EBSA toolkit
7. What do children and young people who have experienced EBSA say?
Within East Sussex several young people in the Teaching and Learning Provision (TLP) have experienced EBSA in their local schools and this section shares their experiences and views.
What made attendance challenging?
Peer relationships
- Difficulties fitting it
- Felt socially isolated
Environment
- Didn't feel safe in school
- Too noisy
- A lack of safe spaces - then sent elsewhere which was often noisier
Teacher relationships and attitude
- Teachers didn't always know how to talk to you
- Didn't feel listened to
- Didn't feel believed
- Sometimes felt prejudice, injustice and a lack of sensitivity
- No-one noticed the warning signs
Skills I needed
- I was left alone to work things out, but didn't know what to do
- I was given a strategy but no-one showed me what to do
- Activities that were meant to be enjoyable were often anxiety provoking (e.g. creative activities)
- I needed specific teaching to reduce stress
- Didn't get up early enough
What could have helped?
- Staff to look out for warning signs
- To have an assessment so we can understand why we are having difficulties
- Support for me as an individual
- Give us strategies to manage educational setting life
- Provide spaces where we work and be more comfortable
- Teach us skills to manage stress and anxiety better
- Make sure the safe space is quiet and staffed
- Have a proper safe space to go to
- Having a member of staff to talk to when you feel overwhelmed
- Pastoral team being more available - they are very helpful
- Take care not to ignore the quiet students
- Greater flexibility around uniform
- Better awareness of other issues like transgender
- Refer onto specialist support earlier
The young people chose to discuss and draw ideas for awareness posters
Young people talked about ‘safe spaces’ in school, one of which was the school toilet, which they felt was one of the few places they could go to, to feel less stressed.
Young people said they did not always feel listened to and wanted adults in school to take their concerns seriously.
Young people asked that there was more support for schools to help spot the warning signs of a student with EBSA much earlier.
Gathering the views of children and young people
When gathering the view of the young person, it is important to consider who is best placed to do this. Consideration needs to be given to who the child or young person has a good relationship with, which member of staff will make them feel most comfortable and where this should take place.
Any child or young person currently avoiding education may become anxious when asked to discuss returning. They may be currently managing feelings of anxiety by employing the avoidant behaviour of not going to the school/college, so any talk about going back to the educational setting is going to raise their anxiety as it is proposing to take away their way of coping with their fears.
A good place to start any assessment with a child or young person is to acknowledge that it may be difficult, but you would like to know what they think and feel. It is important that the adult does not dismiss anxieties or worries the child has. The adult needs to empathise with them while not colluding or promoting the EBSA.
The approaches taken will depend on the child or young person’s age, level of understanding and language skills. They may find it difficult to verbalise what they are thinking and feeling and may prefer to draw what they are feeling or have visual prompts.
Explore the young person's experiences of anxiety.
Help the child/ young person to externalise their feelings of anxiety by asking questions such as:
- What name would you give the feeling that you experience when you think about going to school/college?
- If it was a thing, what would it look like? What would it say?
- How does the…get in the way of you attending school/college? When is…in charge and when are you in charge?
- Ask them to draw how their body feels when they are worried.
- A life graph or path can help them to tell you their ‘story so far’ and what they would want in the future.
- What would your perfect school college look/feel/sound like?
Explore school/college -based factors and experiences.
- Think about your thoughts and feelings about school/college and what would these look like if they could be drawn?
- Use an anxiety thermometer or a scale to ask the child/young person what aspects of the setting they find difficult. Some areas to consider include:
- The sensory environment (e.g., toilets, corridors, assembly hall, social space)
- Times of the day or social interactions (e.g., arriving at the setting, play and breaktimes, lining up to go into school or classroom, lunchtimes, going home, changing for PE)
- Particular lessons or activities within lessons (e.g., writing, working as part of a group, reading aloud, verbally answering a question).
A range of tools are available to help settings and professionals access pupils' views regarding educational setting. Some example tools are listed below.
Information booklets for parents/carers, young people and young people, which can support these conversations are also available as part of this guidance.
Suggested activities and tools include to gather information from the child or young persons perspective include: