Worried about school
School can be a challenging time for some young people, whether it be moving from primary to secondary school, sitting exams, or even feeling misunderstood by their peers or teachers. If you are worried about school, the good thing is there are things you can do to make things better …
Not all children and young people enjoy going to school, for different reasons. If you are worried about school, it’s important to find the right support for you. There are ways you can support yourself so that you can learn to enjoy school and manage your concerns.
Think about the people you can talk to in school
- A teacher I can trust
- A learning mentor
- Head of year
- Safeguarding Team
- School counsellor
- School nurse
- ‘Pastoral’ Team (People that are there to support you)
- A peer mentor or buddy up mentor if you school has these
- A friend
You can also talk to someone outside of school. A family member, a trusted adult or one of the support services provided here.
Why young people maybe worried about school:
- Exams
- Moving to big school
- A-Level choices
- Not getting on with teachers
- Feeling like I don’t fit in
- Friendship problems
- Homework
- Deadlines
- Bullying
- No one understands me
Here are some top tips, if you are worried about school:
1 Sometimes when we are worried, it can feel like we have so many thoughts going around in our mind that it can be hard to concentrate. Therefore, trying to figure out what the big thought is that we are worrying about can help us to control our worry.
2. It can be useful to write all of your worries about school down on a piece of paper. After that, rate them from 1 – 10 on how much they are worrying you (1 not really, 10 worrying me a lot). We know that for some people this can be hard to do. However, it always helps to ask someone in school you can trust to work through this with you if you are comfortable doing this.
3. Try joining a club after school, doing things like exercise, or even a hobby is a great way to distract yourself from your worries. In addition, it is a great chance to meet new people.
4. If you are worried about an upcoming exam, speak to your teacher. Similarly, attend revision sessions on the subject and make a revision timetable.
6. If you are worried about meeting new people when joining a new school, try finding things in common with others so that conversations are made easier for you
7. If you feel unsafe at school because of different reasons, it’s really brave and important of you to share this with a teacher or adult you can trust. You can also ring Bully Busters.