Supporting School Struggles and Learning Challenges

Children can struggle at school for a whole variety of reasons. This can lead to them engaging in behaviours in the classroom or at home and finding it hard to go to school. Behaviour is often your child’s way of telling you that something is wrong.

There can be a range of reasons for why they’re struggling:

• • They may have a learning need you already know about, like dyslexia or ADHD

• • Perhaps they have a learning need that you and their school haven’t realised

• • They could be struggling with friendships or peer pressure

• • Bullying may be affecting them

And there may be other factors at play: perhaps they’re struggling with other pressures at home which affect their concentration at school.

In this Quick Read, we will focus on challenges around learning, but you can find plenty of support if you’re worried your child may be facing other problems. Visit our bullying and friendships collections for more information.

Signs your child is struggling at school

There can be signs your child is struggling with school you can watch out for. Early signs can include:

• • Worsening school reports or effort grades

• • Sanctions, such as detentions for late or incomplete work

• • A call from your child’s teacher or Head of Year

Or your child may:

• • Seem withdrawn or become secretive where before they happily talked about school

• • Talk about school less or become angry when you try to talk with them about it

• • No longer want to go to school