I would want to know what age this kid is. If he is old enough to leave school then you tell him its eaither school or he gets a job.
Check out getting him into some sort of tech course perhaps.

I came across this post and felt the need to add a comment as I am going through this now. Our daughter started with avoiding school through sore tummy days in primary school which we soon discovered was anxiety. I took a holistic approach in healing the gut and considering food and environment. She then started high school and we hoped a new environment and new experiences might inspire her and she would grow out of it. We knew year 7 would be tough as we had been through it with our son. It is for them all but especially girls – they can be so cruel! Then add social media to the mix. School became a big problem so we moved her. We have been seeing psychologists and psychiatrists. We are term two into year 8 and she has hardly been to school all year. We have been through hospital visits due to depression and she is now on medication. We are having so many issues and it’s so hard to know where it stems from. We have investigated bullying and are now considering different ways to school her. We have a loving family environment and we are putting all our efforts into helping her be happier and enjoy school but we are at an all-time low as nothing seems to be working. We can hardly drag her out of bed and we don’t want to battle anymore. If anyone is reading this who has primary school age kids, all I would say is get help as early as possible from psychologist/counselor and get to the root of the problem before it gets more complex. Maybe we should have seen a psychologist in primary school. Also consider whole health (food/supplements/environment). Be patient and calm (not easy!) and give mental health days but also stick to routines and encourage activities. We can’t look back and wish we had done things differently now as we need to stay focussed and work through each day but just know it can get worse and lot more unmanageable the older kids get. To the mum who wrote this I hear your frustration and I feel your pain. I thank everyone for their input in the comments as knowing others are experiencing the same and being able to hear other points of view and ideas is always useful.

This was me. As a teenager. Then I became a parent and all I could thing was “oh no, what will I do if they’re like me as a teenager.” Luckily they weren’t like me

As kids get older you can’t force them into it like when they are smaller.

maybe ask why they don’t want to go and support them through it..

Maybe look at a school which runs on the job programs as well as the academics.

I’d be talking to my child first and then the school. Something else may be going on. Depending on this child’s age, there is a legal requirement to be at school, so there aren’t any other options yet. And teenagers need to learn about rules and the discipline of routines for work – you can’t just decide not to go to work when you feel like it!

There are some good long term solutions here however, when the child or teenager is refusing to go to school and mum and dad need to go to work, that’s abit tricky.

One of my granddaughters was brilliant at academics and sports. All of a sudden this changed and her attitude was she didn’t need to go to school. She would hide letters from the teacher and the principal. It turned out she was being bullied. She had offered to help one of her classmates with their maths and a few of them decided she thought she was better than them. She has since changed classes and is now happy at school. Bullying has a lot to answer for.

Gosh this is really tough

One of my daughter seems to get a sore tummy on the way to school. It is usually anxiety related. We’re getting lots of external help and hoping it will make a difference.

I always made home through the school hours the most boring place. No TV, no gadgets, can’t play because you are too sick to go to school, so better stay in bed and revise your maths/English/whatever homework, and no friends over this week cause you can’t pass on your illness to others. It was amazing how quickly they wanted to go back to school.

Sounds to me like the teenager is smart and is just plain bored, try seeking out another school, talking to the teachers/principal and seeing if they can get more stimulating things to learn, maybe talk and discuss more about options to keep stimulated. Schools are geared up for the “average” kid and this is where education is lacking, some kids can’t keep up and fall behind while others get bored.

thank you for all the tips and hints to help with teenagers and school!

I’d be asking some more questions and trying to have more conversations about why they don’t want to go to school.

Not much you can do. I was the same, I just didn’t want to go. My parents tried a police escort, the welfare officer escort too….I wouldn’t go. Mum would drive, I walked in the front door and out the back door straight home again. I did finish high school though via correspondence. I just didn’t do as well as if I had stayed at normal school

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  • • mom19782016 replied
    • 02 Apr 2019 , 3:35 pm

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  If you wanted to and felt able to share, may I ask was it because you didn’t see the point of school? Or something else?

I suggest you have your son assessed. It may be that he is so advanced, has basically worked up for himself what he is being taught at school at the moment and is bored. I know a family who had the same issue for a fair bit of primary school. When she was in Year 6, it was suggested that her parents had her assessed. She is so advanced that she went from year 6 straight to year 8. Now she enjoys school but they don’t know if she will advance too quickly again before she is due to do Year 12

as the mother of a nearly teenager who will be starting high school i can see these exact types of things in my future! It will be great to be on the front foot and have insight into ways of tackling this rather than fighting each morning.

Thank you for the informative article

My friend a single mum has a daughter with a disorder who often refuses school. Professionals are involved. She has weeks the girl doesn’t go to school and therefor can’t hold a job herself. I really feel for her.

It can be tough to get someone to do something they domt want to do. My brother hated school.