21-25 September is School Avoidance Awareness Week, a national awareness campaign that aims to improve understanding of school avoidance, emotionally based school avoidance (EBSA) and the barriers that can make education feel impossible for some young people.
The week encourages parents, educators and professionals to look beyond attendance figures and consider the experiences sitting behind them.
At New Meaning Training, these conversations resonate deeply with the young people we support.
We are a specialist provider for young people with Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) needs, and around 60% of our learners have an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP). Many arrive having experienced disrupted educational journeys, significant anxiety or long periods of disengagement from learning.
For some young people, education has become associated with stress, uncertainty or overwhelm. The question is not whether they want a future. It is how we help them believe that education can be part of it.
Looking beyond attendance
It can be tempting to view school avoidance through the lens of attendance alone. Yet attendance figures cannot tell us why a young person is struggling, what experiences have shaped their relationship with education or what support they need to move forward.
The young people we work with are all different. Some have experienced anxiety linked to previous educational experiences, some have found larger environments overwhelming and others have spent so long feeling unsuccessful that they struggle to see themselves as learners at all.
In many cases, school avoidance is not a sign that a young person does not value education. It can be a response to experiences that have left them feeling anxious, overwhelmed or unable to cope within their environment. Understanding those experiences is often the first step towards helping a young person reconnect with learning. Meaningful progress begins when young people feel safe, understood and listened to.
Meeting young people where they are
Not every learner is ready to walk into a classroom. For some, even stepping into a centre for the first time can feel daunting.
That is why New Meaning Training’s Transition Support Programme takes a highly personalised approach. The programme is designed for young people who are not yet ready to join a learning environment, even in a small group setting. Rather than expecting every learner to follow the same route, we start from where they are and build confidence gradually, creating a pathway back into learning that feels safe, manageable and achievable.
For some learners, transition support involves working at home, helping them build routines, developing trust through one-to-one sessions or supporting them to become familiar with new environments at a pace that feels comfortable. The programme acts as a bridge between disengagement and future opportunities, helping young people move towards education, training, employment and greater independence in a way that works for them.
Damien Rodgers, Lead Transition Support Tutor for Bucks & Herts, believes that this starts with listening.
“It sounds simple, but it starts with listening. We really take time to understand their needs, their history and what they want. We listen to them and empathise with their experiences. Then we adapt what we do around them.”
By taking time to understand each learner’s story, support can be shaped around the individual rather than expecting the individual to adapt to a system that may not have worked for them previously. Transition Support Tutors help young people develop routines, build confidence, strengthen independence and improve emotional wellbeing through personalised one-to-one support. Learning often begins with life skills, personal development and wellbeing before progressing to English, maths, vocational learning or other next steps when a learner feels ready. Tutors also work closely with families, local authorities and other professionals to ensure support is joined up, consistent and centred around the young person’s goals.
Everyone’s journey looks different, but the goal remains the same: creating an environment where a young person feels safe enough to begin engaging again.
As Damien explains:
“Everyone deserves an opportunity to learn something. It’s about creating the right environment for a young person to thrive.”
Success within the programme is not measured solely by attendance. For some learners, success may be answering the door to a tutor, leaving the house for a short activity, visiting a centre for the first time, joining a conversation, making a friend or establishing a consistent routine. While these milestones may seem small from the outside, they often represent significant progress for young people who have spent months or even years feeling disconnected from education.
For some learners, that journey begins through home visits and one-to-one support. For others, it may involve supported introductions to centre life, gradual exposure to learning environments or carefully planned transitions into small group settings. The focus is never on rushing a young person. Instead, it is about helping education feel possible again and creating the confidence needed to take the next step, whatever that may be.
When the environment becomes the barrier
One of the most common themes we hear from young people is that educational environments can feel overwhelming. Large groups, constant noise, busy classrooms and social pressures can all become barriers to learning.
Damien recently worked with a learner who had experienced migraines and struggled to concentrate because previous learning environments felt overstimulating.
“There were lots of people, lots of noise and lots going on all the time. It was just too overstimulating.”
The solution was not lowering expectations. It was creating an environment where the learner could engage more comfortably. Through smaller groups, a calmer atmosphere and personalised support, the learner began to participate more fully in education. Just as importantly, he started building friendships, engaging in conversations and taking part in activities that had previously felt too overwhelming.
As Damien recalls:
“Since he’s been with us, he’s been able to engage, he’s been able to make friends and he hasn’t had one migraine.”
That change speaks to something important. When barriers are reduced, young people often begin to show strengths, confidence and potential that might previously have remained hidden.
Building confidence through interests and strengths
For many learners, reconnecting with education starts with reconnecting with themselves. School avoidance can affect confidence, self-esteem and identity, and over time some young people begin to see themselves as people who cannot learn or do not belong in education.
Part of rebuilding engagement involves helping learners recognise their strengths again. At New Meaning Training, interests are not treated as distractions from learning. They are often the starting point.
“We base a lot of enrichment around their interests,” says Damien.
Whether it is music, sport, creative projects or another passion, tutors use learners’ interests to create opportunities for success, engagement and self-belief. One learner was encouraged to bring his guitar into centre and share his music with others. Another learner, who was passionate about music production, was supported to explore that interest through creative projects that allowed his skills and creativity to flourish.
These opportunities provide more than enjoyment. They help young people recognise what they can do rather than focusing solely on the challenges they have faced.
As Damien puts it:
“They start realising they’re actually good at something. They’re creative. They have strengths.”
Those moments of belief can become the foundation for much bigger changes.
Progress looks different for everyone
School Avoidance Awareness Week encourages us to think differently about progress.
For some young people, progress may mean attending a lesson. For others, it may be leaving the house after a long period of isolation, joining a conversation, making a friend, completing a piece of work or developing confidence in a new environment.
These achievements can be easy to overlook, but they often represent significant barriers being overcome and important steps towards a more positive future.
More than attendance
Education is about more than being present in a room. It is about feeling safe enough to engage, confident enough to participate and supported enough to grow.
At New Meaning Training, we know that every learner’s journey is different. By building trusted relationships, creating personalised pathways and focusing on what each young person needs to succeed, we help learners take meaningful steps towards re-engaging with education.
For many young people, the first step is not improving attendance. It is discovering that education can feel different from what they have experienced before. From there, new possibilities can begin to open up.
School Avoidance Awareness Week is an opportunity to remember that every young person deserves the chance to learn in an environment where they feel safe, understood and able to thrive. Sometimes that starts with a classroom. Sometimes it starts with a conversation. What matters is finding the right starting point for each individual young person.