A collective approach to support the family
Belinda* had missed a lot of her first year at school due to extended lockdowns and school closures and also showing high anxiety not wanting to attend. She hadn’t properly attended school for 12 months.
After 2 months of intervention, a successful reengagement plan was implemented and Belinda started attending happily.
“You’ve (Can’t Face School) been an absolutely crucial part of our success with Belinda reengaging with school and we can’t thank you enough.” – Parent
“Having someone who has the experience and qualifications that are respected by school staff, help identify our child’s unique needs and challenges that causes their school avoidance, and work collaboratively with us, the school and our Care team to identify and implement approaches that are more likely to help Belinda reengage with school education was the support we needed.” – Parent
- Name: *Belinda *pseudo name
- Year Level: Year 1
- Age: 6
- Diagnosis: ASD level 2 / Anxiety
Initial Presentation and Concerns
Belinda had missed a lot of her first year at school due to extended lockdowns and school closures and also showing high anxiety not wanting to attend.
Behaviours being displayed:
- Refusing getting into the car, going to school, or staying at school
- Anxiety in getting ready in the morning, throwing clothes away, hiding under the bed covers etc
- Having meltdowns at home (will pick a fight with younger brother)
- Parents staying at school with her, clinging onto their legs etc
- Running out of class and towards school gate
Belinda’s parents shared a huge amount of concern in not knowing what to do next, they spoke of disappointment in what support the school were offering, they were asking questions about what was possible at the school to make allowances for Belinda, and were unsure of what else they needed to do at home to change their routine.
This situation had been going on for nearly 12 months. There was a huge amount of stress, uncertainty and blame in their initial consultation overview.
The school Principal, Assistant Principal & wellbeing leader said that communication with the family was not assisting any focus for change or improvement to assisting Belinda’s engagement in her learning. They were at a dead end.
There was no clear Reengagement plan in place or anything that been agreed upon.
Intervention Strategy
The family initially bought a 10 hour package and the time was spread:
- Weekly 1 hour virtual meetings with the parents & occasionally Belinda
- Regular phone calls / 30 min virtual meetings with the school
- Initial 30 minute meetings with each of the Care Team members
- Resource creation / Reengagement planning / Collaboration work for accountability
They then purchased a further 6 hours to consolidate the work and continue
Phase 1: Stabilisation and Safety Planning (Weeks 1–3)
- Curious approach to allow both parents to vent their frustrations and stress at the situation, also to begin to learn about Belinda’s strengths and interests
- Curious approach to understand the frustrations from the school and understand the approaches being taken from the Care Team members.
- Collation of the current documentation that was at hand from all involved to make it palatable for everyone.
Phase 2: Staggered Re-entry and Relational Repair (Weeks 4–10)
- Can’t Face School (CFS) specialist arranged a 1hr Virtual Care Team meeting with a clear agenda on current work / current challenges / recommendations to move forward. During this meeting, the parents were invited to observe only, not comment at this point, just listen. CFS specialist chaired this meeting, set the agenda, took the minutes, and was time keeper.
- Can’t Face School specialist collated the recommendations and developed a revised Reengagement Plan in line with the team, then with the parents & Belinda, and had everyone sign off in agreement on the plan.
- This plan, which included clear steps for home and at school, was then reviewed weekly. Each week the plan was revised and changed and agreed on which built trust and mutual understanding between the family and the school.
- A key to the success of this plan was using interest based learning, as well as only having one main point of contact at the school, and relationship building.
- Over the course of the term, Belinda’s attendance slowly increased and her independence was slowly built up. A notable change was a shared google document for communication which was open for comment only 3 times per week with an approximate word limit, and specific areas to share feedback about. This began to repair the relationship between home and school and the reflections became focussed on what ‘was’ working more than what ‘wasn’t’ working.
Phase 3: Rebuilding Engagement and Independence (Weeks 11–18)
- The attendance timetable for Belinda had moved from part time to 5 days a week (except for 2 afternoons each week where she was picked up at lunchtime). This was kept consistently by the parents for 8 weeks before Belinda stayed full days, full time.