Help! My 7 year old doesn't like going to school, this has been an ongoing issue for the last two years. My husband and I have tried many strategies to deal with this matter with little or no positive benefit. Last year he even wanted to change schools and named many unrealistic reason why he wanted this, such as "they have a better playground" or
" The classes are better". We have discussed it with the school and looked for signs of bullying and found none at this stage. We thought it may be a classsroom issue and put stategies in place to deal with it, this had some effect but I also wonder if he just stopped talking about it because he thought we didn't want to hear. We tried down playing it and the oppostite - discussing it regularly, but alas still ongoing. He shows very little disruptive behaviour, perhaps last year became a bit of the class clown but nothing to serious according to the teacher. He is an above average student who can be easily excitable at times. He is quite honest and direct in his apporaches to things and can be very sensative, at the same time not scared of giving things a go! He has friends at school but finds it hard sometimes, often these friends cannot give him what he wants, he seems to be searching for a particular friendship (this is the only way I can describe this.) This year he has still voiced not wanting to go to school, recently he began crying and refused to get out of the car. I had the help of the schools art teacher who convinced him to come out and gave him a special job to do. He had voiced in the car at this point that he was getting picked on. I was quite taken back as this is the first time he has said anything of the sort, in fact in the past denied any problems. I am aware of the signs of bullying and can only see this above issue and perhaps at times he complains of a sore tummy (however eating habits are not good either.) He verbalises his dislike of school on the way in the morning and on the way home. After holidays and on weekends he is very reluctant to go back. I don't have much of a problem getting him ready for school and he never throws tantrums or cries uncontrollably, he just doesn't like it. At this point the teacehr is going to chat with him and look into any bullying issue further. My question is what else can I do? Is this an issue we may have for years? Could this be seperation anxiety, although I am not convinced (my older child had this starting school and it was a very different feeling with it.) This child has no issues leaving me and will walk into school on his own, is quite independent really. Is it time to get a counsellor involved, my Hubbie is a little reluctant at this stage and I am just not sure? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.