Wandsworth Womble:  Tracking a waste of time.  Do you seriously think the police - with hundreds of mobiles pinched weekly or even daily - will bother to track them down. They have far more important crimes to deal with than tracking down a nicked mobile.   The phones have probably been sold on by then anyway.  

[size=100]Avocado:  Wow!  Aschroft Academy are clearly dead serious on this issue.  Sure it's not a boot camp?  Just joking.  Top marks to them.  More schools should operate the same policy.[/size]

But if you have installed tracking on your children's phones, then surely if these phones are taken, this would lead straight to the muggers? So perhaps a good idea for the kids to carry their mobiles, no?

That’s because Graveney aren’t very good at enforcing the ban so students bring them in anyway. I’ve worked at both Graveney and Ashcroft and the difference is that Ashcroft will use a handheld metal detector if a student is suspected of having brought a phone in. They will then confiscate the phone and the student is not allowed it back until the end of term! Parents sign a contract agreeing to this, amongst other things, when their child starts the school. So, children at Ashcroft genuinely don’t bring them in. That’s why there has never been a case of one of their students being mugged.

[font=Comic Sans MS,cursive][size=150]Ronangel:  If you're saying that muggers won't bother to attack school children carrying cheap, basic phones which, from what you say, aren't in demand, then that could be a solution.  But why on earth do they have to have phones on them AT ALL!   They don't.  And it won't work for schools like Graveney & Aschroft where the rules are 'no phones at all' - even tacky ones.  As for the police getting involved:  they won't.  There are probably hundreds of phone muggings every day in London &, with a police force both under-staffed & under-resourced, they simply don't have the time.  Unless people - adults & children alike - get off their phones in public, yearning for a world with fewer phone muggings is pie in the sky.[/size][/font]

There could be a simple answer to this two phones!
The expensive phone left at home and the cheap basic phone which has just phone calls and text no internet costing less than £20-£30 ( or even a second hand one) pay as you go number £5 top up, for traveling too and from school and even in school where allowed.carried in hand in full view where muggers could see it so they will get nothing for it if they take so wont bother! If it is taken contact service provider so blocked and not worth anything at all.
Another important but risky thing which could be done is to pull off masks straight away, if a lot of people around who will see what is going on and know muggers later  if they still take something.
The main problem is getting police to do something about it and prison type sentence for those caught no ifs no buts at least a month locked up if no one hurt no bail fast tracked! :evil: :evil:

[size=100][font=Arial Narrow,sans-serif]Hello, Goldhawk.  I'm heartened to hear that.  I had thought that parents would fume if their little angels weren't allowed to carry phones on them 24/7 - possibly even legally challenge the ruling.  But, clearly, common sense prevailed (for a change).   But as Avocado says on this thread ... because Ashcroft Academy's ban on mobile phones is well known in the area, it's happily resulted in many fewer muggings, or none at all, on their students.  Graveney's Head therefore should proclaim it loud & wide, by whatever means, that the school's pupils do [b]not[/b] carry phones on them.   As most attacks on schoolchildren these days are for their phones, not so much for money, it might well have a positive effect.  Of course, as you say, the muggers will still attack adults, particularly those foolish enough to be gabbing on their phones in public, but adults are generally in a better position to defend themselves.  These are, after all, children.[/font][/size]

No it's an outright ban - no phones are to be brought to school - so no phones for travelling
Obviously some kids break the rules and some parents ask for permission if travelling long distances

The muggers would probably move on to us adults if the kids didn't have phones to steal!
 

Hi, Goldhawk.  You say that Graveney bans phones .. I'm presuming you mean (but perhaps I'm wrong) that the kids, quite rightly, aren't allowed to use them in the school itself.   But, travelling to and from the school, do the kids still carry them?  This is where they'll be mugged ... on the streets.  If schools could introduce a policy whereby the pupils were told never to bring mobiles to the school, i.e. to leave them at home, there'd definitely be fewer muggings.  But I guess all sorts of legal implications would arise if this were the policy.  Perhaps a lawyer reading this could enlighten us on the subject.

 

Sadly, not having anything to "give" to the muggers doesn't always end well. A couple of years ago a Graveney student was punched in the face because he had no phone or money on him... 

Graveney also bans phones but it didn't stop muggings occurring outside school
 

Couldn’t agree with dimelda more. Ashcroft Academy have a successful ban on phones. Students aren’t even allowed them switched off! This fact is well known in the area and so their students are never mugged. If it’s a common occurrence in a particular school, might be worth that school considering a similar approach. Another reason to get rid of them!

I’m sorry to hear about the muggings described above and I hope the perpetrators are caught soon.

[font=Trebuchet MS,Helvetica,sans-serif][size=150]Is it not more sensible - certainly safer - for kids NOT to take their phones to school?   Far from making them safer - endlessly touted as a reason for their use - it actually makes them more at risk.  [/size][/font]

Of the many troubling issues that these muggings raise, I think it's worth underscoring how casual these encounters look to passersby like Cinderalla said. (Except, obviously, for Westcoastmom's son -- I'm so sorry that happened to him and I hope he's okay.)

My two boys, 13 and 11, were mugged on Wandsworth Common on the way back from school last month. It happened on the footpath between Trinity Road and Windmill Road, in daylight and while there were other people about. Three youths surrounded them, shoved them and demanded their phones. After they handed the phones over, my older son had the presence of mind to ask a pair of passersby for help and they kindly intervened. In their witness statements afterwards, the passersby noted -- just like Cinderalla -- that they initially had no idea a robbery was taking place. They just saw a group of boys huddled together and some jostling. 

I wonder if that's partly why the perpetrators feel they can get away with it. 

Sadly, this may not be confined to that area: We live between the commons, and our 11-year-old was assaulted by two older boys in black hoodies and black masks. They first approached him near the Tesco Express on Battersea Rise to ask if he knew what time it was. They must have followed him around the corner to Clapham Common West Side where they stopped him again and demanded his phone, threatened to stab him, pushed him to the ground, and kicked him a few times. They ran off when cars began honking, and a kind bystander intervened. The police have been investigating, but unfortunately, the CCTV footage they have been able to obtain has been of poor quality and not helpful.