First have a think about WHY you don\’t want to go to school. What is stopping you from going there? Or is something holding you back at home? Have a think about whether there are problems with people, teachers, school friends (or lack of them), someone else, etc. How about schoolwork? Have a think about whether you are finding schoolwork too easy and maybe getting bored? Or perhaps the work is too hard, or you have missed out on something and can\’t catch up? Maybe you have difficulty completing homework or projects? Are you having difficulty studying for exams? Alternatively, are there problems at home that are on your mind or that mean you feel you have to be at home instead of school?
Writing down your likes and dislikes about going to school can be helpful. It means you can work out what any difficulties might be so you can work on those. And you can see which things you like and improve on those too. Not going to school can mean missing out on some good stuff. Learning how to get with other people is an important lesson to learn. And even mixing with other people just on a daily basis can help you learn about that, almost without having to think about it. Discussion and debate with your peer group is important in developing your own thoughts on life, your own value system and testing out friendships and relationships of many kinds, some, or many, of which may last your whole life.
Physical exercise is also important, with team games helping you to learn lessons that will serve you well in later work, as well as helping to keep you healthy. While you could find other ways of improving your skills, knowledge and health apart from going to school, it means making a deliberate effort to find ways of doing this, whereas in school, the opportunities are all there, almost without having to think about them. Of course, the downside of school can be having to attend lessons you don\’t like, find out about subjects you don\’t understand and even mix with people you don\’t like.
Changing minus points into positive ones is not as easy as it may sound. Change can be hard because it means taking action now, for the promise of something good in the future. That\’s not always easy to do or to keep up but it is very worthwhile. Taking action means deciding on a goal and starting to work towards it. This needs to be something concrete, such as improving school attendance.
Your goal might be to attend 90% of all classes, if this is better than your current attendance! On the other hand, you may want to set a goal for the marks you want to get in a test or exam, or for actually completing and putting in homework or set work.
Maybe your goal is to improve your study skills or your exam marks. You might set a goal of learning one new study skill a week and spending 10 minutes a day using that skill. It doesn\’t seem like a whole lot of time, does it? But it will make a noticeable difference very quickly. If you want to make more friends or learn better social skills, you could join a club or take up a sport or activity and take part. Alternatively, you volunteer with a charity or some organisation that needs help.