A couple of weeks ago, a child of mine went to his first morning class and then disappeared. The school office were notified and nearly two hours later, they sent me a text by Groupcall. This child is struggling at school and finding it hard to get through some days.
Groupcall is the messaging system used up schools up here in Aberdeen. There are about 2,500 schools using it in the UK and Europe, so it’s influence is growing.
It was co-funded by Sir Bob Geldof and essentially is for general and emergency communication between a school and its parents and provides solutions for education, public and private sectors.
Our local authority has now allowed Groupcall unlimited for all schools.
I wholly approve of increased communications between home and school, and I have had notifications of both good and bad behaviour in school, as well as new news items and reminders of special days at schools.
Essentially, it’s used to text parents snippets of news about the school, their children and any other communications parents want to send home.
The idea is to improve parental engagement and lower costs, but there really does need to be more local authority input into HOW these messaging systems are used.
It’s a good thing used properly, but it should NEVER take the place of the person to person telephone call in some situations in my opinion.
What about when it goes wrong?
- What about a school using it as a way to send a message to a parent or guardian that a child is missing?
- What about the parents who don’t even get that text, and don’t find out their child was missing for hours until another parent contacts them?
- What about the parents who are bombarded with so many texts that they just begin to ignore them?
The arguments
I’ve listened to the arguments of improving parent / school contact, but I don’t believe that if a child is missing, a parent should be told by groupcall text only.
I’ve been told by my local secondary school here in Aberdeen that it is local authority procedure to report a child missing from school by text.
Yes, I know a text suits some people and not others, and strangely, males seem to be happier with the chance of a text than women, but I am one major techy nerd and I think Groupcall alone just doesn’t cut the mustard in notifying parents.
I have also been told that as the kids who were missing from school weren’t usually skivers, that they hadn’t been flagged up as a problem when they went missing. I’d have thought the opposite should have applied, but that’s just my parenting expectations it seems.
Some people said they’d be happier with a text. Well whatddya know, your kid is missing for hours, but don’t worry, it can wait until your next tea break.
If a child is missing and it’s not usual behaviour – it’s an EMERGENCY in my opinion.
Shame on the schools devolving their duty of care to kids by delegating it to a text that may or may not arrive.
The article provided in this blog is nice to read, it is too fine. I like this blog and this blog is full of school messaging sytems information which is necessary to know for most of all.
I find this news really shocking. While I can see the benefits of such a system, and in fact would welcome texts about some things, a child going missing has got to be a priority, especially if its out of character. So many reasons that a text might not be spotted straight away …if I was the school I’d be calling every numerical had for the child’s family until I got a response. If it was an abduction time is of the element, but even if the child had just walked off school premises they’d be at risk and surely they’d still be the schools resnsibility until the parent was notified?
I find this news really shocking. While I can see the benefits of such a system, and in fact would welcome texts about some things, a child going missing has got to be a priority, especially if its out of character. So many reasons that a text might not be spotted straight away …if I was the school I’d be calling every numerical had for the child’s family until I got a response. If it was an abduction time is of the element, but even if the child had just walked off school premises they’d be at risk and surely they’d still be the schools resnsibility until the parent was notified?
This is outrageous and absolutely NOT acceptable in the situation where a child goes missing. Yes for general communicatin, but not for critical situations like this – I am really shocked that the school thought this was OK, and that they thought some parents would be happy with it – I also think it’s shocking, as you say, that a child who is less ‘troublesome’ is considered less of a worry – as you say I would have thoughtit would be of more concern.
Most mums seem to agree its out of order. I am never going to understand their logic, but I am going to take it further as I’d hate a child to go missing and nobody to do anything at all about it. In our case, it worked out as I found him, but I’d hate to be the child or parent who is just ignored when something major goes wrong.
Unbelievable! Our school has just adopted a similar system, but they use it when they have to tell every parent something in a hurry ( its a snow day and school is cancelled, we’ve got a burst water main and need you also to pick your kids up) but it should never be used for individual matters
The local primary school use it really well, but I was surprised to see it used like this at secondary for first years who are all 11 and 12. I still can’t quite believe how they think it isn’t a problem to speak to an actual person if a child goes missing unexpectedly without a history of truanting.
The local primary school use it really well, but I was surprised to see it used like this at secondary for first years who are all 11 and 12. I still can’t quite believe how they think it isn’t a problem to not speak to an actual person if a child goes missing unexpectedly without a history of truanting.
Wow. We have texting alerts. Fine for ‘gardening club is cancelled’. What if the child was in serious trouble or hurt somewhere. You can’t leave it to a text. I’d be pressing them to change it too!
Exactly. I was fuming and they just shrugged it off as not important.
Total shambles by the sound of it. Review of systems should be a matter of urgency
I can’t see anything changing, but I suspect it will be raised again by me.
You’re not the only one to be voicing concerns about this recently… http://www.aquirkykook.co.uk/2013/02/child-absent.html
Thanks, I went over and took a look at Jodies blog. It’s quite scary they are automating this level of stuff.
I think the txt system is good sometimes but agree it is not how you wish to hear your child is missing .I used to get them and often when I texted my daughter she had been at some meeting and hadn’t registered . When my daughter was in sixth form , I had huge problems as they didn’t have to let me know if she registered , often she would leave straight after and go into town with friends . think it depends more on age . I would be mad if it was a ten year old but teenagers are a different story.
I agree, older teenagers are more able to be responsible for themselves and what they do. My boy is a first year in secondary school pupil who had never gone missing before. He had no money and no phone and I was fuming that I ended up having to go and look for him as nobody as school was the slightest bit bothered.
Totally unacceptable!
What if the child was abducted? A failure to notice a text message can mean the difference between life and death.
I can see the point for older kids, but not first years in secondary who are 11 and 12. Their duty of care fails in this I think.
I totally agree with you. Great for information of non urgent type but if it’s out of character for a child to be AWOL then a phone all should be made. What if your phone was broken, you’d changed your number etc & never got that text?
I brought up all those things but got shrugged shoulders. I can’t understand how people can think this is ok to not contact an actual live person when a child is missing from school. A friends mum never got the text at all. That’s just nuts to me.