The following extract is from an inner city primary school parents newsletter:
There may be very exceptional circumstances in which children need to carry a mobile phone to school. If the phone is a true necessity, parents need to contact the school office for authorisation for the phone to be carried to school. The phone then needs to be turned off, left in the office before class and collected at home time. Mobile phones without authorisation will be taken off children and parents then phoned to come and retrieve them. As with all personal property, the school cannot take responsibility for the loss or theft of a mobile phone
I found this extract somewhat disturbing and wondered what other members of this forum thought. Of course, one imagines what might have precipitated such a note; phones disturbing classes, getting lost, stolen, etc. But clearly not yet seeing the possibilities of the power in the pocket and perhaps the need to establish a usage policy rather than a ban. The school is rightly proud of their ICT suite where they teach keyboard skills to Year One.
I also thought it was worth posting here so that it would be held in posterity as something that might (hopefully) be looked back on in a different light.
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