Why school anxiety is worse this year and how to help your children suffering from it.

Why school anxiety is worse this year and how to help your children suffering from it.

It is reported that a huge wave of school anxiety has hit our students this academic year.

Even after schools are now fully open, absence figures are still way above previous years.

Anxiety is often something that goes unnoticed because it is not a physically seen thing, like a broken leg.

Read on to find out the causes of school anxiety and how to aid your children suffering from it.

What could be causing school anxiety in my children?

There are many reasons your children could be facing anxiety about returning to school, here are some of them:

·       With reports still looming about COVID-19 on a near-daily basis, this could be causing your children anxiety in returning to school.

·       Due to the pandemic, most children have not been in school full-time for over a year.

This could be causing issues for your children. It is understandable that after an extended period of being able to do schooling from home, students might have worries about having to go and face full-time school life again.

·       Anxiety could be caused by the pressure of achieving or maintaining good grades.

With all the missed schooling from the past academic year, it is normal for your children to worry whether or not they will get the grades they want.

With so many students getting As and A*s on the recent results day, this can be an added hit to a child’s anxiety if they did not gain these grades, potentially feeling like they are falling behind.

How can I help my children suffering from school anxiety?

So now you know what could be causing your children to become anxious at the thought of going to school, you can begin to help them.

Here are some ways that you could help calm your children’s school anxiety:

·       Talk to your children about their struggles.

Sounds very simple right? Reassurance such as ‘you will be fine’ can sound empty and have little meaning.

Talk to your children about what is making them anxious about going to school.

The more you know about why your children are facing school anxiety, the more you can begin to make them feel comfortable with school.

·       For parents with children struggling to cope with separation anxiety after being home-schooled for an extended time, little mementoes in their lunch boxes or bags are a great way to make them feel more comfortable.

These can include little pictures of the family or notes in their lunch box. This is a very simple step that can greatly increase your children’s comfort in school.

·       Tutoring can be a great way to aid your children’s grade anxiety.

If your children are anxious about wanting to achieve the best results possible but feel like they have gaps in their learning, tutoring can be the way forward.

The right tutor will pre-assess your children to find out how they learn.

This will be used to tailor every session to your children. This is important as with tailored sessions, your children will be learning from the way that benefits them the most.

This means not only those wanted grades will become significantly more achievable, but your children’s comfort levels within the school and their learning will rise also.

School anxiety is on the rise and is something to be taken seriously. Though not always easy to spot, with these tips, your children can be feeling better about going to school in no time.