Assessing for School Avoidance
The second step in working to asses for school avoidance as an educator, should be to gather information on the attendance of the child or young person, their home situation, and information on any inter-agency involvement. This is to begin an assessment of the situation. At any stage of school avoidance, we suggest that a problem-solving process be used. There needs to be a systematic gathering of information about the child or young person and what is happening to them. It is important to collect information from a range of sources, as the child or young person may experience varying levels of anxiety or avoidance. Educators should link with the people who know the child or young person the best and have a positive relationship with them. Use child-friendly resources that provide the best opportunity to ask open-ended questions.
School avoidance is not a clinical term. Due to the complex nature of school avoidance, there is no fixed assessment process. Many of the measures you will find to measure school avoidance are designed to be delivered in a clinical or medical setting. In assessing for school avoidance, we recommend that the views of the young person, the family, and key school staff are gathered to paint a broad picture of the situation. It might be tempting to identify one reason and a corresponding solution for the behaviour. However, reducing school avoidance to a simple, one-dimensional problem often encourages blaming, and the child or young person may become more anxious and defensive.
Nova uses two measures to investigate school wellbeing: the Student Subjective Wellbeing Questionnaire (SSWQ) and the Emotional Problems subscale of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Some of the areas on these measures are correlated with school avoidance, such as School Connectedness, Academic Efficacy, Joy of Learning, and Emotional Problems. More information on these measures is available in the Additional Resources Section below.
Good Practice Tip: Many of the current measures used to assess school avoidance are clinical, often focusing on diagnosing mental health difficulties. We recommend that schools assess wellbeing within the school environment, as this can be a more meaningful indicator of school avoidance. By taking this approach, schools can identify and address underlying issues early, creating a more supportive and preventative response.
You might consider the following areas for consideration:
- How does the child or young person get to school? What might be the barriers?
- What does the child or young person think and feel about their attainment and progress across the curriculum? Do they believe they can reach their goals?
- Is the young person worried about Classroom Based Assessments (CBAs) and worried about how much they have missed out on in CBAs?
- Does the child or young person worry about their family or environment outside of school?
- What does the child or young person think about their friendships in school? Do they feel a sense of belonging? Are they comfortable working with peers in every class?
My World Triangle is a tool Tusla uses to gather information about the world of the child or young person. It allows staff to measure strengths and challenges in all parts of their life. Using the My World Triangle can be an effective way to gather information from a child or young person about how they see their world.
Attendance Monitoring
Examine the child or young person’s pattern of attendance and punctuality, looking out for indicators such as:
- Are they avoiding certain subjects?
- Are they missing specific days of the week? Is there a pattern with lateness?
- Are they frequently absent on particular days?
- Are there living arrangements that could be negatively impacting their attendance?
There are many attendance tracking systems already in use in schools. Guidance on how to use these systems more effectively is provided again here:
Awareness of Learning Needs
All students need to feel a sense of achievement in school. Continuously review how this is done in your school. The assessment and intervention model for each student is based on the recognition that educational needs occur along a continuum, from mild to severe and from transient to long term. Examining patterns of educational attainment, prior assessments, and reports and records of ‘students of concern’ can help in understanding where the student is on this continuum. A Student Support Plan is devised for students with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). Students currently avoiding school should be considered as ‘most at risk’. It is important to take the following into account during this step:
- Does the child or young person avoiding school have additional learning needs?
- What support is the child or young person currently receiving?
- Is the child or young person struggling academically?
- Is the child or young person avoiding specific tasks/projects/assignments?
- Review Support Plans for children and young people at the top of the National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS) Continuum of Support.
Awareness of Relationships and Social Wellbeing
Seek parental involvement (where appropriate). An active and positive relationship between the school and parents/guardians or carers is essential for ensuring a quick and collaborative response when difficulties arise. Engage with parents or guardians throughout all steps of the process. Maintain open channels of communication to share relevant information about the social, emotional, and educational development of the child or young person. Parents/guardians may sometimes struggle to understand how their child is performing in school. In such cases, it may be beneficial to consult with the Home School Liaison Officer (HSCL) to gather more information about the family. Key questions to explore include:
- Has the child or young person fallen out with friends or peer groups?
- Is the child or young person struggling during unstructured times, such as lunchtime?
- Does the child or young person appear tired, worried, or anxious?
- Has the child or young person lost weight?
- Does the child or young person complain of sickness or aches?
- Is there a prior medical condition or advice from a medical professional?
- Have there been recent changes in family relationships or situations?
In cases of more severe school avoidance, it may be useful to consult with the child or young person’s Educational Welfare Officer (EWO) for additional insights into their wellbeing.
Capturing the Voice of the Child or Young Person
Involving the child or young person in all decisions that impact them is crucial. This engagement helps them feel part of the school and the wider community, establishes a sense of control over their lives, and fosters a sense of belonging and mastery over their circumstances. All children and young people have the right to be involved in decisions that affect them under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The voice of the child or young person can be captured through various creative methods, as outlined in the resources below. It may be helpful to use the Lundy model (2007) as a framework when determining how to incorporate the perspective of the child or young person into interventions for school avoidance. Additionally, the Tusla Child Participation Toolkit offers activities and guidance for schools on capturing the voice of the child or young person where age appropriate. One example is examining the ‘push and pull factors’ with the child or young person. It is useful to identify and analyse these factors, because it is likely that they will influence all aspects of the life of the child or young person.
Good Practice Tip: Using analogies can be very effective when explaining anxiety to a child or young person without associating blame or guilt. Anxiety is a normal response experienced by all and helps to alert us to danger. Using the analogy of a faulty car alarm or smoke alarm that goes off at the slightest signal is often helpful in having the child or young person realise when anxiety is no longer a useful tool.
Adapted from Clare SAT (2023)
Additional Resources
Student Subjective Wellbeing Questionnaire (SSWQ)
The Student Subjective Wellbeing Questionnaire (SSWQ) taps into five aspects of student subjective wellbeing that are centred around positive emotions, positive relationships, positive values or meaning, and positive performance. It can also be used to assess general student well-being.
Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ)
The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) is a brief emotional and behavioural screening questionnaire for children and young people. The tool can capture the perspective of children and young people, their parents and teachers.
Tusla Child Participation Toolkit
Tusla’s Child and Youth Participation Toolkit’s purpose is to support staff to facilitate child and youth participatory practice at every level and in every engagement with a child or young person. Tusla’s Toolkit outlines the context and rationale for child and youth participation, guidance in applying the Lundy model of participation, and examples of activities that can support participatory practice.
My Ideal School
The Drawing the Ideal School technique has been adapted from an approach developed by Moran (2001). The technique enables children and young people to become actively involved in understanding themselves and expressing their views.
Lundy Model
Since 2007, the Lundy model of child participation, based on four key concepts (Space, Voice, Audience and Influence), has been used and adopted by national and international organisations, agencies and governments to inform their understanding of children’s participation.