Catching the Truants

Lochend Community High School are piloting a project which involves sending parents text messages when their child does not come to school.

The scheme has been hailed a success and is due to be rolled out across Scotland. The innovative text service has seen absence rates drop from 21% to 15% since the system was introduced three years ago. The Scottish Executive has been so impress with the success of the project it has decided to give funding to councils for schools to develop their own absence text scheme.

SPTC Information Officer, Eleanor Coner said: "it's a good idea to let parents know as early as possible if their child is absent, but it is not a panacea to the problem. Persistant truants need help and it is not necessarily the parents' fault."