Dear parents and carers,
You will remember that our first change was to ban phone usage when students are inside a building, this has worked incredibly well. Our parents have been supportive and students have adopted this without too many issues. However, mobile phones can and occasionally do lead to problems in school such as bullying, filming, disruption to lessons and inappropriate usage of the internet leading to potential safeguarding issues.
To this end we will be adapting our mobile phone policy to completely ban the use of mobile phones on the school site, during school hours. This includes break and lunchtimes. Any student found using their mobile phone during school hours will be dealt with in accordance with our policy and procedure. Copies of the policy can be found on the school website.
We understand that mobile phones are a key part of modern life and that most students own a mobile phone for safety reasons in order to contact home before or after school. We want to be clear that students can carry a mobile phone in their bag but from September we will be asking that they are not seen or used whilst they are on site.
Here at Forge, we strongly encourage our students to develop their social and emotional skills. This development is equally as important as any academic progress. Improving social skills and emotional development can best be done by talking to each other, interacting and developing connections during social times, as opposed to using their mobile phones.
In the lead up to the end of this academic year in assemblies and tutor time, students will be being told about the changes and reminded of the new policy. Please read the reasons, guidelines and procedure of how this new policy will work so that you can support your child in following this. We know that our students do best when our big messages, rules and policies are supported and reinforced by you at home.
Guidelines and Procedure
1. Mobile phones must remain out of sight and switched off during school hours. This includes break and lunchtimes. Phones must not be seen or heard when on our school site.
2. Any student seen with a mobile phone during school hours, including break and lunchtimes, will have their phone confiscated. This is for any reason. Refusal to hand over the mobile phone will result in an escalation of sanction.
3. Confiscated phones will be taken to the main reception where the phone will be safely stored and the name of the student will be recorded. As we do currently, the first 3 instances the phone may be returned to the student at the end of the school day so long as they have handed it over immediately.
4. Any further breaches of the policy by the same student will require parents or carers to collect the mobile phone from school. Further sanctions can be applied which are proportionate to the level of disruption caused.
5. We appreciate that there are sometimes life events or situations where a student may feel they need contact with home during the day. We ask parents and carers to inform us of this as soon as possible and students will be allowed to use the school phone to speak to home if required. The mobile phone ban will remain in place.
The policy and new procedures will come into effect on Tuesday 6th September 2022.
Thank you as always for your support,
Yours faithfully,
Dr L Mason