Separation anxiety - 6 year old?

[Flowers2020bloom]

Hoping for some advice for dealing with probable separation anxiety in my 6.5 year old dc. I say probable as it is only my diagnosis after a read of good old doctor Google.
It's a relatively recent problem but in hindsight I can see it's been escalating since the start of term. School drop offs have been dreadful but seeing a slight improvement with a school based reward chart and they say as soon as dc is in the classroom there are absolutely no concerns. We've had a few reasons given over the weeks but as those have been addressed it's fundamentally coming down to dc not wanting to be separated from me / dh and it's now starting in the after school activities as well which have always previously been fine. Dc has always been a it this way so I'm pretty good at the quick drop off but it's just heartbreaking and I really feel that nearly 7 is a bit old for this.
Any advice or similar experiences welcome - I'm exhausted and at my wits end

Had similar with my 6 year old. The one thing that's helped with school drop off is being 30 mins early to school (dropping off older siblings) so we get 30 mins of mummy + ds time. Either going for a walk, reading a book in the car, playing in the school playground. He tends to go into school much happier after that extra bit of time with me

Thanks @Bookvan that's reminded me that when we had similar problems many years ago at nursery we used to go for a longer walk first and that sometimes made the drop offs easier so I could look to do something similar - unfortunately will have to drag my eldest along (unfortunately for them not because they will be coming - another source of guilt that eldest's needs are being somewhat sidelined at the minute)

Hi, it’s difficult isn’t it? We had the same thing with my son. In fact it went on up until year 3. Is there any issues at school that could be dealt with? Do you have the same
Problem at home or anywhere else?

@Newuser82 it's starting to happen elsewhere as well - even at things that are normally no problem. Did you DC just grow out of it or did you find the magic answer?

[quote Flowers2020bloom]@Newuser82 it's starting to happen elsewhere as well - even at things that are normally no problem. Did you DC just grow out of it or did you find the magic answer?[/quote]
That’s a tricky question really. We ended up getting cbt for him which helped hugely to this day but we also moved him schools (for a separate reason) and he is like a different child. The book that our cbt was based on is called helping your child with fears and worries. Really simple things to do that we hadn’t actually thought of.

@Newuser82 oh thank you I will definitely get that book! I've read that CBT is good though I don't really understand what it entails so hopefully that book will be a good starting point. I kind of get it but am better when I see these things in real life.

[quote Flowers2020bloom]@Newuser82 oh thank you I will definitely get that book! I've read that CBT is good though I don't really understand what it entails so hopefully that book will be a good starting point. I kind of get it but am better when I see these things in real life.[/quote]
Honestly I was surprised when we started it how simple it was but I guess it’s hard to see the wood for the trees sometimes. Best of luck, I know how hard it is!