DS7 refusing to go into school - suggestions please

[Allfednonedead]

DS with ASD is in Y2 at a small mainstream school. He has always been a bit reluctant to make the transition into class, but this has escalated recently.
He clings to me and will not engage with the TA who usually deals with him at this point. He is no longer interested in the transition object she used to use.
He is very anxious, but cannot or will not say what he is anxious about.
I have tried taking him in early to avoid the rush, but that worked once then no more.
Now I have come up an incentive system that may work but will not address whatever the underlying problem is.
Please help me think about why he might be anxious and what I might do to support him into class each morning.

The school is great and will almost certainly support any strategy I come up with, resources permitting.

I think Yr 2 is often the breaking point for kids. Sats can be really stressful for everyone and even if school isn't saying anything explicitly about them, of course kids pick up the stress and anxiety around them.

What do school say about his day?

Is there any autism outreach in your local authority? Or could the Ed psych come in and observe him?

Sorry, I should have said this happened to us too. We left and went to a great autism provision because the anxiety got worse and worse. Didn't have a great school response though.

Have you got an ehcp?

We went through this too, tho DS is only now being diagnosed with ASD in Year 4. As a becon of hope, year 3 was great for my DS and the reluctance to go to school really diminished.

As for year 2, we muddled through with a lot of clinging and crying. The underlying stress of SATS for all the children is hard to deal with, the furniture may be being moved for the tests to separate desks. Routines go out the window... all a disaster for some ASD children.

Ask for a meeting with the teacher and SENCO, and get them to plan in more breaks or down-time for your DS until his anxiety reduces. The school needs to take it seriously and understand the impact it has on you both.

I think if it's generalised school anxiety due to the overwhelmingness of it all it is v hard / impossible to articulate or put down to just one thing - it's most likely a combination of lots of things.

As a PP said, Y2 is particularly tricky around now.
I always find by summer term too my DS is getting tired and generally fed up and lots of the strategies that have been working lose their novelty and stop working.

Infact we've just changed the TA who meets and greets him because as soon as he glimpsed his usual TA the anxiety was kicking in.
So far that's helping a bit.

Other things would be how well he's being supported during unstructured times like playtime as that can be stressful for autistic children with no clear rules / lots of noise.

Incentives don't work well for my DS because the pressure of not getting the reward can become too much for him to bear.

He likes to know exactly what is going to happen that day (and then try and negotiate his way out of doing it, but that's another story). So maybe School could provide you with a visual timetable of what he'll be doing each day that you can go through with him every morning to try and reduce the anxiety of the unknown a bit.

to you - it's tough! We have an EHCP and a v supportive school, but still morning transition is hard.

School refusal is so, so common in children with ASD, I had no idea until it happened to us. Some schools are great at implementing helpful strategies, others not so much! I always recommend a brilliant FB group where everyone is going through similar, some great advice to be had there. Search for 'School refusal support'.

Could you get advice from a good occupational therapist?

My son started a new school this year and it was a complete disaster at the start - he was being very disruptive in the class crying and shouting a lot. The school were saying they would not be able to cope with him. We had an occupational therapist go into the school and talk to the teachers about how to manage him and what adjustments were needed. The school were very open to this and within a few short weeks he calmed down. He has been very happy at school ever since and only rarely has some low-level issues. He is copig well with the school work. It was great for us to have a professional speak to the school as he has a very good understanding of autism and all out DS's behaviours made sense to him even if they didn't always to us.

Perhaps, as others mentioned, it's the unstructured time. Now that the weather has changed, they might be spending more time outside, their activities might be different. Maybe the windows are open and it is more noisy? I suppose the whole 'feel' of the school can change on a warm day vs. the quiet cosiness of winter.

Dd in Year 2 (under assessment for ASD) is definitely finding it hard at the minute, around SATs and as end of school year approaches. 😬

Thank you for all the replies!
After several miserable days, we did actually hit on a good incentive strategy (which I will share in case it's helpful to anyone else).
Each afternoon, he gets 15 minutes (with a timer set) to talk about his special interest (currently what pet he might have). Every minute I have to stay behind in the morning is a minute off that.
In addition, I have stopped volunteering in the school in the mornings. The SENCO and I felt he was being distracted by my presence, and given that he was running out of class to find me, I wasn't being much help to the children I was supposed to be supporting either.
zzzzz I agree entirely about finding the cause, but it's not easy. He cannot or will not articulate anything beyond wanting to stay with me. He has lots of support at school and we are addressing any issues that come up.
It seems like generalised school anxiety, which I sympathise with deeply as a former school-phobic. I'm working on the assumption that for some reason his general levels of anxiety are high at the moment and that normally difficult moments like going into class have become impossibly difficult for him as a result.
So I'm trying to make his life as calm as possible, to spend as much focused time with him as I can, and ensure he gets regular exercise. So far, it seems to be helping.