We updated our ‘School-Induced Anxiety’ page with selections from Robert Chapman and “‘Children are holding a mirror up to us’: why are England’s kids refusing to go to school? | Schools | The Guardian”. While we were updating, we broke the page up into sections and added a table of contents.

For more on attendance, school refusal, and school-induced anxiety, visit the updated School-Induced Anxiety glossary page.

The term ‘school refusal’ is linguistically weaponised; it implies intent and choice. It swiftly and subtly frames the child as having taken an active, conscious decision to reject school. This misnomer apportions blame and responsibility to the young person while simultaneously diminishing their genuine distress.

So, with refusal emphatically ruled out, what, then, should we call this? ‘Anxiety-based inability to attend school’ is nowhere near as snappy, even though this is much more accurate, and I have insisted on it being written in some of our daughter’s key documents. Much less clunky and equally accurate is ‘school-induced anxiety’, which has gained traction on social media in recent years and is the preference of most young people and their families. Importantly, ‘school-induced anxiety’ shifts the cause of the anxiety to the setting and removes the notion of fault from the young person.

Mental Health and Attendance at School