SWPBS update

Congratulations to the students who achieved their certificate last week!

This newsletter, the staff want to share our appreciation for the UNITY of students who are stepping up and doing little things without being asked - like picking up a jumper lying around, putting something away or helping a classmate. Many small actions like this make our school a wonderful community.

We are UPSTANDERS!

Foundation/1 have been talking about what it takes to be an upstander. Being an upstander isn't easy, so we have made up our own scenarios and acted them out, talking about the feelings of everyone involved. This helps us to practise putting our brave in front, and using the No, Go, Tell strategy.

Anxiety/school refusal and seperation difficulties

from

https://headspace.org.au/explore-topics/supporting-a-young-person/school-refusal/

The idea of going to school can be cause for severe distress for a young person and can result in a reluctance to go to school and an increase in nonattendance. High levels of distress and a reluctance to go to school is known as school refusal.

Young people might appear to be feeling ill or unhappy the morning before school with a desire to stay home. They might have an emotional reaction at the idea of leaving for school in the morning.

There are often several factors that can contribute toward the development of school refusal behaviours including individual, family, school, and the community. A young person may be experiencing anxiety, their parents may be separating, they may have transitioned from primary to secondary school or experiencing challenges with peers such as bullying. There can be a range of underlying factors that result in severe distress associated with school.

School refusal is different from truancy, as often family and friends know that a young person is not attending school. Often, family and friends are unable to get a young person to attend school despite their best efforts.

The good news is that with some strategies and the right support, things can get better for your young person.

School refusal can negatively impact a young persons’ learning and development. It can affect friendships as well as social standing due to missed opportunities to connect with friends and other students.

The longer the issue persists, the more difficult it can be for your young person to get back into the routine of going to school, so it’s important to respond early.

School refusal can manifest in many ways. Things to look out for might be:

distress and anxiety about going to school
tearfulness before school, sometimes resulting in conflict with family members
frequent complaints of physical illness before or during school including headaches, tiredness, stomach upsets or diarrhoea
poor teacher/student relationships
refusal to get out of bed, leave the house or get out of the car to go to school
difficulty attending school after disruptions to usual school routines such as holidays, school sporting events or school camps
frequent absences from class including being late or periods spent in the sick bay.

What contributes to school refusal?

This is complex and differs for each young person. There might be a few contributing reasons that lead to school refusal:

anxiety related to being separated from family.
worry related to social interactions.
changes to school environment such as transitioning from primary to high school or to a new school.
learning difficulties or conflict with teachers
anxiety about exams or public speaking
being affected by bullying or friendship difficulties
an unsettled family life – separation or divorse or illness

How to support your young person to return to school

If you’re caring for a young person who is refusing to go to school, early action can help prevent behaviours from becoming longer-term habits. Modelling effective communication and problem solving at home can encourage your young person to do the same.

Extra resources:

https://raisingchildren.net.au/school-age/school-learning/school-refusal/school-refusal

Royal Australian College of General Practitioners

https://www.racgp.org.au/getattachment/c3e1167c-8547-418d-89f7-cbf45202c20f/200806sewell.pdf

Sydney Morning Herald

https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/health-and-wellness/kids-believe-they-can-t-go-to-school-what-to-do-about-school-refusal-20230221-p5cmcr.html

Professional help for separation anxiety and separation anxiety disorder

https://raisingchildren.net.au/babies/behaviour/common-concerns/separation-anxiety

You know your child best. If you’re worried about their separation anxiety, consider seeking professional help. You could start with:

your child’s teacher at preschool or school
a school counsellor
your child’s GP or paediatrician
your local children’s health or community health centre
a specialist anxiety clinic (present in most states)
your local mental health service.

Kids Helpline offers confidential counselling to children aged 5 years and older. Your child can call 1800 551 800, or use the Kids Helpline email counselling service or the Kids Helpline web counselling service. You could help your child make contact.

Using the stepladder approach for anxiety in children

https://raisingchildren.net.au/toddlers/health-daily-care/mental-health/anxiety-stepladder-approach

The stepladder approach works like this:

Start with a situation or thing that causes your child the least anxiety. Sometimes you might need to put your child in this situation a few times until they feel comfortable with it.
Move on to another situation that makes your child feel a bit more anxious. Again, go through it a few times until your child can handle it. Practice is important.
Work with your child on gradually tackling more challenging situations. By the end, you should be working together to tackle the situations your child finds most difficult.

When using the stepladder approach for anxiety in children, you can encourage your child by:

giving your child plenty of praise for achieving each step on the ladder
using rewards as incentives for your child to move forward
talking together after each step about how it went and what your child could do next time.

Rewards might include an extra book in the evening, more cuddle time with you, or a trip to the park. You can also try using reward charts.

Make sure the reward matches the degree of difficulty – for example, give a bigger reward for the most difficult step.

You can use the stepladder approach with children of all ages. Grown-ups can use it too.

Benefits of the stepladder approach

The stepladder approach has several benefits for children:

Children get used to facing the situations that make them anxious. This is better than avoiding them.
Children face their fears and find out that they might not be so bad after all.
Children use and practise the skills and techniques that they’ve developed for coping.
Children get a great sense of achievement as they progress ‘up’ the stepladder.

Community News

in Newham & the Macedon Ranges