My daughter is turning 15 this year and is currently in year 9. Last year she was serverly bullied to the point she developed anxiety, depression and had suicidal thoughts. When we discovered how bad it had gotten we booked her into a psychologist straight away and also contacted the school and made them a wear of the problems. We went through weeks of her only going to school for half the day or not even being able to get out of the car when we got to school.
Its the first week of back at school, everything started off great the bully has moved schools yippee) and she seemed to be doing well. Turns out her peers have a long memory and they have started to isolate her and not speak with her again. She didnt make it to school today her anxiety was too high and she was a mess before i even left the house.
Iam thinking of pulling her out of school and home schooling for a year. I cant move her to a different school as the other school now has the bully going there. I feel so gutted my daughter is struggling so much. She is a A/B student, if i decided to home school i dont want her grades slipping. Myself and hubby where average students at school.
My question is do you home school your teenager? Has it been a benefit to their schooling or disadvantaged them? I dont want to disadvantage my daughters schooling and grades for her to get into Uni or Tafe but i also know we cant do another year of her not coping at school. Iam so lost on what to do and struggling to drop her off at school every day knowing shes going to be bullied, threatened, ignored, and just generally been an outcast.
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I have a sibling who has home-schooled all of their children. They are the most well mannered, well adjusted children. Absolutely beautiful and the eldest is about to take off in a wonderful career. They joined the home schooling community early on so have enough social interaction etc. I wish I could afford to home school my children. Please protect her from the bullies. These are the years she is learning about who she is and the peers do have a great influence on this. We do not allow ourselves to be bullied but for some reason we think this is something our children should have to tolerate in a school environment. We are not building resilience by pushing our kids into these toxic environments. They are feeling isolated and unsupported and we are creating mental health issues. I know as a therapist having worked in schools. Things need to change. Ensure this is something she wants and back her all the way 💗
There are online schools, that will be a better option than home-schooling as it's all done for you, you just need to make sure she's handing her work in and giving her a hand if she needs it. They also have social opportunities like get together and camps. My eldest did it for a few months and I can't remember the name of the school, it was a Christian school in WA. If you google online learning in your state it should show you the schools that offer it. It has to be in your state so she's learning the correct curriculum if she decides to go back to school. You will only find private online schools so there are fees but it's usually cheaper than physically attending. Online learning programs run by your state education are only for isolated children or children that can't attend school for a permanent medical reason.
Australian Christian College is the schools name now, they are in different states.
I would tackle this in a different way and head on if it was me. She needs to see that these bullies are the low lives and not everyone is like that. I think she needs to attend school if she is such an amazing student and show them, they won’t win. In these situations, they should all be called into the office and warned if it happens again that police will be involved and it goes on their records for life. There needs to be harsh laws for these bullies. By home schooling it will avoid the situation and make her anxiety worse and hide away from the world even more. I know it’s hard but avoidance is a big part of anxiety and depression. With help of psychologist, work with the school to get her back or start her at the new school and stuff the bully! She will be on the outer there and your daughter can make new Friends.
Also so if she has any technology cut it off, so they don’t have access to her out of school hours where this can continue.
You can do distance Ed, where she has a teacher and watches the lessons and sends it all online. I would do that for high school, then your job is just facilitating the social, emotional well-being, life skills and physical movement side.
I wouldn’t homeschool In the traditional sense (you’d have to write your own curriculum etc)
I’d enrol her in a distance education school or online school. I’d also look at TAFE type courses when you have her anxiety better sorted (she can take a support person to tafe with her).
Check out Riverside Christian college in Qld, they take interstate enrolment but it does cost.
Check out Riverside Christian college in Qld, they take interstate enrolment but it does cost.
High school is so hard and so much harder now with bullies having access to our kids 24/7
My child copped it bad, they spent most of year 9 in the well being rooms, barely in class. We had them with psychs, a paed etc. They tried to kill themselves and it was only by chance I found them before it was too late.
I was advised to pull them from school and do home schooling, then the pandemic hit and they were at home. I never changed schools, limited phone time, they deleted everyone who had something negative to say about them or vise versa. It was so bloody hard but they are now year 12, at the same school, some of the bullies are gone, but they have matured, my child has had a full nervous system reset by being away from them, seeing the psych and paed and not having them on the phone.
There is still some anxiety, adhd, odd, but they are thriving. As much as the pandemic sucked it was exactly what they needed.
Pull your child, you can do both onsite and remote (vsv) in most states, let them reset, have a break from the hurt and stress. Keep seeing the psych.
All the best xx