In a classroom in North London, Carl's face lights up as he is handed a piece of paper. The form means that shortly his parents will receive a text message saying that Carl has 'shown considerable improvement in his maths this week'. Carl knows that when he gets home he will be greeted with enthusiasm by his mother and step-father, and he cannot wait to see them.

Truancy has received a great deal of attention recently, and text messaging is starting to be used to reduce the massive workload needed to follow up children who do not show up to school.

However, these applications only tackle the ultimate symptom of poor school performance, rather than directly working towards improving performance. TextMine®, a U.K. software company, aims to reverse this trend.

‘There is a significant body of academic and empirical evidence which shows that frequent communication between teacher and parent, including praise, can positively influence school performance. By combining these findings with text messaging, we aim to place a child’s school performance firmly at the head of the family agenda which should bring positive results.’ says TextMine Director James Fellowes.

TextMine provides a simple yet powerful messaging tool which puts control back into the hands of teachers and administrators. It is flexible enough to be used for reducing truancy, but also for positive messages such as 'the field trip will be arriving back at 18:00 today' and 'good homework today in French'.

In one classroom, when children walk in late, the teacher hands them a paper form to complete which will lead to a text being sent. This has drastically reduced lateness, and TextMine is also used for things like 'uniform infringements'. However, the teacher always likes to balance such use with positive messages, which he considers to be even more influential. These tend to encourage even children from the most difficult of home environments.

When another TextMine school was flooded, the time-saving aspects became clear when staff needed to reach 560 parents immediately. Telephoning each one would have taken at least five hours! And the TextMine approach is generally much cheaper than using the telephone or writing.

In addition, some schools are experimenting with the ‘inbound’ messaging service which may assist with anti-bullying measures as a confidential line of communication. Others are considering using the system to improve on specific initiatives such as safety, as well as communication between neighbouring or zoned schools. And TextMine is in talks with school database vendors in order to package the functionality.

Most teachers agree the system cannot be used for sensitive communication, but it can be invaluable for notices to large groups, or when speed is of the essence. And whereas e-mail is not always checked, all parents have at least one mobile phone. Accurate, cheap, ubiquitous, and quick: texting is often demanded by parents who want to be kept in the loop.

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For More Information Contact:

TextMine Limited
258 Belsize Road,
London NW6 4BT,
United Kingdom
Tel: 0800 78 33133
Fax: 0870 164 1725
E-mail: Click here

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