Visitors to ACPO 2005 can see how technology can tackle two problems in UK schools – truancy and bullying.
Truancy Call allows school staff to implement first day contact with parents of absentees via SMS text, voice calling and email. Also exhibiting on the stand is Text Someone which gives pupils the opportunity to report incidents of bullying, theft, crime or any unwanted behaviour in confidence, 24 hours a day, seven days a week by text message, email or voice message. Schools do not need to invest in new telephone systems, additional phone lines or a new computer to implement these services.
Truancy Call, now in 450 UK schools, enables schools to tackle unauthorised absence and reduces the amount of children hanging around shopping malls and making a nuisance. Children who are regular truants are more likely to be out of work or homeless at a later age and three times more likely to offend than non-truants. Home Office Research suggests, according to the firm, that 75 per cent of boys and half of girls who truant just once a week have already committed offences.
Once registration is completed and a child is marked as absent with no explanation, the system automatically calls, texts or emails parents until a response is received, the product makers say. Once a response is received no further calls that day are made. The system also helps to safeguard pupil welfare as both parents and the school are aware as soon as a child is missing.
Text messages, emails and voice messages sent by parents explaining why their child is absent are timed and dated and will appear automatically next to the child’s records. This can be very useful should a parental prosecution be required.
Text Someone, according to the makers, encourages children to report incidents as they do not have to speak directly to a person in the first instance and can simply leave their message. Once the incident has been reported to Text Someone, pupils will be reassured that the school is aware and that their problem will be followed up.
Schools will be given a dedicated mobile phone number, a local rate phone number and web email address for Text Someone, which can be promoted to pupils via posters and through the issuing of a ‘Text Someone Card’ to each pupil containing all the contact details they need.
Whenever a pupil sends a message it will appear on the Text Someone system in the school. A member of school staff can securely log onto the system to see all messages reported by pupils. The system can even send a text or email alerting school staff to a new message from pupils.
Stephen Clarke, Managing Director of Truancy Call Limited, said: “Both Truancy Call and Text Someone help schools to open lines of communication with parents and pupils and offers a new way to resolve behaviour issues that are prevalent in all schools. If more schools were to implement a first day contact system, such as Truancy Call, the Police would have to spend less of their time rounding up truants in the neighbourhood. Text Someone has already been praised by schools using the service as it has enabled them to react very quickly to incidents of bullying, leading to a better environment for their pupils.”
For more information on Truancy Call or Text Someone ring 0870 046 4246 or visit stand A70 at ACPO 2005.
