School avoidance & EBSA tutor, online across the UK
It isn't that they won't go.
It's that they can't.
While things are being sorted out, your child can keep learning — at home, at their pace, with no attendance target hanging over it.
I'm Sophie — a qualified teacher, former SENCO and former Head of Drama. I teach every lesson myself, one to one, online.
- Qualified teacher (QTS)
- Former SENCO
- EHCP and EOTAS experience
- Enhanced DBS
You've been told to be firmer, to push through,to stop giving in.
Six things parents of children out of school tell me again and again — and what I actually do about each one.
What you're seeing
Some mornings they physically cannot get out of the car.
What I do
That isn’t defiance, and you already know it — the stomach aches and the panic are real, not performed. My lessons take the gates, the journey and the corridor out of the equation entirely. Your child learns from a room they already feel safe in, with one familiar person, and nothing that requires them to walk through a door they can’t walk through. We start where they actually are, not where the timetable says they should be.
What you're seeing
The attendance letters. The meetings. The feeling that everyone thinks this is your fault.
What I do
It isn’t your fault, and “emotionally based school avoidance” is a recognised difficulty, not a parenting failure. I can’t stop the letters — but I can give you documented, dated evidence from a qualified teacher and former SENCO that your child is engaging with education and making progress. When you’re being judged, having it in writing changes the conversation.
What you're seeing
Every week out is another week further behind, and GCSEs are coming.
What I do
This is the fear underneath all of it, and it’s a reasonable one. So we prioritise rather than panic: the core skills that unlock the most marks, taught in the time we actually have, rather than trying to recover an entire curriculum. English, essay writing, reading, exam technique. Falling behind is recoverable. I’ve seen it recovered.
What you're seeing
School sends work packs home. They sit on the side, untouched.
What I do
Of course they do. A worksheet has nobody attached to it, and a child who’s lost confidence won’t start something alone. What changes it is a person, at the same time each week, who knows them and expects nothing they can’t manage. Work gets done because of who’s on the other end of it, not because of what’s on the page.
What you're seeing
School says push. Someone else says don’t. You’re stuck in the middle guessing.
What I do
I’m not going to add another opinion about attendance — that isn’t my job, and it’s usually not the first thing to fix anyway. My job is to keep education going while the adults work the rest out, and to make sure that whatever happens next, your child hasn’t lost a year. One thing in the week that’s calm, predictable and nobody’s arguing about.
What you're seeing
They’ve stopped speaking up, stopped seeing people, stopped being themselves.
What I do
This is the part I specialise in. Time out of school costs children their voice as much as their grades — and confidence doesn’t return on its own once school does. As a drama and communication teacher, rebuilding the willingness to speak, be heard and try something in front of another person is precisely the work I do. One hour a week with another person is a start, and it counts for more than it looks like.
What lessons look like
Small, calm and completely unpressured. Nobody has to be ready before they’re ready.
Before the lesson
You talk to me first, properly.
- A free call, just you and me, before your child meets me at all
- Tell me what’s been happening, what’s been tried, and what makes things worse
- Nothing gets sprung on your child. They know who I am, what we’ll do, and how long it lasts, before we start
- Same tutor, same time, every week
Inside the hour
We start wherever today allows.
- Camera off is completely fine, for the first lesson or the first term
- Ten minutes is a lesson. So is talking about something they’re interested in
- No questions about school, why they’re not there, or when they’re going back — unless they raise it
- If today isn’t a day for working, we do less. That’s a normal lesson, not a failed one
- You don’t need to sit in, and you don’t need to make them do anything
Afterwards
You always know what happened, and what’s next.
- A short note after every lesson in plain English
- Those notes build into documented evidence of engagement and progress — for the local authority, an EHCP application, an annual review or an EOTAS package
- If your child has an EHCP or EOTAS funding that names one-to-one tuition, I can be the person providing it
How I support your child
Nobody here is going to ask your child to be ready before they’re ready.
I’m a qualified teacher, a former SENCO and a drama and communication specialist, and I’ve spent my career with the children school finds hardest to reach. When a child stops being able to go in, two things start slipping at once: their education, and their sense of themselves. I work on both.
We start impossibly small
Camera off. Ten minutes. Talking about something they actually like. That counts as a lesson — and it’s how nearly every family I work with begins.
Their voice comes first
Time out of school costs children their confidence faster than their grades, and it doesn’t come back on its own. Rebuilding the willingness to speak and be heard is precisely what I’m trained to do.
Then the academics, without the panic
We target the skills that unlock the most marks in the time we actually have, rather than trying to recover an entire curriculum. Falling behind is recoverable. I’ve recovered it.
And you get it all in writing
Every session is documented, so you have dated evidence of engagement and progress for an EHCP, an EOTAS package, an annual review — or the next meeting where you’re asked to prove something.
I’m not here to get your child back through the school gates. I’m here to make sure that when they are ready, they haven’t lost a year — or themselves — waiting.
Common questions
That’s expected, and it isn’t a reason to wait. The first lesson has no targets and nothing to get wrong — camera off, no pressure to talk, they can type or just listen while I do the talking. I have never met a child who stayed silent forever, but I’ve met plenty who needed several weeks to decide I was safe. For autistic children, the same low-demand approach runs through my autism-informed tuition.
Sometimes. If your child has an EHCP that names one-to-one tuition, or an EOTAS package, I can be the provider. If you’re applying or appealing, I can supply written teaching evidence for the process. Worth raising on the call and I’ll tell you honestly where you stand.
Start with one hour a week and let that be enough. Almost every family I work with starts smaller than they think they should, and it works better that way. We can build up when your child is ready, not before. There’s more on what a week-by-week course looks like and what it costs.
It happens, and it’s not a disaster. Tell me and we move it. I’d much rather reschedule than have a lesson become another thing your child dreads.
Ready to talk about your child?
I teach every lesson myself, so I take a limited number of students at a time. If you’d like a place this term, it’s worth getting in touch now.