Staff perspectives on Emotionally Based School Avoidance: a case study in a Welsh primary school

Emotionally-Based School Avoidance (EBSA) is an increasing concern in UK schools, yet it remains inconsistently defined and is often framed through individualised or behavioural explanations. This single-site qualitative study, conducted in a Welsh primary school, examines how staff understand, respond to, and emotionally experience EBSA in the context of everyday school life. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten members of staff, including teaching assistants, class teachers, and senior leaders, and analysed using reflexive thematic analysis.Findings indicate that staff recognised EBSA not through formal criteria, but through relational knowing, embodied cues, and affective attunement developed through sustained proximity to children. In the absence of policy clarity, responses were largely improvised and shaped by contextual knowledge, ethical commitment, and local school conditions. Participants described the emotional toll of this work as cumulative and often quietly held, with the nature and extent of support shaped by school culture, leadership priorities, and wider systemic pressures.The study challenges deficit-based understandings of EBSA by foregrounding the emotional and ethical labour underpinning staff-led support. While situated within a single school, the findings offer insight into the institutional conditions that enable or constrain relational inclusion and contribute to calls for guidance that is relationally grounded, structurally attuned, and informed by practitioner expertise.