What does a typical morning look like in your household? For some, the before-school routine might involve eating breakfast together, walking the dog, or a mad dash for the school bus. Mornings can be a tricky, but manageable part of the day. For others, weekday mornings can be an exhausting battle. It might begin with a stomach ache, escalate into intense distress, and culminate in the child unable to cross the school threshold. This is not truancy or simple ‘bad behaviour.’ This is Emotional Based School Avoidance (EBSA) – a complex phenomenon where severe emotional distress, predominantly rooted in anxiety, prevents a young person from attending school.
At Abingdon House School, Purley (AHSP), we are no strangers to school avoidance. Before joining us, a third of our students have been out of school for a year or more, and our cohort of learners with EBSA have usually been ‘school refusers’ for even longer than that. Many of these students have had negative, sometimes traumatic experiences in previous school environments, linked to undiagnosed or unmet needs relating to their neurodivergence.
To truly support students with EBSA and address this growing crisis, we must fundamentally re-examine why this is happening and restructure how we support children back into the classroom.
Why are EBSA rates escalating?
The number of students experiencing school avoidance has risen dramatically over recent years. While the pandemic is frequently cited as the catalyst, Covid-19 only accelerated cracks that already existed within the educational landscape.
The causes of EBSA are often unique to the individual, and involve a combination of push and pull factors across a child’s life. That said, there are several systemic pressures which have contributed to the current crisis:
- Sensory overload: Schools can be very overstimulating places! Loud corridors, bright lights and unpredictable social situations can make school an overwhelming place for neurodivergent pupils with sensory sensitivities. Avoiding an overstimulating environment may be a logical response to sensory overwhelm.
- High-stakes testing and academic pressure: Much of the mainstream educational system is designed around neurotypical learners. For students who learn differently, a constant, visible gap between their efforts and achievements can cause feelings of despondency and low self-esteem.
- Mental health crisis: Schools are increasingly acting as front-line mental health providers, yet may lack the necessary clinical resources to do this. With CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services) waiting lists spanning months or even years, early intervention is happening less and less. As a result, less severe instances of anxiety or low mood can escalate into more complex, full-blown school avoidance.
- The post-pandemic vulnerability gap: Lockdowns impacted many young peoples’ social development and emotional resilience. Returning to highly stimulating, complex social environments after months of isolation proved difficult for many students at a critical stage in their schooling.
The mechanics of EBSA: understanding the cycle
To fix the problem, we must first properly understand it. EBSA functions as a self-reinforcing cycle driven by a classic stress response we will all be familiar with: avoidance.
So, an anxiety trigger at school can lead to intense emotional distress, and this emotional distress can lead to avoidance. The temporary relief and safety of staying home can inadvertently lead to increased anxiety about returning to school, and the cycle continues.
When a student stays home, their nervous system instantly registers a drop in cortisol; they feel safe. However, the longer they remain away, the larger the “threat” of school looms in their mind. Academic work piles up, peer groups shift, and the hill to climb becomes a mountain.
The blueprint for a successful return to school
When a young person has been out of education for months, you cannot just demand they walk through the front gates on a Monday morning. Forcing a child into an environment that their brain perceives as a threat will only deepen the trauma.
Instead, schools must employ a compassionate, evidence-based, graduated approach to re-engagement. This is true of all students, but particularly neurodivergent pupils who learn and engage in social situations differently. As a Headteacher, I have seen firsthand a number of success stories when it comes to re-engaging students with EBSA, both at AHSP and elsewhere.
While approaches must be adapted to suit the individual child, there are some consistent threads across schools which are successfully seeing students return to learning.
1. Shift the language and culture
First and foremost, we must remove the stigma around school avoidance. This means moving away from penalising attendance through rigid, punitive measures and looking at the underlying why.
In the current educational environment it is a hard ask, but schools need to view attendance through a lens of safety, not compliance. If a child does not feel that school is a safe place, we must prioritise building emotional safety, not label them as truants.
2. Prioritise a single co-regulation relationship
A child will not return for a building or a curriculum; they will return for a person. We find students are much more likely to re-engage when schools assign a designated key adult to the child in question – a trusted teacher, learning support assistant, or therapist.
This adult’s job initially is to build a relationship without demanding academic output. They act as a safe anchor, offering a co-regulating presence when the child’s anxiety spikes.
3. Individualised approaches, targets and goals
A successful re-re-engagement plan must be highly individualised, co-produced with the student and their parents/carers, and implemented in micro-steps. Schools and families need to be ready for some steps backwards and moments of avoidance.
Adults will need to be reflective, ready to look for and tackle barriers as they arise.
4. Create low-stimulus safe spaces
Practical steps can be taken to minimise sensory overload in the classroom – adjusted lighting, minimised visual clutter, and noise-reducing furniture can all make a big difference. That said, the reality of the school environment means there may still be times a student needs to ‘take five’ on their own.
We are big believers in having a designated quiet room or therapeutic hub where a student can go to decompress without judgement and without needing permission, to help them regulate before returning to class.
A call to action
Addressing EBSA requires a massive paradigm shift. At AHSP, we’ve found that stepping back, looking at our practices and examining the real experiences of students has allowed us to see what changes have a positive impact. I have witnessed the shift in attitudes, approaches and understanding required to connect with these students.
Our job as educators is not to force children to fit into a rigid, unforgiving box. Our job is to create an adaptable, nurturing ecosystem where every young person – especially those who view and interact with the world differently – feels safe, seen, and understood. For us at AHSP, the thing that has made this approach stick is the growth we’ve seen in students who have previously been labeled as ‘school refusers’.
Recently watching a year 11 student complete her GCSE exams is one such success story. When this student first visited AHSP, she had been out of school for months. She did not acknowledge or talk to me or any other staff during the visit, and it took several further visits to the school for her to come forward with a shy ‘hello’. This was before AHPS had officially opened its doors, and she officially started with us as part of our first cohort of learners in 2023. It took a well-planned transition, a careful approach to the demand we placed upon her, staff who were relationship-focused and real care to steadily improve her attendance. It took a lot longer to get her into all of her lessons. But step by step, her attendance, resilience and feelings around school shifted.
Three years later, seeing her complete those exams and walk out of the door filled with pride reminded me that school can be a place where young people with EBSA can thrive.
About the author
Jonathan Mansell
Headteacher at Abingdon House School, Purley
Jonathan Mansell is Headteacher of Abingdon House School, Purley, a specialist independent school supporting children and young people with autism, ADHD, speech, language and communication needs, and associated learning differences.
Jon has worked across both mainstream and specialist education throughout his career, giving him extensive experience supporting pupils whose needs can make school attendance and engagement challenging. Before joining Abingdon House, he spent six years as Deputy Headteacher at Moor House School & College, a nationally recognised specialist school for pupils with Developmental Language Disorder and previously held a range of senior pastoral and academic leadership roles within a large South London Multi Academy Trust.
A Science specialist by background, Jon has also led PSHE and wellbeing initiatives designed to strengthen relationships, build resilience and improve outcomes for vulnerable learners. He is passionate about creating inclusive, therapeutic learning environments that enable children experiencing barriers to education, including Emotional Based School Avoidance (EBSA), to rebuild confidence, reconnect with learning and achieve long-term success.
He holds a degree in Biological Sciences from the University of Reading, a PGCE from Goldsmiths, University of London, and a Master’s degree in Leadership, Change and Management from UCL’s Institute of Education.
