Parents warn of tsunami of school-anxiety cases - BBC News
A response to the BBC News Report - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-58474418
I’m pretty Angry!!! Why has it taken a global pandemic for the issue of school anxiety and “school refusal” to be trending in the Top BBC News stories today?
Although the pandemic has clearly unmasked a lot of difficulties and exacerbated the situation, within the Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) community, this is something we have been fighting for recognition and understanding of for years. Don’t get me wrong, I am grateful that it is now being given some attention but it is something that should have been addressed a long time ago and many children have fallen through the cracks already.
Both my SEND children who have diagnoses of Autism Spectrum Disorder, one with the PDA profile have missed significant periods of their schooling due to school related anxiety. My older son who has PDA has struggled with school attendance on a regular basis and his attendance levels were very low. With my younger son a specific event triggered higher levels of anxiety which saw an already anxious child unable to attend school for more than 3 hours a week across an 18 month period. I actually ended up taking him out of school and home educating him full time.
There is a significant lack of understanding about the issue, with anxiety often being disregarded and treated as something to be “got over” by not giving into the child and forcing them into school. I’ve lost count of the number of parents I have spoken to who describe having their children physically taken off them in the morning kicking and screaming into school, only to be told “they were fine once you left”.
Were they? Were they really fine? Can you really be sure of that? Or perhaps just maybe have they buried their anxiety deep within just to make it through day because they know they are not understood or listened to?
THIS lack of understanding and lack of support is in my opinion THE most significant factor in school anxiety reaching the point that children feel unable to attend at all.
For many children anxiety has been bubbling away for a long time before “school refusal” even begins to present itself. This is often due to undiagnosed, unrecognised and unmet Special Educational Needs. A lack of funding and understanding of how these can present in the classroom and the ability of many young individuals to mask the extent of their difficulties, often leads to parent blaming and dismissal of the idea that a child may need extra support. Parents often already know that there is something going on with their child that needs investigating and supporting, and raise the issues with schools and the G.P. but are often not believed because the child is “fine in school”. When it gets to the point of total “school refusal” threats of fines and prosecution are added to the already laden plate.
There is something drastically wrong when the system set up to educate and nurture our children is the very system causing the mental health issues that prevents them from attending, and that no one with the power to do anything seems to have figured out that something needs to change.
"Where a pupil does not attend, the school, family and council should work together to agree a plan for attendance, because the classroom is the best place for their education, development and wellbeing."
NOT ALWAYS !!!!!