20th November 2009 9:00
By Blue Tutors
This week the BBC reported that a school is being asked to apologise to the family of a boy prosecuted for truancy, after the boy was diagnosed as having “school phobia”. This has raised controversial questions about how schools and parents might best respond to children who refuse to attend school, and increasing numbers of parents are employing home tutors in order to tackle the issue.
Educational Psychologist Nigel Blagg told the BBC that whilst sceptics bracket these children as truants, those who suffer school phobia experience distinct symptoms including extreme anxiety, depression, headaches and nausea. “They are typically well behaved, socially conforming children who do well at school. Normally they come from caring families and are off school with their parents’ consent”.
Blagg advises parents to insist that their children do attend school, and to arrange tutors where possible to help children catch up. However, Ann Newstead of the charity Education Otherwise told the BBC that children suffering from this condition should not be forced to attend school, and commented that home tutoring can help tackle the problem gradually: “home tutoring is a less stressful way of helping children overcome the phobia”.