Does your child worry about going to school? Are they often late or do they sometimes skip days? Or perhaps they are not attending school at all.
There can be many reasons why learners find it difficult to attend school. This page is all about when the reasons behind attendance difficulties are emotional (often anxiety which can show as worries or fear, withdrawal or anger).
We call this Emotionally Based School Non-Attendance (EBSNA). This is also known as Emotionally Based School Avoidance (EBSA).
We hope that this page provides parents and carers with some information to better understand EBSNA and provides some tools and ideas to help families in their next steps towards better school attendance.
Image showing the spectrum of EBSNA needs taken from EdPsychEd.
EBSNA is a spectrum, with varying degrees of severity as shown in the image above. Your child may not have attended school for many days, weeks, months or even years.
Or your child might be going to school some or even most days but be late, or leave early, or sometimes miss part or whole days of school.
Or your child might be going to school every day – but be carrying a lot of anxiety with them. They may show this anxiety at school, by leaving the class or avoiding school work in class. Or they may be working well in school, but you see their distress at home, after school, at bedtime, or in the morning before school.
Image showing the interaction between our thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and behaviours taken from EdPsychEd.
Children and young people may struggle to articulate their EBSNA experience. Physical symptoms often accompany emotional distress. Consider the impact of the child or young person's feelings, thoughts and bodily sensations on their behaviour. Do they shut down and withdraw, begin to avoid things that make them anxious, or communicate their distress through some behaviours that can be challenging to manage?
Your understanding of your child’s perspective is key to providing support.
You can learn more about EBSNA in the videos below.
This video provides a short summary of what EBSNA is.
This video explains the factors that can pull a learner away from attending school or push a leaner into attending school. This video also describes the anxiety cycle that can contribute to EBSNA.
In this video we explain how to use the Ladder of Strength and Courage tool which helps us break down goals into smaller more manageable steps.
EBSNA can impact the whole family. Here are three videos to about what families can do and to promote family wellbeing. Please see the Additional Resources section below to download the tools discussed in these videos.
This video share some ideas about what families can do to do to support learners who are experiencing EBSNA
In this video we will talk about the Stress Bucket which help to understand the build up of stress from non-attendance.
In this video we will speak about the Five Ways to Wellbeing model to promote the wellbeing required to go to school.
EBSNA can really challenge the home-school relationship.
But successfully supporting a child to attend school can often depend on the shared understanding between home and school about what is going on, and then building a shared plan of what to do now.
It is important that your child or young person is part of these discussions, contributing as much as they can and agreeing to any plans made.
This video is designed for school staff and shares some ideas about what schools can do to support learners who are experiencing EBSNA.
The content and images on this page have been developed from materials by EdPsychEd, Horizons and Dr Jerricah Holder, Educational Psychologist. We are grateful for their permission to share this with you.
Image showing the EdPsychEd website logo.
Image showing the EBSA Horizons logo.
Image showing the Family Horizons logo.
To access the resources discussed in the videos please visit our Additional Resources Library by clicking here.
You will find a wealth of free parenting advice and resources on The Scottish Governments Parent Club website about lots of topics including school attendance and teenage mental health. You can access this website by clicking here.
In this video from the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families, a parent shares her family's experience of EBSNA.
In this video from the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families, a psychotherapist and co-funder of an alternative provision school for children and families with emotional and behavioural difficulties discuss how schools can work with parents and carers whose children are experiencing EBSNA.
If you have concerns about your child's attendance and engagement in education, education staff can request a problem-solving discussion (known as an Early Intervention Consultation) with the Educational Psychology Service. Please visit our Contact Us page for more information by clicking here.