Why are schools struggling to support PDA children?
Before I joined the PDA Society last year, I spent twenty-three years working in education, initially as a primary school teacher with my career ending as a headteacher of a mainstream first school.
Throughout my career, I taught children with a wide range of needs and part of the challenge that I always enjoyed was planning creative ways to adapt learning to enable all learners to achieve.
I truly understand the challenges in education, especially in the last few years. The reduced budgets, the escalating variety of needs and the lack of training and resources to be able to meet those needs. I recognise the conflict that teachers have when they are desperately trying to make a difference for the children in their class without the right support. This is one of the reasons that I stepped away from a career I had once loved because I no longer felt I could have an impact.
What I also know as a parent of a young PDAer is how incredibly demanding a mainstream school environment and the school day is for children with a PDA profile, which is why so often we hear from both parents and professionals that school becomes too overwhelming and traumatic for these children and they reach a point where they can no longer attend.
Research from the PDA Society shows that:
60% of parents say their child struggles to attend school regularly or at all
85% report their child has experienced emotionally based school avoidance (EBSA)
91% say their child experiences severe anxiety
What can we do to help PDA children attend school?
We know that when schools and educators understand PDA and have a flexible, lower demand approach to learning, children’s experiences in school can change dramatically. If this can be implemented before children reach a position where they become too anxious to attend school, our approach becomes less reactive and more proactive.
We want to empower teachers, SENDCOs, school leaders and anyone who supports children in schools with training and information, tools and strategies to enable you to have realistic expectations and create safe, trusting relationships with PDA children.
This is the reason that we have designed an online Education Conference that will provide:
- academic and evidence-based insight from authors, researchers and educators who have experience of supporting PDA learners
- Perspectives from both educators and learners with lived experience
- Time and space to think, reflect and problem solve with other educators in a safe, supportive space
For access to live speakers, opportunities to ask questions and interact with other professionals, you can get your ticket to the PDA Society Education Conference here.
Thursday 30th April 2026, 9:30am – 4:00pm