ATTENDANCE & SCHOOL ANXIETY CONSULTATION

When getting to school feels harder than it should.

When your child is struggling to get into school, stay there or manage the school day, it can be difficult to know what to do. You might be dealing with anxiety at home, increasing absence, difficult mornings or a child who’s holding everything together at school and falling apart afterwards.

This 90-minute consultation gives us time to look beyond the attendance figure and think about what might be making school difficult for your child, what’s already helping and what could make things feel more manageable.

Before we think about getting attendance back on track, we need to understand what’s getting in the way.

£140

Price

90 MINUTES

Duration

ONLINE

Delivery

Book an Attendance & School Anxiety Consultation

Focused support to understand barriers to attendance and think about practical ways forward.

(This is an educational consultation rather than a clinical assessment or mental health service).

This might be useful if…

  • Getting your child into school has become increasingly difficult.
  • Mornings are dominated by worry, distress or attempts to avoid school.
  • Your child attends but seems to be using enormous amounts of energy just to get through the day.
  • Attendance has started to fall and you’re worried about where things are heading.
  • Your child manages at school but becomes overwhelmed, exhausted or distressed afterwards.
  • You’ve tried different things already, but nothing seems to be getting to the root of the difficulty.
  • You and school want things to improve but aren’t sure what would actually help.

The attendance figure tells us how often your child is there. It doesn’t tell us why being there might be difficult.

That’s the part we’ll try to understand.

WHEN THIS CAN HELP

Attendance difficulties don’t always start at the school gate.

Sometimes the difficulty is obvious: your child is telling you they can’t face school or you’re struggling to get them through the door. Other times, the signs are much less clear.

Looking at the whole picture can help us notice patterns and start asking better questions about what might be making school difficult.

You might be noticing…

  • “Sunday evenings have become really difficult.”
  • “They’re saying they feel ill most mornings, but it seems to ease when they know they’re staying home.”
  • “We can get them to school, but it takes everything we’ve got.”
  • “They’re attending, but they’re completely exhausted or overwhelmed when they get home.”
  • “Some days seem absolutely fine and then suddenly they can’t manage.”
  • “They keep saying they hate school, but they can’t really explain why.”

The pattern might look different too…

  • Attendance is gradually reducing rather than stopping suddenly.
  • Certain days, lessons or parts of the school day seem particularly difficult.
  • Things became harder after a change of class, teacher, friendship group or school.
  • Your child seems worried about learning, getting things wrong or keeping up.
  • Busy environments, transitions or sensory demands appear to take a lot out of them.
  • There doesn’t seem to be one obvious reason at all.

You don’t need to know why it’s happening before we meet.

That’s often the reason for having the consultation. We’ll look at what’s happening before, during and after school, what seems to make things easier or harder and whether there are patterns that could help us understand the barriers more clearly. There may be more than one thing contributing to attendance difficulties, and sometimes we’ll identify questions that need exploring further rather than finding one simple explanation.

WHAT THIS SERVICE IS

What are we trying to understand?

When attendance becomes difficult, it’s tempting to focus immediately on the number of days missed or how to get your child back through the door. Those things matter, but they don’t necessarily tell us what’s making school hard in the first place.

We’ll slow things down and look at the wider picture. What happens on the days your child manages school? What’s different on the days they can’t? Are particular times, places or demands harder than others? What happens before school, during the day and afterwards?

We’re looking for patterns, barriers and things that might help us understand your child’s experience more clearly- without assuming beforehand that there’s one particular explanation.

Once we’ve got a clearer picture of what’s getting in the way, we can start thinking about what might make a meaningful difference.

THE WIDER PICTURE

We’ll look beyond the attendance figure.

  • Your child’s experience
  • What your child is saying, showing or communicating about school, including the things they may find difficult to put into words.
  • The school day
  • Whether particular lessons, times of day, transitions, environments or expectations seem easier or harder to manage.
  • Learning & demands
  • How your child is experiencing learning, participation, independence and the different demands placed on them during the day.
  • Relationships & belonging
  • Friendships, relationships with adults and whether your child feels safe, understood and that they belong.
  • What helps
  • The people, places, routines, adjustments or circumstances that seem to make attending and participating easier.

  • Sometimes the picture will point towards changes that could be explored at school. Sometimes there may be things that can help at home. Often it will involve people working together.

What if we don’t find one clear reason?

Attendance difficulties aren’t always explained by one thing, and a 90-minute consultation isn’t about trying to attach a neat label to what’s happening. We might identify several things that seem important. We might spot a pattern worth exploring. Or we might realise there’s information we don’t yet have and decide what would be useful to find out next.

Getting clearer about the questions can be progress too.

This is an educational consultation. I won’t diagnose anxiety, identify a mental health condition or provide clinical treatment. Where something appears to need assessment or support from another professional, we can think about who may be best placed to help.

WHAT WE CAN EXPLORE

There are lots of reasons school can become difficult.

There’s rarely a useful one-size-fits-all explanation for attendance difficulties. Two children can both be struggling to get into school for completely different reasons.

We’ll explore the areas that seem relevant to your child rather than working through a checklist looking for a problem.

LEARNING & DEMANDS

What is your child being asked to manage?

Sometimes the demands of learning or the school day can make attending feel increasingly difficult. We can think about where the pressure points might be.

  • Finding particular learning difficult
  • Fear of getting things wrong
  • Keeping up with work
  • Organisation and independence
  • Homework or expectations around school
  • Particular lessons or parts of the day

We’ll also notice where your child feels successful and what seems to help.

ENVIRONMENT & REGULATION

What does the school day feel like?

Schools are busy places. We’ll consider whether aspects of the environment or the effort involved in managing the day might be part of the picture.

  • Noise and busy spaces
  • Crowds and movement around school
  • Transitions between activities or rooms
  • Unstructured times such as break or lunch
  • Having enough opportunities to pause or reset
  • The effort involved in getting through the whole day

RELATIONSHIPS & BELONGING

Does your child feel they have a place at school?

Feeling connected to other people can make an enormous difference to how manageable school feels. We’ll think about the relationships around your child and where they feel most comfortable.

  • Friendships
  • Peer difficulties or changes
  • Relationships with trusted adults
  • Feeling understood
  • Feeling included in school life
  • Where and with whom your child feels safest

CHANGE & ROUTINES

What’s changed around your child?

Sometimes attendance becomes harder around a change, while for other children uncertainty or particular routines seem to make certain parts of school more difficult.

  • Moving class or changing teacher
  • Starting a new school
  • Changes to routines
  • Returning after illness or absence
  • Changes in friendships or support
  • Patterns around particular days or times

And sometimes nothing obvious has changed at all.

None of these automatically explains why a child is struggling to attend. They are areas we might be curious about. Your child’s experience may involve several of them, something completely different, or things we don’t yet understand.

We’ll look for the easier moments too. For example, if Tuesday mornings tend to go better than Mondays, one lesson feels manageable when another doesn’t, or there’s a particular adult your child feels comfortable with, that information matters. Understanding what helps can sometimes tell us as much as understanding what doesn’t.

WHAT TO EXPECT

From understanding the pattern to finding a way forward.

We won’t be starting from scratch when the call begins. I’ll ask you for some information beforehand so I can understand what’s been happening and we can use our 90 minutes well.

We’ll use the session to look for patterns, understand the barriers and work out some realistic next steps for your child.

Before we meet

When you book, I’ll ask you to tell me a little about your child, their current attendance and how the difficulties are showing up at home and at school.

I’ll also ask about when things started, whether there are particular days or parts of the school day that seem harder, what’s already been tried and anything you’ve noticed that makes things easier.

You can send me key information that’s relevant to the situation, such as a current support plan, attendance information or a particularly useful piece of advice from another professional.

I’ll look through what you send before we meet so that our time can focus on understanding the situation rather than simply gathering information.

2

During our 90 minutes

We’ll start with your child’s experience and build up the picture together. We’ll look at when attending feels easier or harder, what happens before, during and after school, and whether there are patterns that might tell us something useful.

We’ll think about the different demands your child is managing, what’s already helping and the things that might be getting in the way.

From there, we’ll decide which areas need our attention first and think about practical things that could be explored at home, with school or together.

We don’t need to solve everything in 90 minutes. We do need to leave clearer about what might help next.

3

After we meet

I’ll send you a personalised written summary bringing together the key things we’ve noticed and the next steps we’ve discussed.
This will include the main barriers or patterns we’ve identified, things that appear to be helping, practical ideas worth exploring and any questions that still need answering.

Where it would be useful, I’ll also include relevant resources or signposting to other sources of support.

You’ll have something clear to come back to rather than trying to remember everything we talked about.

What’s included in the £140?

  • Pre-session information gathering
  • Review of the key relevant information you provide
  • 90-minute online consultation
  • Time to explore your child’s experience of school
  • Exploration of patterns and possible barriers to attendance
  • Identification of what’s already helping
  • Practical strategies and next steps
  • Your personalised Consultation Summary

£140 covers the preparation, 90-minute consultation and personalised Consultation Summary described above. There are no additional charges unless you choose to book further support. I’ll normally send your Consultation Summary within five working days of our session.

The Consultation Summary is an educational document based on the information available to us. It is not a clinical assessment, diagnosis or mental health report.

WHAT YOU’LL LEAVE WITH

A clearer picture. And somewhere to start.

When school has become difficult, it can feel as though you’re dealing with everything at once. Attendance, mornings, emotions, schoolwork, conversations with school and worries about what happens next can all become tangled together.

The aim is to leave with a clearer sense of what’s happening for your child, what seems most important and where it makes sense to start.

A CLEARER PICTURE

Making sense of what’s happening

We’ll bring together what you’ve noticed at home, what you know about your child’s experience at school and the information available to us, looking for patterns rather than jumping to conclusions.

  • When school seems easier or harder
  • Patterns around attendance
  • What happens before, during and after school
  • Things that may be creating additional pressure
  • What’s already helping
  • Questions that still need exploring
  • We may not leave knowing exactly why everything is happening, but we should understand the picture better than when we started.

A WAY FORWARD

Deciding what to try next

Understanding matters, but the consultation also needs to lead somewhere. We’ll turn what we’ve noticed into a manageable set of next steps.

  • The things that seem most important now
  • Practical ideas worth trying
  • Things that might make school feel more manageable
  • Adjustments or support worth discussing with school
  • Questions to take into conversations with school
  • Anything that needs further exploration
  • We won’t create a huge list of things to try at once. We’ll focus on the things that seem most useful to explore first.

And you’ll have it in writing.

After our session, I’ll bring the key points together in your personalised Consultation Summary.

It will capture the picture we’ve developed, the patterns or barriers we’ve discussed, what’s already helping and the practical next steps we’ve identified.

  • Come back to it when things feel overwhelming
  • Use it to keep track of the priorities you’ve identified
  • Refer to it when you’re thinking about what to try next
  • Use relevant parts to support conversations with school
  • Keep note of what’s changing over time

Can I share it with school? Absolutely.

The Consultation Summary belongs to you, and you’re welcome to share it if you think it would help. It isn’t a plan I’m asking school to implement, but it can give you a useful starting point for a conversation about what your child is experiencing and what might help.

SCHOOL-SIDE EXPERIENCE

I’ve seen how complicated attendance can become.

I’ve spent 15 years working in schools as a teacher, SENDCO and senior leader. I’ve worked with children and families when attendance has become difficult, and I’ve also seen the challenge from the other side of the school gate.

That experience has taught me that an attendance figure rarely tells you the whole story.

It’s rarely as simple as “they just need to come in.”

A child can be struggling with learning, friendships, sensory demands, change, uncertainty, expectations or simply the effort it takes to get through the school day.

I prefer to start with curiosity rather than assumptions.

UNDERSTANDING BOTH SIDES

I understand the realities schools are working with too.

I understand the language.

SEND Support, provision, reasonable adjustments, assessments, plans and attendance scales don’t need to remain a collection of acronyms and jargon.

I understand the practicalities.

Schools have responsibilities around attendance, but they’re also balancing the needs of individual children with staffing, timetables, curriculum demands, available support and the needs of a whole school community.

I offer realistic expectations.

Having worked inside those systems, I can help you think about what might be realistic to discuss with school, how to explain what you’re noticing and where there may be opportunities to make things more manageable for your child.

A balanced viewpoint.

The aim isn’t to put families and schools on opposite sides. It’s to help everyone understand the problem more clearly.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

A few things you might be wondering.

If you’re considering support because your child is finding school difficult, it’s reasonable to have questions about what the consultation involves and whether it’s the right fit.

No. Your child doesn’t need a diagnosis, an EHCP or identified SEND for us to have a useful conversation.

The consultation starts with what you’re noticing and what your child seems to be experiencing. We’ll think about the patterns, pressures and possible barriers that might be making school difficult, regardless of whether there’s a diagnosis attached to them.

No. The consultation is primarily a conversation with you as their parent or carer, so your child doesn’t need to join us.

Depending on their age and circumstances, there may be useful ways of bringing their views into our thinking without asking them to sit through a 90-minute adult conversation. We can talk about that when you book.

This keeps the service child-centred without making the session burdensome for the child.

That’s okay. You don’t need to wait until attendance has started improving before booking.

We can look at how the situation developed, what school currently feels like for your child, what has already been tried and what might be making a return difficult.

The next step won’t necessarily be “get them back into school tomorrow.” We’ll think about what feels realistic and appropriate from where things are now.

This service can still be appropriate.

Some children manage to maintain their attendance while experiencing considerable distress around school. You might be seeing difficult mornings, physical complaints, exhaustion, overwhelm after school or increasing anxiety even though the attendance figure still looks fine.

We can explore what’s happening before things reach crisis point.

I can help you think about what you’re noticing, what situations seem particularly difficult for your child and how this may be affecting their experience of school.

I don’t diagnose anxiety or other mental health conditions, and this consultation isn’t a clinical or psychological assessment. If our conversation suggests that another professional’s input could be useful, I’ll be clear about that and can help you think about where to look for appropriate support.

I’ll help you think about adjustments, support or approaches that may be worth discussing with school, but I won’t prescribe provision for a school or tell them what they must put in place.

Every school and child is different, and the most useful next step is often a good conversation. I can help you get clearer about what you want to raise and why it might help your child.

Not as part of this consultation.

The Attendance & School Anxiety Consultation is support for you as a parent or carer. I won’t contact the school, attend meetings or act as your representative.

Your Consultation Summary can, however, help you organise your thinking and you’re welcome to share it with school if you think that would be useful.

You can send the key information that seems directly relevant to the attendance difficulty. This might include attendance information, a current school support plan, recent correspondence with school or a particularly relevant professional report.

You don’t need to send me everything you have. I’ll carry out a reasonable review of the key information provided rather than a full audit of your child’s records.

Yes. You’ll receive your personalised Consultation Summary after our session.

It will bring together the main picture we’ve discussed, important patterns or barriers, what’s already helping, practical next steps and any questions or further support worth exploring.

I’ll normally send this within five working days.

Sometimes our conversation may highlight something that needs input beyond the scope of SRO Education. If that happens, I’ll be open about it. Where I can, I’ll help you understand what kind of support might be useful and signpost you towards an appropriate service or professional.

I won’t try to keep something within SRO Education if I don’t think I’m the right person to help with it.

OTHER WAYS I CAN HELP

If you need a different kind of support.

Attendance difficulties often sit alongside other questions about learning, SEND or the support a child needs. If this consultation isn’t quite the right fit- or you need something different afterwardsp- these services may help.

You don’t need to work through the services in order. Choose the support that fits what you need now.

£95/60 minutes

Initial Educational Consultation

If you want to talk through broader educational concerns.

If your concerns are broader than attendance and you want time to talk through what’s happening for your child, this gives us an hour to understand the situation and work out what might help next.

Learn more ->

£175/2 hours

Educational Planning Session

If you need a plan, not just a conversation.

More time to bring the different pieces together, decide what matters most and turn your concerns into a clear, practical plan for moving forward.

Learn more ->

£95/60 minutes

EHCP & SEND Review Meeting Preparation

If you’ve got an important meeting coming up.

Focused preparation for an EHCP Annual Review, SEND Support Review or another important meeting, so you know what you want to raise and the questions you want to ask.

Learn more ->

READY WHEN YOU ARE

Ready to make sense of what’s happening?

When school has become difficult for your child, it can be hard to know what to focus on first.

This 90-minute consultation gives us time to look beyond the attendance figure, understand what might be getting in the way and identify some practical next steps.

You don’t need to have all the answers before we meet. That’s what the conversation is for.

Book this Consultation
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KNOWLEDGE. INCLUSION. IMPACT.