Introduction

At Wordsworth Primary School the welfare and well-being of our pupils is paramount. This policy on the use of mobile phones in school and has been drawn up in the best interests of pupil safety and staff professionalism.

Use of mobile phones

Pupils:

• Pupils are not permitted to have mobile phones at school or on trips
• If in the rare event of a parent wishing for his/her child to bring a mobile phone to school to contact the parent after school:

• the parent must put their request in writing to the Head teacher
• the phone must be handed in, switched off, to the class teacher first thing in the morning and collected by the child at home time( the phone is left at the owner’s own risk).

• Mobile phones brought to school without permission will be confiscated and must be collected by the parent.

Staff:

• All staff must have their phones on ‘silent’ or switched off during class time.
• All staff may not make or receive personal calls during teaching time/ contracted hours unless it is work related. If there are extreme circumstances (eg. acutely sick relative) the member of staff should make the Head Teacher aware of this and will have discussed the need to make an emergency call.
• Use of phones must be limited to non-contact time/ lunchtime when no children are present.
• Phones must be kept out of sight (eg. drawer, handbag, staff cupboard) when staff are with children.
• Phones will never be used to take photographs of children or to store their personal data.

Parents & other visitors:

• We request that parents do not use mobile phones in the school building/grounds.
• Mobile phones must never be used to take photographs in the school building or grounds, unless it is a special occasion such as Christmas Performances or Sports Day. In this instance parents must agree they are for their own private use and they must agree not to publish these photos on any website/ social networking site.

We very much appreciate our parents’ support in implementing this policy in order to keep your children/ our pupils safe.