09/02/2026
EBSA – Not Refusal, Illness
(Template email In comments - for schools in England only )
Imagine if home was making a child this sick.
Imagine an 8 year old child who cries every morning.
Who clutches their stomach in pain, who has been awake all night. A child that physically vomits from anxiety. Who hyperventilates, hides, pleads not to go.
Imagine a child who self-harms during meltdowns. A child who pulls their hair out. Who can’t sleep
Who lives with constant nausea. A child that is visibly deteriorating-physically and mentally. A child who was once full of spirit, is now withdrawn and hardly speaks.
If this level of illness was happening at home, the response would be immediate!
There would be safeguarding referrals, social care involvement, multi-agency meetings. Urgent assessments would be undertaken and that’s because a child being made this unwell by an environment - is not acceptable.
Now change just one thing.
The illness is being caused by school.
Suddenly, the narrative shifts.
The child is expected to tolerate it there and the parent is often blamed…
“You’re too soft” “they need to learn to be resilient” “perhaps you have anxiety and it’s rubbing off on them”.
Suddenly attendance becomes the priority - not health.
Parents are told to be firmer & to push through or they may be fined. They’re told to physically get their child there even if they’re in pyjamas or being sick.
Let’s be clear:
If a setting is making a child physically and mentally sick, that is a serious concern (regardless of where it happens) Education is not supposed to damage a child’s physical and mental health.
And by the time action is taken, the harm is already entrenched. If a child has to become ill in order to access education, that education is not suitable (section 7 of the education act)
This is not school refusal.This is not a parenting failure. This is a child whose health is being compromised.
We need to stop asking, “How do we get them in?”
And start asking, “WHY is this making them sick?”
Love,
Leigh
