Attendance

EBSA, Anxiety and Attendance: A Practical Guide for Heads of Year

A practical guide for Heads of Year on emotionally based school avoidance, anxiety and attendance, including early signs, parent conversations, soft plans and when to escalate.

There's a student in your year group right now who is finding it harder and harder to come in.

They've gone from 96% to 91% to 85% over a couple of terms.

The morning calls home have started.

The parent sounds tired.

The student says they feel sick, then they say they're fine, then they say nothing at all.

Somebody, eventually, uses the word "refusal." The conversation shifts.

You know this student.

You probably know three of them.

What we now call EBSA, emotionally based school avoidance, is the thing nobody trains you for and everybody ends up dealing with.

And the most useful thing a Head of Year can do is realise it's not a different version of truancy.

It's something else completely.

And what works for one will make the other worse.

This is not a clinical diagnosis guide, and it is not a replacement for your school's safeguarding, attendance or SEND procedures.

It is a practical pastoral guide for noticing patterns early, coordinating the right adults, and responding in a way that keeps the child connected to school.

Why the standard advice falls flat Most of the standard playbook on attendance assumes a kid who doesn't want to come.

So you send letters.

You meet the parent.

You issue an improvement plan.