Elton High School, in Bury, Lancashire is taking a proactive approach to tackling unauthorised absence with Truancy Call (www.truancycall.com) - technology which allows school staff to make first-day contact with parents of absent children by email, text message and voice calling. This technology is also helping the school meet the Government’s 2008/09 National Attendance Strategy, safeguarding pupil welfare by making the school and parents aware as soon as a child goes missing.

Over 13 million school half days are lost due to unauthorised absence across the UK each year.
The Government has set a target to reduce absence rates so that by 2011 no local authority will have more than 5% of its secondary school pupils as persistent absentees.

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, Elton High School – a secondary school...