Can text messages help to tackle attendance issues?

According to experts, personalised text messages to parents could be used to help improve school attendance rates

CREDIT: This is an edited version of an article that originally appeared on The Guardian

Following the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, schools are struggling to re-engage children and their families. To help with this, text messages offer a new route of communication to the parents and carers of students not attending school. 

Recent research by FFT Datalab found that a third of 15-year-olds have been persistently absent from classrooms in England during the current school year – and pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds were particularly prone to absence. 

Schools already use text messages to routinely keep their parent and carer community informed with news and updates, but personalised messages can help schools to tackle low attendance rates. Alongside an existing range of measures that are being used to tackle student attendance issues, including family liaison workers and attendance officers, trials undertaken across the world suggest that sending parents and carers a text message could be an effective and low-cost approach to boosting attendance. 

They are also a great way to improve relationships between schools and families. Regular updates help to keep parents informed of changes to key school dates, such as reopening dates after holidays and special events, notify them of event cancellations and school closures and send performance updates for students. 

Sending these updates is key to building great relationships as it helps the parents and carers of your students to feel informed and recognised by the school; by building a good relationship with parents and carers, schools can better communicate the importance of school attendance. 

Why attendance is key

It is important to make sure that parents and carers are aware of the benefits of school attendance for their children – here are just a few.

• Student success: school attendance helps to boost the academic outcomes for students. 
• Building the future for students: schools can offer opportunities for students to learn critical career skills and prepare them for their future. 
• Student wellbeing: when students regularly attend school, staff can more easily identify at-risk students in need of support. 
• Student safety: attendance can help to keep track of the number of students on site, which plays a major role in student safety.