What is BITUP?

BITUP is a programme designed to improve school attendance by updating parents on the number of days of school their child has missed.

At the start of each half term, we, the delivery team, will identify the pupils whose attendance fell below 95% in the previous half term. We will send schools the list of pupils whose parents are eligible to receive an attendance message and the message to be sent. Schools will then send out personalised messages to parents, excluding those where the school feels sending a message would be inappropriate. This process allows the intervention to be dynamic and personalised, as well as giving pupils a fresh start each half term. 
A Bristol based trial has already tested the impact of this intervention with promising exploratory results - the messages boosted the proportion of students keeping good attendance records (over 95%) by 4 percentage points (59.5% to 63.3%). Across the 22 schools taking part, this would have been equivalent to 350 more pupils having good attendance, as a result of the messages. 
In a large-scale trial in the US, sending parents messages to update them on the number of days of school missed led to a 10% reduction in chronic absence; this effect was particularly strong for disadvantaged pupils.

How it works

We are testing the impact of BITUP on pupil attendance using a randomised controlled trial (RCT). This means that half of the households in participating schools will be eligible to receive attendance text messages (the ‘treatment’ group) and half will not (the ‘control’ group). All schools will continue with their normal practices to support attendance during the trial.

What are the benefits for my school?

  • Potential improvements in pupil attendance

  • Attendance message templates which can be used to update parents on the number of days of school their child has missed

  • Support in how to send out personalised messages to parents: the delivery team will provide step-by-step instructions

  • The opportunity for your school to work with the EEF and YEF to build cutting-edge evidence on what works to improve school attendance

How to get involved

To book a call to discuss signing your school up for BITUP please click here or email BITUP@bi.team.

You can also click contact us below.