(1888PressRelease)
July 22, 2009 - This technology is also helping the school meet the Government’s targets within the 2008/09 National Attendance Strategy, and is a further measure in safeguarding pupil welfare.
Over 13 million school half days are lost due to unauthorised absence across the UK each year. A huge increase in the number of primary school children missing classes has been blamed on parents booking family holidays during term time. In 2003-04 there were fewer than 600,000 unauthorised absences in primary schools. By 2006-07 this had jumped to over 700,000.
Maintaining good communication with parents is key to the success of a school’s anti-truancy strategy, so schools should engage them in the very earliest stages of absenteeism. By installing Truancy Call, Fairisle Junior School – a primary school with 291 pupils – is taking positive steps to achieve this.
Once registration has been completed, the Truancy Call system automatically calls, texts or emails parents until a response is received. Once a response is received any further calls that day are stopped automatically.
Mr Peter Howard, Headteacher at Fairisle Junior School, said: “Truancy Call is so effective because it’s immediate. It has freed up time for the administration staff who no longer have to be on the phone all the time and it has made a real difference to our unauthorised absence levels. We have had a very pleasing reaction from the parents as the system reminds them that they must inform the school straight away if their child is absent. Previously we had to call all the parents individually but now we press a button and Truancy Call does the job for us.”
Stephen Clarke, Managing Director of Truancy Call, commented: “Fairisle Junior School appreciates the necessity of contacting parents on the first day of their child’s absence. If the Government and schools are to continue successfully tackling truancy, it is vital that they implement early prevention strategies, so that children taking the odd day off here and there can be quickly identified, and the problem resolved before it gets to a stage when a child is persistently truanting.”
For more information on how Truancy Call can benefit your school please call 0870 046 4246, email: sales ( @ ) truancycall dot com or visit the website: www.truancycall.com.
###
