Just as a note here - and I've said this before, I'm sure - I'm always surprised about the attitude to ticket offices vs TVMs in Northern-land. In the south, it's inevitably the case that smaller stations often have TVMs and perhaps a part-time ticket office; TVMs are very much the priority, as you can see from the equipment installed to make GTR into a more cohesive penalty fares zone, for example (in fact, station staff are getting to "impressed" levels with regards to how well the new machines are performing, versus the uptake and reliability of the old ones).
However, around the north, it always seems to me that efforts are put in to operating manned ticket offices at stations in random locations where the slightest staff shortage or suchlike can cause major uncertainty for passengers. TVMs are an afterthought compared to employing scattered lone-working employees who may or may not be there.
I have worked on stations, assisting with ticket sales and much more besides - but as much as I like real people being present to sell tickets, and I'd rather there was always someone available on a train or at a station towards the start of any journey, to deal with queries and complex ticketing matters, TVMs certainly have their places - and some rural stations and especially the Northern area would greatly benefit from more of them. It would cost less and allow staff to be focussed on specific, busy stations or trains at peak times where machines had failed or queue-busting was needed.
A debit card? Why not? Why should adults be the only ones with the benefits of cashless payment?
As for phones, my experience (with my Scouts, I don't have my own kids) is that the parents typically upgrade every 2 years with their contract, and the kids get the old one which is generally only one model out of date and is good for another couple of years.
Mind you, as a teenager I had a Psion Series 3, which cost about £200 at the time, so roughly equivalent of a £400-500 smartphone now. I paid for it myself by saving from my paper round - so don't assume these kids are being spoilt.
I completely agree about debit cards for kids. In fact, I'd far rather they had those, as opposed to cash. Sometimes they get picky about using them on trains (you never know if they're actually telling the truth when they say "oh, it's not got money on it") but it's more secure and more flexible in many ways.
(All that coincides neatly with my own childhood - though in my case it was a now-really-quite-old Apple computer, not a phone! I didn't have a smartphone until halfway through uni. Wow, that makes me feel weirdly old-fashioned...)
At many schools smartphones are banned. You are only allowed a simple Nokia type phone for emergency calls/messages home etc
Not wishing to take us off-topic, but is this really the case? Many of my friends are teachers (of varying ages of pupils) and a close relative of mine is involved with educational strategy at regional/national level, and I've never once heard this. Obviously many, if not all, schools will have policies about the use of phones on site; I'd never question someone noting this.
