# @juleswaller_ on Instagram

- **Type:** Video
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DcfSrODThy0
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/69794036-juleswaller-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/bc2bdc79d9.jpg
- **Posted:** 2026-08-26T03:56:54.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Julie Waller (Jules) | School Refusal Support (@juleswaller_) — https://gondola.cc/juleswaller_

## Caption

Her first school saw it early and named it kindly - ‘stoic’ - and, with their kindness and patience we got through those mornings for years. 

What that doesn’t capture is the quiet exhaustion of coaxing her in every single day, then spending the rest of it wondering how she was really doing.

A move at 7 didn’t change the gate, just the scenery.

At 10, we tried to get ahead of high school by starting her ‘forever school’ early - drawn in by their $12 million “wellness centre”. 

We thought we’d found the one place that could hold and understand what she needed. 

Instead, we walked into an environment that was rigid where she needed flexibility, and bullying on top of anxiety that was already stretched thin. 

They were insistent it was defiance. Teachers who expected her to “just cope like everyone else” broke something that took a long time to put back together.

We took her out. Found a school that finally understood the whole picture, not just the attendance sheet. 

But the damage from what came before didn’t disappear the moment we changed schools - in her worst year, at that new school, she missed 100 days. 

That’s how broken the bullying and the unaddressed school anxiety had left her - it turned into fully-fledged, chronic school refusal. 

But that school was where the actual recovery happened - slowly, and not without setbacks. There were good weeks and terrible ones. It took patience neither of us knew we had.

She graduated. She’s at university now.

University mental health trained, and a mum who’s lived every one of these schools with her.

If you want the tools that actually helped along the way, comment TOOLKIT.

Jules ♥️

#schoolrefusal #schoolanxiety #teenanxiety #gotoschool #kidsmentalhealth

## Stats

- **Views:** 1,848
- **Likes:** 12
- **Shares:** 0
- **Comments:** 4

## Tags

schoolrefusal, schoolanxiety, gotoschool, teenanxiety, kidsmentalhealth

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