Jennifer Pittorino
Parents, carers and teachers in Melbourne’s west, including Wyndham, will now be better placed to pick up on early warning signs of school refusal, thanks to two new resources from youth mental health service Orygen.
School refusal is defined as “school non-attendance that parents and carers are aware of”, and is associated with severe emotional distress at the prospect of attending school.
Despite the limited data on exact school refusal rates, a 2023 parliamentary paper reports that the rate of school refusal rates grew by 50 per cent between 2018 and 2021.
Orygen workforce development and service implementation director Sian Lloyd was on the team that developed the toolkits and said the two resources are designed for clinicians and for schools.
The resources are titled ‘A Guide for Supporting School Attendance for schools, and ‘A Collaborative Approach To Supporting Young People Experiencing School Refusal.’
“Even though we have written both frameworks for those particular audiences, they are really helpful for parents and carers of young people,” she said.
Talking from personal experience, Ms Lloyd approached her school coordinator with the framework when she noticed one of her teenagers beginning to display signs of school refusal.
“I started noticing things like not wanting to go in the morning, tummy aches and those sorts of excuses,” she said. “So, I approached the school and said I have some concerns and here are some of the approaches we can take.”
“It was quite easy to put those things in place and my child’s experience was that their attendance improved and we didn’t have an issue anymore, but we also nipped it in the bud really early.”
Orygen chief of research translation Rosemary Purcell said there are several reasons which could lead to school refusal including the start of the school year, new teachers, new classmates and schools.
“Children can have high anxiety and can feel overwhelmed in a classroom environment,” said Ms Lloyd.
The resources include a checklist of potential early warning signs including difficulty attending school after weekends and holidays, disrupted sleep cycles, tearfulness, clinginess and dawdling before school , feeling sick before school.
Details: ow.ly/KUTe50QwAWf.
