Rebecca Plunkett has been working closely with students refusing to attend school for almost a decade, and feels there is a better way to describe it.
"I prefer school avoidance," says the acting assistant principal at Travancore School in Naarm/Melbourne.
"Refusal has a negative association. When we talk about avoidance, we acknowledge that they avoid going to school because it is too emotionally distressing for them."
Rebecca was part of the Travancore's In2School program's conception in 2015 — an intervention program delivered in partnership with the Melbourne Graduate School of Education and the Royal Children's Hospital Mental Health.
It assists students aged between 11 and 14 (and their families) who have been refusing school and have a diagnosis of anxiety and/or mood disorders.
Rebecca was closely involved in the project before taking some maternity leave.
"It was like handing over one baby to get another baby," she says.
We spoke to Rebecca about how we can better understand school refusal through what she has observed.
These are her words.
Why are some kids refusing to go to school?
School refusal isn't the same as other forms of absence — it's when the child experiences distress in coming to school, and caregivers are across it and have been trying hard already to get them to attend.
The reasons for the avoidance can vary greatly and be quite complex, but some examples might be around social engagement. Navigating forming friends, break times at school, how to interact and meet all the nuanced social rules of being in a classroom.
It could be from not feeling safe or connected to peers or staff at school.
It can be through having difficulties in learning and being able to access curriculum, and those ideas of being able to learn and feel success.
It can also be from not wanting to be at school because they want to be at home with a caregiver for whatever reason. Maybe there is a family member who is sick, or someone they feel they need to protect.
The early warning signs
School refusal rarely begins from a student attending full time, to suddenly not attending at all.
The literature around school refusal shows this can happen at any age, from childcare right through to secondary school.
Often there are a range of early warning signs and sometimes those are things that might be noticed at school, or in the home.
It could be things like delaying getting ready for school.
Then starting to cry and plead with the parents or caregiver to be able to stay home.
It could present symptomatically, like the student complaining of feeling sick or having a headache, and not wanting to attend school because of that.
We can see this increase after weekends, school holidays and end-of-year breaks.
Parents might notice it escalates in the evenings before bed, or in the mornings.
At school, the child might attend sick bay more often, and ask to go home, or avoid participating in certain classes or activities.
They might be found avoiding interacting with peers during breaks, or hiding around the school.
It might start as missing certain lessons, part days, then regular full days, moving into missing multiple days a week, before potentially missing a week or more at a time.
Re-engaging kids
In2School is a wraparound collaborative program approach, where families work with mental health clinicians and specialised teachers to help kids return to their enrolled school.
The beginning stages are about getting to know the student and their family, and the school they have come from.
From there they enter a transitional classroom that we have on site, and we put in all sorts of supports that encourage them to feel successful attending our classroom program.
The last phase is where we transition them back to their school, using individualised and highly structured graduated return-to-school plans.
It's been an incredible opportunity personally and professionally, especially to become so knowledgeable and have this skill set of supporting and working with these students, their families and their schools who are facing this difficulty.
The relationship you end up building with the students and their families is quite incredible.
One challenge is we don't get to see long-term results as much, but I have heard two stories of students on our program.
Both of them have gone on to complete VCE and these are students who were having a really hard time.
Acknowledging parents
There is a misconception that there is more parents should be doing.
When you get to the point of school refusal, parents have already tried really hard to get their kid to school.
If they could get them there, they would.
As refusing school starts happening on a more regular basis, it gets harder and harder.
Every day they are having this battle in their household. I know parents who have had to stop working to be at home with the child.
The parents need a real shout-out in this situation.
I'd say to anyone in this position: pat yourself on the back, hang in there, reach out and try to find referrals or supports to help navigate what is a very difficult situation.
Create some small steps with your child, and team together to address the school avoidance.
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