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My son won't go to school.. im in shit for it

427 replies

Notoschool · 25/01/2022 10:31

My son is 14. He's been refusing school since around September. He's probably been 5 or 6 times since. He gives lots of different reasons such as he does not like the teacher . Or he feels anxious in the class. He hates the lesson. His reasons seem to change.

He has been self harming by cutting himself. He's been offered counselling at school.but as hes not going to school that's not happening. We have asked for help from camhs that was refused. So we have appealed. We found another counselling/support service for young people they are giving him 3 sessions. And that ends. As they are reducing their services. At the moment we have some support from early help but apparently that comes to a close in around 3 weeks.

My son has been very aggressive to the point he scares me. He's done things like smash up the doors in the house put holes in a partition wall. He's also verbally aggressive.

Recently the school offered him part time time table. To start at 11.15 . He agreed with this . Apart from the Monday where he wanted to start at lunchtime. The school refused this . But I really stood up for ds . As I thought this was better than not going at all. I agree its not right but surely a step in the right direction. His body language had changed and his tone. I really thought he was going to do it . So he went to school on the Friday. Come Monday He's refusing again I actually agued his point with the school so now it's made me look really bad and now he's made it impossible for me to have any valued say in a meeting that's going to happen in a few days.

Hes always asking for money to top his phone up. For food when he's out. Or just general things that teens often want . He wanted money Friday. I said once I know your at school I will transfer you money. Then on Tuesday as long as you have been to school on the Monday and Tuesday. I will top up your phone. But he did not stick to this agreement. So I have not topped up his phone. He told me how selfish I am . And said to me things like: "you only have to do a simple thing. It's like you want me to cut." He has said several similar things.

I'm actually frightened that because I'm refusing to give him money or top up his phone he's going to become very aggressive later on.

The school have told me there is going to be a meeting the local authorities will be there. I have been told I can get a large fine. Could get a tag or even go to prison . My son has told me he does not care. I'm told the law says its my responsibility to get him to school but no one can actually tell me how I can get him in school. He's 14 and 6ft tall I can't physically get him there.

I'm really scared of this whole situation. But I feel totally trapped in the situation and don't know what to do. My son just won't engage.

OP posts:
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BungleandGeorge · 25/01/2022 11:33

You need help not threats!
Have you find out what child mental health services are available in your area? There should be a service that provides counselling etc and is a step below camhs (which he may need but generally they will expect you to go through the assesment with the other service first).
You could also try young minds or local charities for advice, you won’t be the only one in this situation.
Do you think he might have access to drugs? Just wondering with the psych problems and forcefully requesting money
Unfortunately I think if he threatens you or himself you will have to call the police and get it on record. It seems very wrong as a parent but it will help you obtain support

Itsalmostanaccessory · 25/01/2022 11:34

It kind of sound like he just enjoyed being off school when lock down hit. He just enjoyed having nothing to do. He went back, saw his sister get covid and get more time off school and decided he wanted it too and now he is just pissing about at home.

You're going to have to bite the bullet and book private counselling. The help isnt available right now through the NHS. That is a different debate but one that wont help you right now. The free help isnt available but your child needs help right now so you're going to have to book with a psychology for teens with school refusal and pay for it.

lifeturnsonadime · 25/01/2022 11:36

I wouldn't be hasty to deregister.

That completely absolves the LA of any responsibility to educate.

If there are undiagnosed SEN then it is in his best interests to find out what they are and to ask the LA for alternative provision.

Also, I completely disagree with criminalising a teenager for mental health issues.

Yes the OP needs to be safe and calling the police is necessary if she is in danger but it is CAMHS that need to be involved not the police. My son used to lash out because of anxiety and communication difficulties. Now his anxiety is managed with medication and therapy he is calm and gentle. I shudder to think what would have happened if I'd have gone down the police route.

k1233 · 25/01/2022 11:36

Do you think that, as he refused to do work in the first lockdown, he is very behind everyone else? Kids don't want to look stupid in front of their peers, so the easiest solution is not to attend. Could also explain why his reasons keep changing.

fluffiphlox · 25/01/2022 11:37

Is his father in the picture? If he is, could he talk to him? You need support at home.

thedefinitionofmadness · 25/01/2022 11:37

OP

2 Facebook Groups and informal networks will help you:
Not Fine In School

Parenting Mental Health

Both are run by charitable organisations set up to provide peer support.

Am walking a similar walk. I suggest:

Contacting your local SENDiass - there is one in each local authority. They will advocate for us and help you understand the legal position. They work for central government

Is the SENCo involved - your son's issues with Mental Health are a SEN issue - they should be putting a plan in place using the Graduated Approach (google it) Assess- Plan - Do - Review to help. This is not only an attendance issue

Gather up all your evidence of engagement with services - CAMHS etc and self-refer in again. Go to GP again ask them to hasten ref the self harm. Get a paper trail.

Take an advocate to the meeting with school and record the meeting

Keep a diary of son's behaviour and all communication with school

School should be authorising all absence on the basis of mental health. If they are not ask them to put in writing why not, given that this is legislation not policy.

I would also consider contacting the EWO at the local authority yourself.

You are not alone.

lifeturnsonadime · 25/01/2022 11:38

OP get your MP involved about the difficulties in accessing CAMHS. That helped me with getting access for my son.

LumosSolem · 25/01/2022 11:39

@Itsalmostanaccessory

It kind of sound like he just enjoyed being off school when lock down hit. He just enjoyed having nothing to do. He went back, saw his sister get covid and get more time off school and decided he wanted it too and now he is just pissing about at home.

You're going to have to bite the bullet and book private counselling. The help isnt available right now through the NHS. That is a different debate but one that wont help you right now. The free help isnt available but your child needs help right now so you're going to have to book with a psychology for teens with school refusal and pay for it.

Rubbish. If he is self harming then there is far more going on than he just fancied carrying on dossing around after the lockdowns.

And if OP can't afford to pay for private counselling? Honestly this is peak mumsnet- some posters with literally no idea of how people have to manage.

oviraptor21 · 25/01/2022 11:40

What kind of conversations have you had with your DS? Is he open to discussing anything? Is he open to hugs and general comforting?
Are there issues outside school which are causing distress/depression/anxiety?

Your school sounds a bit shit with this tbh. Would you and your DS be open to moving schools if there are any locally with spaces? If DS is year 9 it would be quite a good time to move, year 10 less so.

Bunnyrun5 · 25/01/2022 11:41

You have been saying ‘we’ in all your posts are you talking about your sons Father? In which case how supportive is he being with both you and your son, does he attend the meetings?
I am a counsellor and have worked with many young people presenting like your son. It takes time and unfortunately often privately funded, but your son needs to talk to someone outside of school, not related whom he can trust and then he can be honest about his readings for not wanting to attend school. I’m so sorry to hear you are struggling it is not an easy situation to resolve without full support from everyone in your sons life. I’m sure you will have tried this already, but when the moment is right and he is willing to engage us to ask him what he wants ‘you’ to do with current situation and work from that point,

SkepticalCat · 25/01/2022 11:41

I was in the same situation a few years ago and it's absolutely awful. The worst time of all of our lives.

Great advice to join the Not Fine in School group.

I saw this cartoon on Facebook this morning, which really sums up the awful situation. I hope the "it's not difficult, just get him to school, stop enabling his behaviour" crowd take something from this.

If you've not been in the situation please believe those of us who have that we're seriously doing everything we can and it's bloody awful.

My son won't go to school.. im in shit for it
Itsalmostanaccessory · 25/01/2022 11:42

@LumosSolem

Cutting? Hmmm. Threatening to cut when he doesnt get money for his phone.

Look, he needs help. That's obvious. He needs a counsellor. That isnt going to change. Free help is not available. So what other option is there? She will need to find a way to afford some sessions. That's life when you have kids. You need to find a way to afford what they need when they need something desperately.

MrsVeryTired · 25/01/2022 11:43

Been there myself, DS now left school. Lots of things I wish I'd done differently. Too much pressure was not good and didn't help, he went from occasionally going to refusing to ever go there again, even for exams or chats with pastoral teacher.

Lots of good advice, among the occasional shit advice Hmm
The Not fine in school FB group definitely a good place to go. Also make sure you attend all meetings (even if he doesn't come) and reiterate that you want them to help you help him (and that's not forcing him to school, don't say that to them though).

Mental health is more important than school attendance. If you can take the pressure off a bit, tell him he goes when he feels ready but tries to do some schoolwork at home? If possible, even if its just in something thats his only favourite subject.

Not sure if you are able but going out for walks together where you can chat (try not to force chat about school). Focus on improving mental health.

I'd be surprised if they fine you when he is off for mental health reasons? Say that every time you call in for him, "he is not well enough to attend school today" if he is refusing that day.

Try to encourage him to keep in touch with his friends, if he has school attending friends, they may be the best route to getting him back.

Best wishes Flowers

RantyAunty · 25/01/2022 11:45

Have you looked through his phone before to see who he is talking to and what he is doing?

Could he be involved in drugs?

BigSandyBalls2015 · 25/01/2022 11:46

I've been there with one of my DDs, I do feel for you as it was a very stressful time and I felt very judged by people, as seen on here, for not being more forceful.

I backed off with trying to force her to go in the end, deciding her mental health was more important than her education at that point in her life. She could return to education.

I did take the router to work with me as I didn't want her to get too used to being at home with everything accessible.

School weren't great, her HoY was useless, I wasn't ever fined or even threatened with a fine.

She eventually finished year 11 with a reasonable set of GCSEs, which was remarkable considering her lack of attendance. She's now working, up and out the door every day, happy, never late, never off sick. School just doesn't suit some kids, despite having friends etc, it made her very anxious.

Hang in there OP, as hard as it seems now, he will improve.

booksandballet · 25/01/2022 11:47

OP, I don't have time to respond in detail right now, but I was a teacher in a special school for young people whose mental health difficulties had led to school refusal and I did my Master's research on how to reengage such children in education. I'd be happy to chat about strategies that might help. Posting to remind myself to come back later.

Notoschool · 25/01/2022 11:47

Thank you for all your messages. With the mental health side of it. All I Keep getting told is he does not have a diagnosis. And I can't discuss it with her because she talks over me. Also I'm sure she knows as well as we all do on this thread that it can take years to get a diagnosis.

She also told me that ds can't go to a different school because in year 10 its near impossible and Another school or college will not take him due to his attendance.

When I have spoke to ds about leaving the school he has said the school he's at is a good school.

I will definitely look at that Facebook group thank you 😊

OP posts:
LumosSolem · 25/01/2022 11:48

@SkepticalCat excellent post. And that picture sums it up perfectly.

I have wonderful parents who did everything they could for me and my education growing up. They had such a difficult time with me refusing school- try getting a distressed, unhappy, anxious but also stubborn and wilful 13/14 year old to school. It was impossible for them.

Luckily I had a really good school who were calm and understanding and adapted things to get me back into school. There was one lovely teacher- she must have been involved in pastoral care but I can't remember all the details- I used to be allowed to go and sit in her office/do work or read books- just anything to get me in school. It definitely helped my anxiety. I didn't have to be around all the other kids and all the noise whilst struggling with whatever was going on. Is this something your son's school could facilitate OP? It's not perfect but it is a start and the school were clever enough to see how this could help me. Eventually I got back to more and more lessons until I was attending school pretty much as normal. Never had a perfect attendance record but it was good enough and I did really well at GCSEs, I even stayed on for sixth form.

It's really bad if my school 20 years ago could make a better job of it than schools today when we are supposedly so much more understanding of mental health issues.

ThackeryBinks · 25/01/2022 11:48

Can you contact womens aid for support for you? This is an awful lot for you to deal with.

Carrienova · 25/01/2022 11:48

Contact your local Parent Carers association.
Pathological demand avoidance is a medical diagnosis and if your son has a proper diagnosis he will get the proper support and you cannot be reasonably prosecuted.

Consider changing his school, if possible. At 14 he could go to a 'secondary technical school' which suits kids who don't get along with conventional academic schooling.

Or maybe a SEMH school - they have them for emotional disorders and mental health disorders (so not necessarily less academic or what you might understand to be 'special needs').

LumosSolem · 25/01/2022 11:51

[quote Itsalmostanaccessory]@LumosSolem

Cutting? Hmmm. Threatening to cut when he doesnt get money for his phone.

Look, he needs help. That's obvious. He needs a counsellor. That isnt going to change. Free help is not available. So what other option is there? She will need to find a way to afford some sessions. That's life when you have kids. You need to find a way to afford what they need when they need something desperately.[/quote]
That's a pretty shit response to suggest that he's only doing it over the phone. Can be all kinds of triggers- it doesn't occur to you that being cut off from his phone/communication from his friends might cause a lot of distress?

Also, you really think people can just magic money up- when they can barely pay for food/heating, and with the cost of everything going up? Fact is there should be better mental health provision and at the very least the school could be doing an awful lot more to help.

Lovemusic33 · 25/01/2022 11:56

I can imagine how hard it must be. I’m not sure it’s as simple as ‘working out why a child doesn’t want to go to school’, sometimes there is no real reason other than ‘they just don’t like school’, I mean who does like spending 7 hours a day doing things your not interested in? School isn’t for everyone, especially for those that may struggle to concentrate or just can’t focus on lessons they have no interest in.

Maybe look into alternative settings? I know here we have several colleges that take 14+ and focus more on vocational courses as well as continuing maths and English, one focuses on agriculture and mechanics, the setting is different than school and it cuts out all the lessons that they may find boring (other than maths and English). There are also small classes/schools set up for those struggling with attending a state school, these can be used as to take time out in hope to return when thy feel more able too.

Your ds needs to understand that he needs to be accessing education until he’s 18 because that’s the law. If he wants money and wants to go out with his mates then he needs to be going to school. I think you are right refusing him money unless he attends school, he needs to learn that he can’t do what he likes and in return gets given cash, life’s not like that.

WarmSeaSwimmer · 25/01/2022 11:57

Join the Facebook page 'Not Fine in School', you will find a lot of support and advice there.

My youngest child hasn't been to school for over 3 years and I've never been fined or had calls or visits from EWOs. The biggest mistake I made was forcing him into school at the advice of school staff. He made a near fatal suicide attempt as a result and his mental health has never recovered, he's still in a very dark place and I can't imagine him ever fully recovering from the experience.

Your son must have major underlying anxiety about school to be resisting so intensely. Children tend to conform, on the whole, when it comes to social norms like school attendance so avoidance is a huge red flag and you need to find support to our a plan in place to help him through this, maybe school is not the right environment.

My son's breakdown was caused by bullying at school, but it may be something else at the root of your son's issues. Above all else protect your son's mental health, all the qualifications in the world will be useless if his mental health is in pieces from attending.

Itsalmostanaccessory · 25/01/2022 11:57

@LumosSolem

Yes, there should be better services available. There shouldn't be months and years of waiting. But there is.

Demanding change, waiting for change to happen... that's years away. Wont help the OP.

The free help isnt there. The kid needs help now, not in a years time. So what do you suggest?

Paying for it herself is the only option left. I'm not saying it's right. I'm not saying it's fair. I'm saying that it's the only option left. The kid needs help now. Helps is not available through free mental health services and she cannot wait months/years for things to change.

Pay for help, or dont get it. That's life. It's shitty, but it's life.

TheHoptimist · 25/01/2022 11:59

@StepAwayFromGoogling

You do sound like you've been enabling his behaviour. Surely you shove him out the door with his achool clothes and tell him to get to school? You don't let him loaf about in the house all day. And you've still been giving him money to go out and top up his phone? So what have the consequences for him not going to school been up to now?
Yes because teenagers out on the street all day are not high risk of exploitation including drugs or prostitution are they ?

Honestly-some people live very protected lives