Mental Health Issues Affecting School Attendance – What schools can do to support and hold to account

Course introduction

The government document ‘Summary of responsibilities where a mental health issue is affecting attendance’ published February 2023 states that ‘Schools should set and maintain high expectations for the attendance, engagement and punctuality of pupils who are anxious about attending school. It is important to recognise that, in many instances, attendance at school may serve to help with the underlying issue as much as being away from school might exacerbate it, and a prolonged period of absence may heighten their anxiety about attending in future.

This workshop will help school leaders, pastoral leaders, and those with responsibility for attendance address a number of key questions:

• What should school staff be doing to support pupil mental health?
• When is it appropriate for a pupil to be absent from school because of a mental health issue?
• How to facilitate support for children where mental health issues affect attendance.
• How to handle situations where parents and carers do not engage with or agree with support offered.

By the end of this workshop, participants will:

• Know government expectations around the support and challenge on mental health issues affecting attendance.
• Understand responsibilities, accountabilities and inspection expectations around mental health issues affecting attendance.
• Be able to apply learning from the workshop to produce an affective and impactful mental health attendance strategy for their own school.

See what others have to say about us

"Excellent training from NSMT on ACEs. The session was highly responsive, with Nic actively listening to what individuals wanted to take away from the course and consistently referring back to this throughout. The training was extremely helpful, with clear, practical strategies that can be implemented immediately to support pupils. It was engaging and interactive without pressure. Despite being delivered on Zoom, it was more engaging than many face-to-face courses. Thank you!"

“Great training. We feel like we have an arsenal of strategies to implement in our setting. Nicola was amazing! I would highly recommend.”

"What a wonderful and useful course this was. Excellently led by Nicola S. Morgan, there were so many intelligent approaches to reaching the anxious student - devices that will most certainly be utilised by myself and my team. Thank you so much!"

About the venue

Stay at home, get comfortable and enjoy our live interactive course via Zoom! You’ll receive the link a few days before the course date so you can get prepared (and excited) ahead of time.

Handy course logistics

• The course will run via Zoom from 1.00pm – 4.00pm, however, the trainer will be available 15 minutes before and after the course times to answer any questions.
• You’ll receive an afternoon breaks to re-energise.
• This course is designed to be interactive and inclusive. We welcome questions and discussions throughout and we want you to be comfortable and stress-free no matter where you join us from!
• Your course handouts will be emailed to you on the morning of the course.
• Additional links and information will be emailed to you before and during the course.
• This course is also available as an in-house / INSET training session at your school. Contact us for details.
• Please Note – the cost is per person