As Schools across the Country prepare for the new School Year, an increasing number of schools are recommending Parents provide ParentShield SIM cards
It’s no secret that Mobile Phones pose a significant challenge for schools, but over the past 10 years the landscape has changed considerably and the majority of schools polled prefer to implement an ‘out-of-sight’ policy for mobile phones.
ParentShield is a special mobile network for children and has been designed to make life easier for schools as it gives parents the ability to completely disable mobile phone usage on their children’s devices during school hours.
”We recommend that all parents install ParentShield on the device used by their child in order to safeguard and protect them”
Seema Solani – Haberdashers’ Aske’s College
An increasing number of schools are recommending ParentShield to parents – particularly their new Y7 intake as part of their introduction process. Working together with Parents allows for the start of a constructive partnership regarding mobile phones and helps prevent confrontational situations that arise from confiscations.
ParentShield was recently featured in a Teaching Times article“Putting Child Protection At The Heart Of Mobile Phone Usage”. In an interview with Head Teachers, policy makers expressed their recommendation to use a Child Protection Mobile Network for children.
In the article, Author Sally McKeown speaks to heads of several schools about the subject of mobile phones and found that many recommend ParentShield to their parents.
Seema Solani, principal of Haberdashers’ Aske’s Hatcham College, wrote: ‘Over the next few months your child may be spending more time than normal on the internet, working on their homework, playing games, maybe watching documentaries with you. We recommend that all parents install ParentShield on the device used by their child in order to safeguard and protect them.’
Confiscation or removal of mobile phones becomes unnecessary if the phone is set in ParentShield’s “SchoolBlock” mode which completely disables all calls, SMS messages and ( most importantly! ) mobile data during School Hours. Returning the phone back to normal state after home time and allowing it to be used to call parents for lifts home etc.
While in SchoolBlock mode the phone can still contact emergency services or the child’s parents in emergency situations so relieves stress for children and increases peace of mind for parents yet removes the possibility of unwanted notifications in the classroom or access to social media and other distractions, improving classroom behaviour.
ParentShield also provides helpful and free-of-charge parent guides that schools can download for distribution to their parents.
The best phone solution for schools
ParentShield is designed to bring parents on-board with the solution to phone problems in the classroom. By recommending that parents choose ParentShield as their child’s mobile network they can become part of the solution themselves. It’s they who turn on SchoolBlock, preventing their child from having difficulty in the classroom.
The children will need a mobile network anyway, and ParentShield’s tariffs work out competitively against the alternatives so there is not a considerable extra cost for the parents, and no extra cost for the school.
The alternatives involve time-consuming phone hand-over and collection procedures before or after school times, or expensive high-tech Faraday-cage bags or boxes that take up a lot of space in the form room.
The responsibility of compliance lies with the parent and nothing for the teacher to get involved with.
Download Parent Phone guides and brochures from the Schools page.