SPOTLIGHT ON SEND Make children feel that


they belong This month, in her regular column for Education Today, DR ASHA PATEL, CEO of education not-for- profit Innovating Minds, offers some pointers for schools on making all pupils feel welcome at school.


The beginning of the school year should represent a fresh start, but children often come with preconceptions –'I'm no good at maths' ' I don't like that teacher' and staff often have a picture of some of the children they will be teaching this year. Perhaps they taught the child last year or have heard reports of bad behaviour or seen comments from a previous school.


We want all children to be happy and healthy both mentally and


physically, to have routines, stable relationships in and out of school, to make and keep friends and to have a sense of optimism. Contrast this with the reality for children who have a poor diet, too


little sleep, who may be affected by domestic abuse. Some are so busy avoiding trouble at home, in the community or with other children in school that they are permanently anxious and have no time to think about themselves what they like, what they want and are trapped in a cycle of negativity. These are issues that every teacher will deal with but there are things schools can do to help:


1 Children do change over the summer holidays, some may have matured which feels more manageable than last year. Other children may need time to adjust to the routines and expectations of the school so you may need to gently reinforce standards and be patient. It is important that you do not let preconceptions colour the way you treat children in the first term, get to know them first.


2 Talk to children about their the difficulties they are experiencing and not the problematic behaviour you see. Some schools are moving from isolation booths to providing safe spaces for children to go to when they feel overwhelmed and struggling to cope. This strategy is acknowledging the need to support children to emotionally regulate and develop skills such as problem solving and perspective taking.


3 Record incidents carefully, noting not just the date and the behaviour but the time of day and the day of the week. This data helps with noticing trends and themes for example a student finding late mornings difficult could be because of low blood sugar but another child might be deemed to be spoiling for a fight every other Tuesday because that’s the day they’re staying with a relation they don’t like. Look for patterns and look past the behaviour.


4 Therapeutic activities should not operate on a consequence or reward system. Part of a school's role is to provide children with a range of experiences so if you exclude children from school trips (perhaps citing Health and Safety concerns) then you are potentially exacerbating the problems.


5 Supervision is gold dust. As we are all humans there are students that we may avoid making eye contact with or feel irritated by. This is OK, however it is important that we access supervision to explore this further to ensure these feelings do not impact on the child and you. The magic happens in supervision so you can spend time unpicking the challenges in a safe environment and seek support from an experienced member of staff. Try and access supervision at least twice a term.


September 2019 Getting to grips with


school refusal This month regular contributor KATE SARGINSON, Deputy Headteacher and SENCO, looks at the challenging issue of school refusal.


As another academic year begins, many households will contain children who aren’t exactly keen on getting back to the classroom after the summer break. Pupils may complain at the thought of the early mornings, moan about the lessons and whinge about the homework, but in the main pupils adjust to the demands that every September brings following a very differently paced six weeks. But for some pupils, how they feel about going to school goes beyond the typical end of August grumbles; they experience an


extreme form of debilitating anxiety resulting in a state known as “school refusal”. First identified in the 1930s, school refusal refers to the 1% of


children who have significant and sustained difficulty attending school. Such children were identified as having fundamentally different reasons for not wanting to go to school than those who truanted. The fear of being in school triggers a fight or flight reaction in some children which can be challenging for them to process within themselves to then articulate to adults. Minor complaints can be exaggerated as an excuse to not go in. Anxiety can manifest physically through stomach aches, nausea and vomiting – headaches and behaviours such as tantrums, pleading and making threats can occur. The morning of a school day can become a miserable battle. The physical and emotional distress can be very challenging for parents to witness in their children as they contest going to school. No parent wants to force their child to go to a place they hate; therefore individual refusals can quickly rise to weeks, turning into months, resulting in long periods of school being missed. This reinforces the problem and increases anxiety, as children become increasingly disengaged from formal education and socially isolated from their peers. With attendance a key issue in many schools there is an


urgency to solve the problem, yet school refusal is not well understood by teachers and school leaders. To begin with, the language used could be problematic as it does not evoke a sympathetic response. The use of the term ‘refusal’ implies wilful choice, when for those children experiencing such high levels of anxiety it is not a conscious decision they are making. ‘Avoidance’ could be a more appropriate term; similarly to being described as having a school ‘phobia’ this may be preferred to place the emphasis away from the child and onto the environment. By opting for the word refusal, we are miscategorising the problem to be in a similar vein to non- compliant, disrespectful behaviour from children, which requires punishment. We are also missing the fact that children are genuinely scared. School refusal can be a strong indicator of suspected or


diagnosed special educational and mental health needs in children. Unless the underlying reasons for a child’s refusal to go to school are identified and understood, it cannot be addressed and solved. How the child’s school avoidance is responded to is crucial; mishandling can only exacerbate the problems. School avoidance needs a specific focus with empathy at its heart.


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