off cigarettes not introduce a new generation to the joys of nicotine all packaged up like sweets.
On the mobile phone question, these should be kept in the lockers along with all their other stuff until lunchtime or home time.Many schools will already have tried this and it may or may not be working. If they were really banned in classrooms that would help.

Have they nothing else more meaningful to discuss than mobile phones ?

If it wasn’t for one of our GC having their mobile phone with them at school, we wouldn’t have known that they had been sevubeaten up and hiding in the toilets too frightened to move…

sevubeaten 😡
severely beaten

The thing with vapes though is you don’t need to have nicotine or tobacco flavours. They can be zero or very low and have flavours like blueberry.
I agree about the none refillable ones as they are just another plastic item to add to all the rest in the world.

They should be made better to last. So should many other items.
This would necessitate them being more expensive of course but might deter kids and stop the plastic problem (and batteries)

Oreo

I think everyone can get behind the banning of disposable vapes, I think it should happen, whichever government is in power.Vaping was intended to get smokers off cigarettes not introduce a new generation to the joys of nicotine all packaged up like sweets.
On the mobile phone question, these should be kept in the lockers along with all their other stuff until lunchtime or home time.Many schools will already have tried this and it may or may not be working. If they were really banned in classrooms that would help.

I agree that everybody should get behind the banning of disposable vapes. Not only does it make them too cheap and accessible, but it’s adding considerably to the disposable plastics mountain. I think non disposable vapes have an important role to play in reducing smoking however.

Some schools insist that all mobiles are cheap, non iphones and must be switched off in class. This is also to prevent children being mugged outside school for the expensive iphones. Makes good sense.