School anxiety

[KeepingCool1982]

Good morning,

I am looking for advice on how other peoples schools help their child manage school anxiety. I have a 10 year old child currently in school year 5. He has suffered school anxiety for over a year now, and last year this led to him developing tics, both verbal and motor. We went into the school to speak to them and explain how he was struggling with anxiety about school - they offered him Elsa sessions. A year has passed since then and it seems he has only ever attended one or two of these sessions. He continues to have school anxiety and although the tics had improved at home, when I went into school to look at his books one day recently, I was shocked at how frequently he was having the motor tics, which mainly involved repetitively rolling his eyes back and then flicking his head backwards. His parent teacher meeting was a few days later so I asked the teacher if he had noticed the tics worsened at school - he said he had become much more aware of them the last few weeks. However when I said I am worried how this will affect his ability to concentrate and complete work, he just said well he’s hitting the targets at the moment so not to worry…. At the moment my son repeatedly says he doesn’t want to attend school, he has been referred under the neurodevelopmental pathway after being seen by CAMHS for the tics, however he doesn’t seem to be getting any further support from the school to manage his anxieties. He also seems to have become quite isolated from his peers at school, and recently when I’ve walked passed the yard at break times, he is right at the top of the yard alone walking in circles- when I asked him why he isn’t with his friends he just says they all play football and he doesn’t like football.

just looking for other peoples advice /experience of what help/support their child has been offered that we could ask for. Thanks in advance

There is a great fb group called not fine in school which will give you lots of advice and support , sounds really hard , you are not alone, so many young ppl struggle . I would keep on at school and insist on further support x

Is homeschooling an option?

I'm a teacher. Anxiety in pupils is at epidemic proportions at a time we are cutting support staff. We offer ELSA sessions too but after that we have really exhausted what we can do to support this serious mental health issue and would be suggesting GP or a CAMHS referral.

If parents can establish a main point of anxiety we try to address that - an early or late start, a break out space, movement breaks, a quiet space to eat lunch etc and we do of course act on any recommendations from medical professionals.

We have a number of children with tics (Tourette's in these cases) and main advice from GP is to ignore, limit stress, sit in a quieter location within the classroom with supportive peers.

I'm sorry your child is suffering. If they are achieving at the expected level then that shouldn't prevent support but will sit them below pupils with similar SEMH needs who are falling significantly behind their peers.

Honestly I would consider a private neurodevelopmental assessment if you can manage it. You will very likely wait years for CAMHS/NHS to come through and he needs support from school now - not that schools are always very good at it.
Otherwise I would hope-educate. If he's struggling now the senior years could be disastrous.
I know this sounds negative but I speak from experience, unfortunately.

Is there no way you could take him out of school? What you describe sounds heartbreaking.

Wanted to add that they should be supporting your son with friendships and trying to make sure he is joining in at playtimes.

The only time we don't do this is when the pupil genuinely wants to be alone - this does happen but is usually linked to ND. If you suspect ND, ask school to make that referral but there is a long waiting list in our area.

Thanks to everyone who has replied. Unfortunately home schooling is not an option due to work, we are currently deciding whether to move schools though. I’ve found a school that seems nice and also has the secondary school attached, so he would have a year left of primary before joining the secondary in the same school.
@electriclight thanks for that, it was the suggestions on things like time out when he gets overwhelmed that I was looking for really. Regarding things at school that cause the anxiety, initially it seemed to be the fact that he had been moved to an older age class - and at the start of this school year, he was put back with his original age group which greatly reduced the tics and the verbal tics stopped. At the moment he comes home daily with anxiety over things such as; the class teacher shouting at the class to shut up; minutes taken off playtime if children misbehave; not being allowed to use the toilet if he needs too in class and having to write his name on the board when he didn’t know the answer to a question.