Burnage High School Embrace the 2Nc Alert System Burnage High School in Manchester have embraced all aspects of the Fingershield 2Nc Alert System, which has had such a positive impact on all aspects of school life. Improving Attendance
During a recent visit to Burnage High School, Jenny gave us her story of how 2Nc Alert has improved school life, saying: “Before Burnage High School incorporated the 2Nc Alert System into its daily operations, I spent most of my day phoning the parents of absent pupils. Speaking to each individual would take up so much of my time and that was if I got through at all. I then had to send a letter out to all the parents who I could not get through to, which, of course, was sometimes intercepted by the child. “Now that we have 2Nc Alert, all I have to do is write a standard message, choose the parents I wish to send the message to and then click Send.” Saving Time “It is such a big help having 2Nc Alert. The fact is, I can contact parents in a few seconds and it saves me over an hour a day in telephone calls. “I also used to have the problem of getting through to individuals who could not speak English. 2Nc Alert eradicates this problem, because whoever receives the text message can simply ask somebody what the message says if they don’t speak English, avoiding a potentially awkward telephone conversation.” Rapid Response Rate “The aspect of the service that works very well for Burnage High School is that the parents respond very quickly in contacting the school and ensuring the child attends school. Not only is the response rate to text messages very high, but many parents have commented on how much they prefer to be contacted via text message. We even had one parent contact us from Cyprus to let us know where their child was.” Proof of Contact “In the past, I used to have many unauthorised attendance marks on my records, because absence letters often proved ineffective. With the Reporting facility that is incorporated into the 2Nc Alert System, I can now send parents a text message and prove that it has been delivered to the parent’s handset. If a child is persistently absent from school, we can now provide evidence to the Education Welfare Officer that we are making substantial effort to solve the problem. “All in all, the 2Nc Alert System has proven to be of great value to Burnage High School. Everything about it is positive and I would definitely recommend it to other schools.” Ann Johnson, the Assistant Head Teacher, also champions 2Nc Alert, saying: “There is no way that parents can ignore a text as it has to be dealt with and they do so by bringing the child to school.” Burnage Says No to Bullying As well as reducing the level of truancy, the 2Nc Alert System has also reduced the incidence of bullying at Burnage High School. Peter Shotton, the Lead Mentor for Behaviour, manages the Tell…by Txt anti-bullying part of the 2Nc Alert System and says: “We have identified one bully in the first few weeks of using the service. His behaviour has now been corrected, preventing any further incidences.” Peter is impressed to such an extent with the positive impact that 2Nc Alert is having on pupils at Burnage High that he says: “I believe this service has a place in every school in the UK.” Head Teacher’s Thoughts
“Last year, after anticipating that attendance would be down by 3%, we were delighted to find that it was indeed as high as 90% thanks to 2Nc Alert. “The beauty of the 2Nc Alert System is that I now have a member of staff who can work smart. That little investment has created the equivalent of an extra full time member of staff. The school is now not only able to do First Day Contacting, but can also be much more targeted in its approach to improving attendance. “Having to rely on the 2Nc Alert System, it’s worth its weight in gold.” |
Jenny Dix, the Attendance Administrator, is personally in charge of the Truancy Tracker part of the 2Nc Alert System. Jenny has found that 2Nc Alert has not only reduced the level of truancy at Burnage High School, but has also made a significant difference to her working day. 
Finally, Head Teacher, Mr. Ian Fenn, is delighted with the difference that the 2Nc Alert System has made to Burnage High School, saying: “The use of text messaging to tell parents that their child is absent from school is such a novel use of technology that has worked so well for us at Burnage High School. 
