New mobile phone policies for 2024/25 school year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:New poster here. I applaud Holton and STA if they are banning phones in the upper school. We are an incoming family at the US at NCS who would back school admin if they moved in this direction.

NCS US parent here, kind of jealous of Holton and STA actually. At the State of the School thing recently the HoS was pretty clear that she does not want to fight this battle, although she applauded teachers asking students to give up phones during single classes.

It felt like a cop out. I would be delighted by much stronger policies.

Heard indirectly that there had been some serious online bullying at STA; maybe they feel more urgency?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Potomac is incredibly strict k-8. Kids can't even have apple watches during the day. They expanded that policy this current year up to include 7th & 8th, and everyone has been pleased w/ the change. In US they can have phones during the day but need to put them in baskets when entering a class

I hope other privates follow. I see so many kids with apple (or similar) watches. If the parents are not parenting, the least a school can do is to ban them at school so that classmates do not see them and ask their parents to get them an apple watch. Kids like to imitate. Bad examples should not be allowed at school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would like to hear more. Do any private schools confiscate phones?

Many of the Christian ones do. It's one thing I like about the school we are moving to next year. If the phone is out of your locker it goes to the office and your parent has to come pick it up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:New poster here. I applaud Holton and STA if they are banning phones in the upper school. We are an incoming family at the US at NCS who would back school admin if they moved in this direction.

Completely agree. Would love NCS to institute this policy. The nonsense texts i get from my daughter during the day....

[Anonymous]

What’s the policy in MCPS at Frost and Wootton? We will have a phone free sixth grader; will he be lost and ostracized?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What’s the policy in MCPS at Frost and Wootton? We will have a phone free sixth grader; will he be lost and ostracized?

Put this in the MCPS forum this is the private school forum so people won’t know

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:New poster here. I applaud Holton and STA if they are banning phones in the upper school. We are an incoming family at the US at NCS who would back school admin if they moved in this direction.

NCS US parent here, kind of jealous of Holton and STA actually. At the State of the School thing recently the HoS was pretty clear that she does not want to fight this battle, although she applauded teachers asking students to give up phones during single classes.

It felt like a cop out. I would be delighted by much stronger policies.

Heard indirectly that there had been some serious online bullying at STA; maybe they feel more urgency?

New family to NCS here. Disappointing to hear that NCS might not be moving in the direction to ban phones from US for this upcoming year. Hoping that parents continue to speak up and let the admin know they support policy changes/phone bans. Prospective parents also need to speak up and let their preferences be known during the admission process. I think families might chose Holton over NCS because of the stricter phone policies.

[Anonymous]

Is Potomac making any changes in access to phones?

Also, how do smart watches factor into these discussions?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:New poster here. I applaud Holton and STA if they are banning phones in the upper school. We are an incoming family at the US at NCS who would back school admin if they moved in this direction.

NCS US parent here, kind of jealous of Holton and STA actually. At the State of the School thing recently the HoS was pretty clear that she does not want to fight this battle, although she applauded teachers asking students to give up phones during single classes.

It felt like a cop out. I would be delighted by much stronger policies.

Heard indirectly that there had been some serious online bullying at STA; maybe they feel more urgency?

New family to NCS here. Disappointing to hear that NCS might not be moving in the direction to ban phones from US for this upcoming year. Hoping that parents continue to speak up and let the admin know they support policy changes/phone bans. Prospective parents also need to speak up and let their preferences be known during the admission process. I think families might chose Holton over NCS because of the stricter phone policies.

NCS parent here. I wish Scully would follow suit, though I'm sure there are some parents who will put up a stink because they want to be able to reach their DC at any given moment. Most of us went to school without phones, and yet our parents had no difficulty finding us if they needed to. To this day, I still remember hearing my name called over the intercom system to report to the main office during my American Government class so my mom could tell me to pick up my sister after school.

[Anonymous]

Total ban of phone in high schools is where all private schools will be in the next two years. It’s just a matter of how quickly individual schools get there

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Total ban of phone in high schools is where all private schools will be in the next two years. It’s just a matter of how quickly individual schools get there

I hope the ban includes apple watches (and similar).

[Anonymous]

The kids spend even more time messing around on their school issued laptops. Can they do anything about that? Has anyone successfully dumped the laptops for most learning?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Potomac is incredibly strict k-8. Kids can't even have apple watches during the day. They expanded that policy this current year up to include 7th & 8th, and everyone has been pleased w/ the change. In US they can have phones during the day but need to put them in baskets when entering a class

GDS MS also prohibits phones and Apple Watches during the day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Total ban of phone in high schools is where all private schools will be in the next two years. It’s just a matter of how quickly individual schools get there

I hope the ban includes apple watches (and similar).

Actually, apple watches are a big part of most kids executive function support system, so unlikely to ban that.

[Anonymous]

None of this sounds new; maybe just for the few schools that didn't already do this years ago?