Melbourne Girls’ College students face detention for ignoring phone ban
Students at top school Melbourne Girls’ College will be persuaded to obey the new mobile phone ban with a hard-line approach in 2020.
Education
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Girls at a top Melbourne school will face a stint in detention if they fail to comply with next year’s school mobile phone ban.
Under the policy ratified by the Melbourne Girls’ College school council in readiness for the 2020 statewide phone ban in state government schools, phones must be left in lockers between 8.50am and 3.20pm.
Girls also won’t be able to use the phones in the school canteen to buy lunch using debit card apps such as Apple Pay.
And there will be no room for sneaky peeks of TikTok and other social media platforms during recess and lunch.
The school told parents yesterday that if a phone was seen or heard it would be confiscated by staff.
“Staff will issue a one hour Tuesday detention via Compass and parents will be notified via email,” the school said.
“Staff will take the mobile device to the general office at the first available convenience.”
The phones, which could range in price around $1000 and more, will be placed in a named envelope.
Students failing to hand over their phone will have two hours added to their detention.
It was unclear if the threes hours would be served at one time but the school has an early finish on a Tuesday for most year levels.
“The mobile device may be collected at the end of the day from the general office with suitable evidence of ownership,” the school said.
The Richmond school outlined exceptions which had to be approved by principal team members or a year level leader.
The school said as a bring your own device school there were limited applications that required use of a mobile phone.
As of last week, the State Government had provided around 150 schools with grants from a pool of $12 million to buy and upgrade lockers to ensure phones were safe.
The State Government announced the ban in the middle of the year but a number of schools, including the highly rated McKinnon Secondary College, have had a phone crackdown for some time.
McKinnon principal Pitsa Binnion has maintained the ban, seen a prototype for others schools, has delivered many benefits.
Trinity Grammar outgoing headmaster Phil De Young, inspired by the McKinnon model, brought it into the Kew boys’s private school earlier this year. Just months in, he believed it had a huge benefit.
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Gisborne Secondary College, plagued by a spate of reputation damaging videos being sent by students showing kids fighting, banned phones mid-year.
While the policy has had its detractors, schools have said that any child needing to communicate with their family or vice versa during the day can still do so via the school office.
“We recognise that this policy will take some to adapt to as students, parents and teachers and we appreciate your support as it is implemented,” a joint note from the school’s assistant principals said.
Parents Victoria has expressed concern about teacher time being tied up managing phones instead of teaching.
Under education policy private property brought to schools is not covered by insurance.