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My name is Katherine Lucor. I’ve been an Educational Psychologist for 26 years. Before that, I worked as a teacher in Brighton and Hove and as an Assistant Clinical Psychologist for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly NHS Trust.
I’m now a Senior Educational Psychologist with West Sussex Educational Psychology Service. My role includes helping organise training, consultations and interventions for professionals who are supporting children and young people with attendance and engagement.
This year, we’re updating our West Sussex guidance on attendance. It was previously called the “West Sussex Guidance on Emotionally Based School Avoidance”.
Our understanding of attendance difficulties has developed through research, including learning from the COVID period, and through our understanding of psychology. As a result, we’re updating not just the guidance, but also our resources, training and advice for schools and other settings.
We’re also reviewing the language we use. We want our language to be helpful, respectful and understood by children, young people, families and staff. We’re listening to their views about the words and terms they feel are most useful.
The new guidance has been developed through co-production, bringing together professionals from different agencies, children and young people, families and schools.
We plan to launch the new guidance and resources during the 2026–27 academic year. Our current working title is:
Supporting attendance by promoting:
1. Belonging and relationships
2. Engagement and Autonomy
3. Resilience and self-efficacy
4. Sense of Safety and environmental adaptations
So we are supporting attendance by promoting BEARS.