Today we bring a very important guest update - the perspectives of young people who have been "not fine in school" and faced barriers to school attendance.

Tillie shares her experience as a young person whose parents were threatened with fines and prosecution as she struggled to attend school following mental health difficulties and bullying. You can read Tillie's words below.

Accompanying this post is an illustration of her school experience as a young person, Sasha, - a self-taught digital artist whose drawings paint a powerful picture of the challenges that young people whose needs aren't met by traditional mainstream provisions face. Sasha's mum, Steph, is also a respected blogger of Steph's Two Girls, and her account of their experiences and life as a neurodiverse family is highly recommended. Steph told me that Sasha still faces daily challenges including leaving the house- it's amazing to see what she has accomplished by teaching herself. You can find out more about Steph and Sasha on Steph's blog - including Sasha's short film that the illustration is taken from over here at Steph's Two Girls

We feel that the views and voices of young people such as Tillie and Sasha are vital to understanding young people who face barriers to school attendance and that their lived experiences should inform and shape policymaking in Education.

Perhaps Tillie and Sasha, and others like them will one day be heard. We think Education would be better for it.

Here is Tillie's account of being a young person who faced barriers to attending school as a result of bullying - and how it felt for her when her parents were threatened with fines...

Hey, I’m Tillie, 

I’m 18 years old and 2 years ago I left school.

School for me and like lots of other children was not a good experience, I went through one of the worst times when at school - I was bullied and I had mental health problems. 

The first time I heard the word “fines” mentioned was when my mental health got so bad I began to "school refuse". All I would hear was "we will have to fine your parents" and "Your parents will go to prison".

From that day onwards I only got worse, and the pressure and misunderstanding, and disregard for my emotions I received from social workers, school teachers, pastoral, is something I would never wish upon another child at school.

The guilt I was made to feel for not being able to go in, “Oh but you’ll get your parents a fine” “Do you not care about your parents?”.

It was horrible, I did not CHOOSE not to go to school it was not a choice, it was a situation I’d gotten deeper and deeper into due to having mental health issues and being bullied

Life became a daily battle just to try and get out of my bed - to have people trying to force me into school at one of the worst points in my life couldn’t have felt worse.

The system is messed up and I’m not afraid to advocate to change that. The way the system works only caused more damage and put an immense amount of stress on our family, 

In the end, a few days before the first Covid lockdown my family was receiving letters regarding fines - the letters were saying I was on my last chance before my parents would be arrested and fined more due to my actions. My depression spiraled from there because it only made me worse into unimaginable thoughts.

I will continue to advocate for the children that have to go through this awful time the same way I did.

Tillie

Powerful messages and we are so grateful to Tillie, Sasha, and Steph for sharing their perspectives, thank you all.

If you would like to get in touch with us to share your experience we'd love to hear from you and you can contact us at:  maddieandsusan.noschoolfines@gmail.com

Maddie and Susan x