Mobile Phone Policy
The information below is taken from the school’s Behaviour for Learning policy. Please click the link opposite to read this policy in full.
We have a very clear mobile phone policy at St. John Fisher Catholic Comprehensive School. We are aware most students now use their phones for reasons other than just a call. They may need their mobile phone for payment methods, train/bus ticket and therefore have shaped a policy to enable this while also supporting students’ educations.
Our policy is ‘No See. No Hear, No Use’ – this means that phones should not be turned on or be visible during the school day while students are onsite.
On site: we define this as the point that students cross the green gate (student safety line) at the start of the day, to the point they go back through those gates on the way home.
Schools have the legal power to confiscate ‘any item that they consider harmful or detrimental to school discipline’ under the Government’s ‘Searching, Screening and Confiscation’ advice for schools (DfE, 2018).
If we see a mobile phone at any point in the school day, it will be confiscated. If a staff member asks a student to surrender their phone, the student should do so on first request. Similarly, headphones (including Bluetooth earbuds) should not be used. Where they are seen being used it is indicative that a mobile phone is also being used and both will be confiscated.
Should any student want to contact home, they can go to PCL support and ask the staff there to make or receive a call, where they can be monitored. This way the school can protect students and ensure their devices are being used responsibly while fulfilling its statutory safeguarding obligations.
If a student refuses to hand in their mobile phone, then this will be referred to their Year Leader and they will spend the next day in the IEU. Students will also follow the confiscation process and receive an increased sanction if they repeatedly reoffend.
| Occasion | Cooperative Student Process | If a student refuses to hand their mobile device or accessory in. |
|---|---|---|
1 |
Phone/accessory confiscated and collected the end of the school day from the IEU manager |
Student is placed in the IEU and must hand their mobile device or accessory in at the start of the day to the IEU manager. |
2 |
Mobile device or accessory confiscated from student
Mobile Device will only be returned to the student after a detention has been served. |
Student will spend 2 days on internal suspension at a local school. |
3 |
Students will spend 2 days in the IEU and have a parental meeting regarding expectations and mobile phones.
Parents to collect the confiscated mobile device or accessory after 3.30pm from the school reception. |
Fixed Term Suspension
Every day the student must come into school and hand their mobile device or accessory to the Assistant Family Liaison Officer who will return it when students arrive at the end of the day. |
4 |
Student will have an internal suspension at a local school.
Every day the student must come into school and hand their mobile device or accessory to the Assistant Family Liaison Officer who will return it when students arrive at the end of the day. | |
5 |
Student will receive a fixed term suspension
Every day the student must come into school and hand their mobile device or accessory to the Assistant Family Liaison Officer who will return it when students arrive at the end of the day. |
WHERE will the phone be taken
The phones will be taken to the IEU manager. Students will then come back to the IEU manager’s location at the end of the school day to get their phone. If the student is on a level where parents / carers need to collect the phone, the IEU manager will be able to take the box down to reception for parents / carers to collect.
