BENDIGO Senior Secondary College is waiting on advice from the government before making any specific decisions about the implementation of a mobile phone ban, principal Dale Pearce has said.
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Many schools are not expecting big changes when the state's student mobile phone ban begins in 2020, as many already restrict students' use of devices.
The Victorian government announced $12.4 million for lockers on Monday to help schools implement the phone ban.
Education Minister James Merlino announced a ban on mobile phone use for students across all state schools in June.
Read more: Switching off, teachers react to phone ban
Mr Pearce said the challenge for BSSC would be around managing use of mobile phones during recess and lunchtime, with students free to roam the city centre.
It would be common sense in BSSC's environment to have a little flexibility, but the school would work through that once it had advice, Mr Pearce said.
BSSC has already restricted use of mobile phones in the classroom for about two years.
Mr Pearce said this policy was based on the belief that phones were a distraction for many students, who either couldn't or wouldn't manage them during class time.
He said the response to this had been very positive. Teachers still had to remind students not to use their phones from time to time, but the policy made it easier for teachers to have that conversation, Mr Pearce said.
"Our policy is best summarised that student mobile phones are silent and invisible. If students have them in class, they're to be switched off and not to be used," Mr Pearce said.
"Right from day one students and parents understood that it's a sensible policy and the students have been very compliant and parents have been very supportive."
Crusoe College was another school already restricting students' use of mobile phones during class-time.
Principal Brad Madden said the school announced a ban on phones in class in term four 2018, which began in term one 2019. It began a consultation process in term three 2018.
"We just felt it had reached that tipping point where there were more distractions than there were advantages to having them in class," Mr Madden said.
Mr Madden said that some students used their phones during recess and lunchtime, most were still out in the yard during their breaks.
The school overhauled lockers before implementing the policy to make sure students had a place to securely store their phones, Mr Madden said.
It had also brought in a system that allowed students to borrow a device for classroom use, so they were not forced to rely on their mobiles, he said.
Mr Madden said parents had been very supportive of the ban, while students' responses were "really good".
He said teachers had confiscated only about two per cent of students phones since the school banned classroom use at the start of this year.
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