SIR Bob Geldof has urged the Government to continue to invest in technology that can help parents and teachers.

Speaking at a conference of 400 teachers at the University of the West of England yesterday, the Live Aid founder said it was important for schools to be able to communicate with families. He expressed concern at the event, organised by the South West Grid for Learning, that public spending cuts would hit investment in the latest hi-tech equipment for teachers and pupils.

Sir Bob is a founding partner of a company called Groupcall, which enables schools to send automatic text alerts to parents. He is also involved with a company that makes programmes for Teachers TV.

The former Boomtown Rat said he had become interested in the idea of texting parents to alert them when students had not arrived when his four daughters were all at school and he needed to know they were safe.

Sir Bob, who now has only his adopted youngest daughter Heavenly Hiraani Tigerlily, 13, at school, said that when his older girls were pupils, communication with parents was often very formal and in "teacher speak".

But the technology had since developed and it had the potential to improve links between schools and families further.

"Technology can pare down a blizzard of data into the appropriate information for a school to give an individual parent about an individual child," he said. "Already we can send texts simultaneously in many different languages. Now we are developing apps that can take this further."

Sir Bob said systems such as this were worth investing in because they freed up heads to run their schools and teachers to get on with teaching. He said there were too many pressures on teachers, particularly paperwork and an expectation from society that teachers would bear many of the caring duties that should be carried out by parents.