Bradford Schools uses SMS to Tackle Truancy

30/11/19

A Bradford school, with a daily truancy rate of 3.5%, is the first to adopt text messaging in its battle to get students back in the classroom.

The scheme at Tong School in Bradford, which has been trialled elsewhere by mobile phone companies, will be the first to employ widespread use of messaging systems to alert parents when their kids fail to show up.

It is due to start in the autumn.David Platt, head teacher at Tong School, told the Yorkshire Evening Post he expected the system to cut truancy by nearly half within the year.

"Over the last few years we have tried to reduce our rate of unauthorised absence but we hope to bring it down by one to one-and-a-half % now," said Mr Platt.

"The text message is very immediate and nowadays people might respond to those more than perhaps a phone call at home.

It is more economical to send text messages than to send a letter or make a telephone call." "We suspect a number of parents are not aware their children are playing truant.

We would think that the majority of parents will be concerned the children aren't in school and would act quickly to remedy the situation." "If the year 10 are late back from a school trip you can text their parents immediately, or you can use it to let people know about Saturday's school fair without involving bits of paper which inevitably get lost at the bottom of childrens' bags," added Mr McCann.