The Weald School, in Billingshurst, West Sussex Raises Attendance with Truancy Call
The Weald School in Billingshurst, West Sussex is taking a proactive approach to maintaining very low unauthorised absences 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 National Attendance Strategy, safeguarding pupil welfare by making the school and parents aware as soon as a child goes missing. 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, The Weald School – a secondary school with 1,400 pupils - is taking positive steps to ensure that they maintain their excellent record of attendance. The Weald School is currently rated as one of the County’s most successful schools for attendance in the area. 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. Caroline Barlow, Deputy Head Teacher at The Weald School said: “Truancy Call is so effective because it’s immediate. It has made a real difference by supporting our schools efforts in maintaining our very low, 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”. Stephen Clarke, Managing Director of Truancy Call, commented: “The Weald 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 absence, it is vital that they implement early prevention strategies as The Weald School have done so successfully, 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.” The Weald School in Billingshurst, West Sussex is also taking a proactive approach to improving communication with parents by installing Call Parents (www.callparents.com). This technology allows school staff to send texts, automated phone calls and emails to inform parents regularly about their child’s progress and school activities such as parents’ evenings and closures. Should parents not own a mobile phone, Call Parents translates the text into voice and delivers it to a landline phone. For more information on how Truancy Call or Call Parents can benefit your school call 0870 046 4246, email: sales@truancycall.com or visit the websites: www.truancycall.com and www.callparents.com
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