Skip to main content
Home Home
Main navigation
  • About

    About our school

    Vision and values
    Culture and wellbeing
    Safeguarding
    Key information and policies
    Ofsted and results

    Our community

    Staff
    Governance
    Student voice
    Ark schools
  • Curriculum

    Our approach

    Curriculum overview
    Digital
    Reading
    Special educational needs

    Subjects

    List by subject
    List by year group
    Choosing GSCEs
    Our careers programme

    Extended curriculum

    Overview
    Performing arts
    Sport
    Clubs
    Duke of Edinburgh
  • Admissions
  • Parent Hub

    Parent handbook

    Parent handbook

    Key information and resources for parents, carers and families.

    Parent hub

    Quick links

    Reporting absence
    Term dates
    School meals
    Uniform
    Payments

    Communication

    My Child at School (MCAS)
    Parent engagement
    Soane Parents' Association
    Parent bulletin
    Guides and resources
  • News
  • Calendar
  • Jobs
  • Contact
User account menu
  • Hire facilities
  • Students
  • Fundraising
  • Support us

Breadcrumb

  1. Home
  2. Parent Hub
  3. Mobile Phones

Mobile Phones

We strongly recommend to parents that their children don’t have smartphones:

  • Almost every incident of unkindness that we investigate in school is rooted in nastiness on social media outside of school.
  • Facebook, Snapchat and WhatsApp all provide an environment in which children can unknowingly send messages which end up going to hundreds or thousands of people, can be taken out of context and cannot be unsaid once posted.
  • Many students say that their smartphones provide them with an unwelcome distraction and get in the way of homework, outdoor activity and face-to-face socialising.
  • All platforms have a minimum age of at least 13 (WhatsApp – 16, Snapchat – 13, Facebook – 13).
  • Carrying expensive technology can make young people a target for street-crime.

We recommend that, if you do want your child to have a phone, you provide them with a non-smart “brick phone”. These are sold in the school shop for £15. Whatever your choices about your child’s communication device – please ensure that you are aware of how they are using it and ensure that appropriate controls are on their device. For more information visit https://www.internetmatters.org/parental-controls/smartphones-and-other-devices/

If parents wish their child to carry a mobile phone to school, it must be switched off and handed in on arrival.

Footer
  • About
    • Welcome
    • Culture and wellbeing
    • Team
    • Policies and reports
  • Curriculum
    • Our approach
    • Subjects
    • Extended curriculum
    • Careers and destinations
  • Admissions
    • Secondary
    • In Year
  • Parent Hub
    • Term dates
    • Attendance
    • School meals
    • Uniform

Image
Living Wage logo

info@arksoane.org
020 7430 8876

Ark Soane Academy, Gunnersbury Ln, London W3 8EA

© Ark Schools | Privacy