Truancy Call introduces Anti-Bullying text service for schools

I moved to England from Scotland when I was 9. For some reason (my parents reckoned it ‘was the water’), I was about half a foot taller than the rest of my school colleagues. Perhaps it was the fresh Scottish air that helps me grow into a strapping teenager, compared to the small ENglish folk around me.

That made playing Rugby a rather simple affair for me: Grab the ball, steamroller through the little people and the score the try effortless. And try and avoid slipping the the huge mud puddles.

It also put paid to any potential bullying issues.

However I’m familiar with the trauma of bullying after witnessing it dispensed in the playground (then going over to the bully and fixing him, such was my Scottish anti-bullying viewpoint).

Reporting bullying isn’t as simple as ‘telling the teacher’, particularly, I imagine, when a lot of the bullying is psychological — and now, especially when you’ve got the whole of the internet, not just your school as the battleground.

So I’m pleased to see that Truancy Call, the people who provide text/calling services for Schools to connect easily with parents, has launched a sister service, Text Someone.

The concept being that the school is given a mobile telephone number. Then every student is issued with a card that contains this mobile number and a unique ID number.

Text the school number with your unique ID number and your bullying issue — and that is transmitted to the school’s system, ready for action.

More info at textsomeone.com.