When Josh Bond was 15 he was struggling to make it to school more than two days a week.
He was finding the social and educational side of attending class stressful and was becoming increasingly disengaged.
"I guess I didn't feel I was going to make it through school for a while," he said.
"It just felt too hard and I didn't feel like it was something I could do anymore."
His mum Janis Brown described getting her son to school as a "constant five-day-a week battle".
She said seeing Josh upset about having to go to school was difficult and she was concerned about his future.
"I felt like he was going to slip through the cracks … there's a chunk of the education system that's missing for kids who learn differently," she said.
But things have changed dramatically for Josh since he embarked on a year-long program at his school, MacKillop Education — a specialist school in Geelong with small class sizes and a trauma-informed approach.
Starting small to get students re-engaged
The In2School program's primary aim is to get students re-engaged, starting with small groups of students whose attendance rate is less than 50 per cent.
MacKillop Education's co-principal Perri Broadbent-Hogan is not a fan of the term "school refuser".
"I think it implies that people make a choice, which is certainly not how we see it," she said.
"There's this perception that maybe young people are being lazy or young people don't have enough resilience.
"What we're seeing is young people, who are genuinely really struggling and they just really need some support. They need someone to walk alongside them."
In2School leader and teacher Maddy Bennetts said the program temporarily did away with the school curriculum and worked with the students individually to tailor their school day.
"It could be they like starting the day with some toast and scrambled eggs … or if they like playing piano we transition into the school day doing something like that," she said.
"We don't start the program with a really strict and rigid timetable and are always asking for student input about what's going to reduce some of the barriers for them and make it easier for them to come into schools."
It also means the classroom is designed differently, with a separate space for couches and bean bags.
"If someone is feeling a bit anxious or tired or they just need some time to themselves, they can come in here and just hang out," she said.
The second stage of the program sees students begin to work in small groups while also increasing the number of hours they attend school.
"We do a lot of activities side-by-side with young people as opposed to face-to-face because eye contact can be really confronting, especially when you have been disengaged from school for a while," Ms Broadbent-Hogan said.
Along the way students are supported to feel calm, focused and ready to learn.
"When we create an environment and relationships that are trauma informed, it actually can increase the functional IQ of students in your classroom," she said.
"I really think that's remarkable."
Gradually more academic work is introduced and by term 4 the classroom is operating like any other.
"The outcomes of the program from my perspective have been really phenomenal," Ms Bennetts said.
The eight students involved in the first year of the program are now all on full timetables in mainstream classes.
Ms Bennetts said she had seen a total change in her students' attitude to school.
"They go from not feeling that it's somewhere they want to be and not feeling safe or comfortable ... to it just being part of their day," she said.
Calls for national approach
A recent Productivity Commission report shows the rate of children staying home from school is on the rise.
A senate committee is holding an inquiry into the national trend of school refusal.
It has heard the pandemic, mental health and bullying via social media are some of the reasons for the rise in the number of students avoiding school.
Associate professor Lisa McKay-Brown from the University of Melbourne developed the In2School Program in partnership with the Royal Children's Hospital and Travancore School, and with the support of the Helen MacPherson Trust.
She said she hoped the inquiry recommended a national response to the problem.
"We don't know how many young people are impacted by this," she said.
"We don't know what programs are being run by different organisations.
"We would hope that really what comes out of this is a recommendation that we look at the multi-tiered systems of support for school refusal."
Associate professor McKay-Brown said the success of the In2School program at MacKillop Education could be replicated in the mainstream school system.
"I think the program wouldn't happen without the dedication of the team who are running the program on a day-to-day basis ... but also the young people who have chosen to be part of the program and are allowing us to learn from them," she said.
Students not 'lazy' but 'really struggling'
Ms Broadbent-Hogan said the pandemic had had a big impact on school attendance generally.
"What we're seeing is an increasing number of young people who are feeling too anxious to come to school and you know are facing significant barriers to getting to school every day," she said.
Ms Broadbent-Hogan fears failing to address the school attendance challenge will result in academic gaps that become increasingly harder to fill.
"Those gaps are often in their core skills like literacy and numeracy," she said.
"That can be really hard as they grow and need to develop those skills to be active members of society."
While the program is resource-heavy, the co-principal said she believed it could be replicated in other schools.
"We're talking about the opportunity here to really change the educational journey of a young person and to me that is absolutely worth the cost," Ms Broadbent-Hogan said.
"The impact that can have over a lifetime is enormous."
At the end of term four last year Josh's attendance was up to 82 per cent and he now has big plans for the future.
"I would love to be a theoretical physicist ... but I probably see myself doing something more chemistry-based because that's something I am interested in," he said.
