
TRAINING FOR EDUCATION STAFF TO REDUCE SCHOOL REFUSAL AND SUSPENSIONS
THE PROGRAM
The young person believes that other students are making negative judgements about them and to avoid such judgements they avoid going to school. This program is called No School Refusal!
EXCLUSION
The young person is excluded from school because of chronic behaviour problems. This program is called No Suspensions!
There are three training modules in Attend+. They are delivered in three-day or two-day options:
CHOOSE TWO DAY OR THREE DAY TRAINING OPTIONS
THREE-DAY PROGRAM
Includes:
No School Refusal!
No Suspensions!
Parental Partnerships!
TWO-DAY PROGRAM
Includes:
No School Refusal!
Parental Partnerships!
or
No Suspensions!
Parental Partnerships!
PARENTAL PARTNERSHIPS!
However, parents differ greatly in their ability to implement the parenting components of both the No Suspensions! and No School Refusal! programs. Attend+ tailors the coaching depending on the parent’s personal situation and abilities. We have identified six different types of parental situations/abilities.
- ‘Capable and supportive’ parent
- ‘Teacher hating’ parent
- ‘Overwhelmed’ parent
- ‘Superior’ parent
- ‘Angry’ parent
- Parent with drug or MH issues
Graeme Baird explains below:
NO SCHOOL REFUSAL!
Whilst the intervention is well known, students and their families can be reluctant to visit a psychologist. As schools have excellent relationships with both students and their parents, it makes sense for school staff to deliver the intervention under the supervision of either a school-based psychologist or an Attend+ psychologist.
No School Refusal! is built around developing a ‘school distress scale’. Students are asked to identify the least anxiety provoking part of going to school – eg walking to the school gate. Then they are asked to make a prediction, using the distress scale, about the level of distress they will experience. Next, they actually walk to the school gate and are asked to record the actual level of distress using the same scale.
The No School Refusal! Program covers the following topics
- What is anxiety and how is it different from social anxiety
- Anxiety: is it learned behaviour or innate behaviour?
- Avoidance: why avoidance is so addictive
- Safety behaviours: what are they and when are they a problem
- Developing and implementing a ‘distress scale’ with students
- Providing feedback to students
- When to seek supervision from qualified mental health professional
- When to refer to a qualified mental health professional
Graeme Baird explains below:
NO SUSPENSIONS!
- Preventing behaviour problems form occurring
- Dealing with behaviour as they occur (ie in real time)
- Re-engaging the student into the school following a serious behavioural incident
The details of these components are illustrated in the diagram below:
No Suspensions! can be used either with individual students or on a whole school basis. No Suspensions! involves a slightly different strategy for primary school students vs high school students
NO SUSPENSIONS! FOR PRIMARY STUDENTS
No Suspensions! for primary students uses a more behavioural approach (ie Positive Behaviour Program). This involves helping the student identify when they are becoming dysregulated and then making a choice to behave in a different more socially appropriate manner. The school provides feedback to parents and the parents reinforce these choices at home.
NO SUSPENSIONS! FOR SECONDARY STUDENTS
No Suspensions! for secondary students utilises more of a motivational interviewing approach which is incorporated into a Collaborative Problem-Solving (CPS) approach.
Every time a student exhibits challenging behaviour they are making a choice, be it a sub-conscious choice, to behave in that particular way. The essence of No Suspensions! is for the student to be able to identify the reasons that lead them to exhibit that behaviour and to make a different choice next time. The CPS approach is used to identify different choices.
The No Suspensions! training program includes the following modules:
- Behavioural skills eg positive reinforcement and ignoring negative behaviour
- The Three Choices Model
- Collaborative Problem Solving
- De-escalation process
Graeme Baird Explains Below:
COLLABORATIVE PROBLEM SOLVING
For example, the student who brings a knife to school does so for a reason namely because they do not feel safe. Therefore, in terms of CPS the problem to be solved is how to be safe at school (without bringing a knife to school).
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