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School cuts new term absences in half with SMS system.
Added: (Fri Sep 08 2006)
Small Heath School in Birmingham have reduced their start of term absences by over 50% with their SMS communication system.
The system provided by UK SMS specialists' FASTSMS, enables parents to contact the school to report a child's illness but also for the school to text parents to remind them what day the term begins, amongst a number of other features.
In year 7 alone, the SMS system has reduced 'first day' absences by over 50%, with the only reasons for reported absences, this year, due to illness or holiday and not uncertainty of the term start date.
In year's 8,9,10 and 11 the system has reduced absences by 25% as recorded yesterday by the school administration staff.
Even more surprising is the lack of phone calls from those parents who are registered with the SMS system.
Richard Riley, senior tutor at Small Heath School, said, "The impact of the FASTSMS system has been astonishing.
"We sent out a message to all returning pupils on Tuesday to remind the year 7's of the correct term start date on Wednesday, we also issued another message on Wednesday to remind the rest of the school that their term begins on 7th September.
"The attendance of the year 7's yesterday was fantastic in itself but yesterday 's figures are even more exciting.
"One example in particular is the attendance from Year 10's, out of a year group of over 225 we had only 4 pupils missing, all of which notified the school with valid reasons, last year we had over 15 children absent on their first day."
"We also received no phone calls from parents registered on our SMS system, asking whether the term started yesterday . Considering last year we had over 35 calls the 100% reduction rate has had a significant impact on administration time required by teachers and office staff.
David Pride, director of FASTSMS, said, "It is fantastic to see that the SMS system has had such a positive impact on the start of term absence rates.
"We know the system has been working extremely well since its creation in March and we even received news this week that the system has helped a girl in year 8 from being bullied."
"The FASTSMS is versatile and very easy to implement within any school environment, with Small Heath School in particular we have had nothing but positive feedback from both staff and parents."
ENDS/
Editors' Notes
Issued by Jo Dudley of Haswell Holden, Business Promoters, 138 Hanbury Road, Stoke Prior, Worcestershire. B60 4JZ. Telephone: 01527-873937 Fax: 01527-837005 Web: www.haswellholden.com Email: joanne.d@haswellholden.com
DIRECT: 07709894221
FASTSMS: David Pride, Managing Director
FASTSMS.co.uk. Unit 23 Stockwood Business Park, Worcestershire, B96 6SX Tel:
01386 792972 info@fastsms.co.uk, www.fastsms.co.uk
Small Heath School and Sixth Form Centre: Richard Riley, Senior Tutor
Upper School: Muntz Street, Small Heath, Birmingham, B10 9RX
Tel: 0121 464 6515 DIRECT: 07940521144
Background on FASTSMS
FASTSMS was established in 2002 as a subsidiary of the NetSecrets Group. Since launch, the company has earned an enviable reputation in the text messaging market as the reliable hub that enables individuals, businesses and organisations to rapidly send large numbers of SMS text messages from PCs and web browsers.
The company is high-growth, increasing its turnover by 100% year on year, and leading this constantly evolving marketplace.
FASTSMS provides a full range of services based on the transmission of text messages between PCs and mobile phones using the Internet.
Typically SMS is increasingly used to: Keep in touch with employees who are on the road and absent from offices, replace pagers for notifying incidents and instructions to rescue teams; and to inform subscribers of relevant requested information such as weather alerts through to sports scores, etc. The same infrastructure provides text voting for TV shows, competitions and even as a means of taking micro-payments for low-cost services.
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Submitted by:
Jo Dudley