Attending school regularly is really important for your child’s learning, development, social interactions and wellbeing.
There may be a number of reasons that could impact on your child’s attendance, but there is lots of tailored help and support available to you and your child if you do have any concerns.
This includes:-
School-Based Support
Schools can offer tailored support and solutions to address barriers to attendance including meetings, action plans and providing mentoring.
Access to support services
There’s a range of support services that can provided tailored support to meet children and young people’s needs, including around emotional wellbeing and mental health support, academic pressures, counselling, anxiety and bullying – please speak to your school in the first instance.
Special Educational Needs (SEND) Support
Families can speak to the school’s Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCO) if they are concerned that their child’s special educational needs and disabilities are impacting their attendance, ensuring appropriate support is in place.
There’s also lots of information available online on the SEND Local Offer website.
Mental Health and Emotional Support
Organisations like Knowsley Open Gateway Service combines a team of professionals from different organisations who will work together to give Knowsley residents the support they need. They make it easy for families to get the care they need. From counselling and support, to help with mental health and wellbeing, all the information is available via the KOGS website and will provide contact with any of the teams.
Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust’s Mental Health Support teams in schools have released new interactive workbooks designed to help young people, parents and education staff learn new ways to improve their mental health and wellbeing. The workbooks aim to provide young people with practical strategies and tools to maintain good health, build positive self-esteem, and understand anxiety and low mood. They explain how these issues can impact young people and highlight common symptoms to watch for that may signal they are struggling.
Funding has been secured to support children’s mental health in schools through the Mental Health Support Team, supporting children’s emotional wellbeing across a number of primary, secondary and special schools in the Borough. The team work directly with pupils in schools and also with the wider community to identify issues that are impacting on a child’s emotional wellbeing at an earlier stage and ensure that support is put in place sooner to prevent issues from escalating. Issues could include mild to moderate anxiety as well as helping staff within school settings.
Young Minds provide resources on school anxiety, while Kooth offers online counselling for young people.
If you do have any concerns about your child’s school attendance, please seek support at the earliest opportunity by speaking to your child’s teacher.