Introduction

According to an article by the BBC in March 2022 (link below), almost 2 million children in England are regularly missing school. The Children’s Commissioner for England, Dame Rachel de Souza, said that urgent action was needed to identify the children most at risk, and the reasons why they miss school. In this blog post, Director and Principal Educational Psychologist at i-pass UK, Dr Emma Black, answers questions around this issue and offers a clear and simple method that schools, parents and carers can use to support any child who is not attending school.

 

Question: 

How should we refer to a child who is refusing to attend school?

 

Answer: 

Historically, the term used to describe a child who is finding it difficult to go to school has been a ‘school refuser’. The phrase we use now is ‘Emotionally Based School Avoidance’ (EBSA). You can replace the word ‘emotionally’ with the specific emotion the child is experiencing, for instance, ‘anxiety based school avoidance’ or ‘fear based school avoidance’. The term ‘school refuser’ labels the child as the problem, the ‘refuser’, whereas EBSA recognises that there are emotional aspects getting in the way of the child feeling able to go into school. 

 

Question:

What approach would you suggest in dealing with a child who is experiencing EBSA?

 

Answer:

I would propose three steps. Step one is to access the voice of the child by listening to them and observing their behaviour. Try and find out what worries the child has, what makes them feel vulnerable relating to school and what barriers they have in attending. Depending on the student, you may instead need to explore school-related positive and protective factors and feelings and build on those.

Step two is to allow trusted adults and key staff to hear and listen to the child’s story. This allows them to be proactive in supporting the student. Often, factors which appear small to adults can make huge differences to student experiences. For instance, a young person may be struggling with something apparently simple like moving from downstairs to upstairs, they may fear the overwhelming experience of the dinner hall or there may be one core lesson they have daily which is causing them issues. 

The last step is for the child, key staff and adults to create a clear plan. This plan must be adhered to, unless changes are agreed with the young person. This helps to maintain trust. Trust is crucial in this process and it is important that the key adults chosen are trusted by the student. This plan may be simple or detailed but it must be designed to remove stressors or to increase resilience, for example eating lunch in a classroom with a trusted teacher or arriving at school later in the morning after the stressful daily core lesson has finished. The plan must be followed step by step, only making changes when the young person is comfortable to do so. Once the child is feeling more resilient, you can then negotiate additional steps to increase resilience further. 

In addition to these steps, it is important to explore whether there are any underlying neurological factors or unidentified needs influencing the young person’s non-attendance. A Psychologist can help with this. For example, there are quite a high number of girls who experience EBSA and research indicates that there is a high correlation between this and undiagnosed autism. 

 

Question:

Would your approach differ for a young person with additional needs?

 

Answer:

Essentially, no. I would still need to explore the lived experience of that child or young person. So, the process I would follow would remain the same, but the tools I would use may differ. For instance, for students who find it difficult to express themselves and understand their emotions there are a range of fantastic resources available to help them to make sense of their world through visual means. It’s important that we don’t just rely on dialogue and explore alternative methods to help understand the young person’s views and lived experience.

 

Question:

Can you tell me some things our readers should not do in trying to support a young person who is experiencing emotionally based school avoidance.

 

Answer:

Do not give ultimatums, consequences or increase pressure. You need the child to feel supported, resilient and empowered to take on this challenge. Ultimatums, consequences and increased pressure are counter-productive to these goals.

 

Conclusion

Huge numbers of young people are missing out on their education across the UK. By providing a clear process for supporting students back into the classroom, Educational Psychologist Dr Emma Black has offered a simple yet powerful process: access the voice of the child; listen to the young person’s story; and create a clear step by step plan. Once the child is feeling more resilient, new steps can easily be agreed upon and added to build resilience further. If you would like more information about the Educational Psychology Services offered by Emma and her team, please email hello@i-pass.uk or visit the website www.i-pass.uk

 

Emma’s takeaways

  1. Name the behaviour, not the child. This is a young person experiencing EBSA, not ‘a school refuser’
  2. Listen to the child and give them the tools to express themselves
  3. Turn barriers into challenges and deal with one at a time.

 

Links

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-60659304

 

Do you need extra support for a young person with EBSA who may have unidentified needs? Email us or comment below.