Parents find texts highlighting the number of days missed clearer and more meaningful than texts highlighting their child’s attendance in percentage terms, researchers found. Over the course of the trial, which involved more than 100 secondary schools in England, around 36,000 parents received texts saying, for example: “Tom missed five days of school last term”, rather than their usual school communications about absence, received by a control group of around 36,000 parents. Receiving the former texts highlighting days missed was associated with 15 extra days of attendance per 100 pupils across five half terms, or 0.21 fewer missed days of school per pupil. “Many schools will already have mechanisms in place to communicate with parents about their child’s absence,” Ms Yeomans added. School absence levels saw a big increase after the pandemic.