School isn’t for everyone. It’s something I have often said. But, to be honest, I never imagined that any of my own children wouldn’t attend school.
I have five children, all very different, and some are neurodivergent. Our three eldest went through mainstream school, our fourth is currently in mainstream education, and our youngest son will be homeschooled from September instead of starting mainstream secondary school.
School attendance has been a slippery slope for my boy for several years now. Mondays were always difficult. Returning after holiday breaks proved challenging, too. Changes in teachers upset him, and midweek appointments disrupted the natural flow of things. School avoidance became the single biggest source of stress for our family.
He was offered a much-coveted place in the same secondary school his brother attended before him, but there was no celebration. Instead, concerns surfaced immediately. He listed all the reasons why he wouldn’t be able to go, and his dad and I found ourselves worrying about something that was still months away.
A throwaway comment from one of the many amazing people at his primary school who had been supporting him got us thinking. Thinking led to research, research led to long conversations, and eventually we came to a huge decision.
When we spoke to our son, he agreed wholeheartedly with the question we put to him: would he prefer to be homeschooled?
