“I want to go to school, I want to do my GCSEs, but I just can’t imagine being able to do that right now.”

This is something I hear quite often from the young people I work with. Negative thoughts and feelings can trap them in their homes (or even bedrooms), excluding them from education and socialisation for months or, in some cases, years.

These young people are experiencing emotionally based school avoidance (EBSA), which means that they frequently do not attend school due to emotional and mental health needs.

What is emotionally based school avoidance?

Historically, it has been estimated that between 1 and 2 per cent of the population experiences EBSA. Anecdotally, however, it’s likely that the post-lockdown figure is much higher. 

From a psychological perspective, this is unsurprising. Children who may have had some negative thoughts and feelings about school before the pandemic were able to avoid their feared experience for a prolonged time and were told that attending school was dangerous.

When you add on top of that missed learning and social opportunities, I’d say that increasing numbers of children experiencing EBSA is inevitable.

So, how can teachers and schools support these children?

Emotionally based school avoidance: recognising the cause

The first step is understanding that persistent absence may be a symptom of an underlying, emotional cause. Not going to school is not always simply “refusal” or “defiance” but a response to feelings of overwhelming anxiety, stress and fear.

For many students, this is brought on by experiences of bullying and friendship difficulties, but other factors can include academic demands, exam pressure, difficult relationships with adults and the physical environment. Parental illness and family traumas can also pull children towards staying at home. It’s often a combination of these factors that lead to school avoidance.

Rather than believing that the problem lies within the young person, then, it’s crucial to think about the underlying causes and consider how the school system can bring about change.

For example, if a key factor pushing the student away from school is feeling unable to catch up on work missed, support plans could be put in place that focus on building the young person’s confidence and preparedness to return to the main classroom.

These intervention plans need to be bespoke and individualised, which, admittedly, is not an easy feat in a busy school.

However, there are other overarching principles that seem to support young people who are avoiding school.

1. Relationships

Communicate that you understand and care about the child who is struggling to attend. Ensure that the child has a trusted, consistent key adult whom they can check in with and rely on when they are able to come into school. Show the child that you are working alongside their family and invested in them returning to school by maintaining contact with the child, even when they have not attended.

2. Psychological safety

Although we may feel we give students information about what will happen at school, those who are very anxious about attending will need much more information and autonomy when it comes to the plans made for their return. Anxiety is often born out of a lack of control over what might happen, so anything we can do to provide some knowns and a bit more control can alleviate some of that stress. Focus on establishing structure, routine, predictability and consistency.

3. ‘Laddering’

Reaching the peak of the returning-to-school mountain can feel like an impossible task for some pupils. Breaking the journey down into much smaller steps that build up slowly can make the task seem more manageable.

For some, this may mean implementing a reduced timetable, starting with the least threatening subjects, before slowly increasing the number of lessons attended, with support in place.

Where attending lessons proves too big a leap, the steps may need to be scaled back and focused on enhancing engagement with school. This could be through online communication with school or coming in to pick up and drop off work on a specified day.

EBSA is tough for a school to deal with alone, and we need more cross-community approaches in place to help these children.

In Camden, North London, the Royal Free Hospital School and Educational Psychology Service have worked together to create the LinkEdUp programme for reintegration back to school that incorporates the elements I’ve outlined (see box, below).

The programme is in its early stages but it seems clear that using the principles for EBSA support can have a positive impact.

Ultimately, working with students experiencing EBSA requires not only empathy but also creativity and a different way of thinking about engagement with school. The road back can be long but there is no doubt that psychologically supporting children to help them imagine a return to school, and feel confident to take those first steps, is crucial.

Dr Cathleen Halligan is an educational psychologist with a London council. Her views are her own