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Hi Michaela,

We've moved your thread into our drop-in clinic - support for dads board, so you can get the advice and support you need.

Have the childs parents spoken to the school to try to overcome these attendance difficulties... Not liking it and sleeping in are both linked and it's likely not through choice that they find it difficult to attend.

There can be many reasons for a child struggling to attend school for example bullying, or a students educational needs not being met and these needs can be diagnosed or undiagnosed.

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The best thing for them to do is to contact school and arrange to meet them to discuss how to make things easier for that child.

A great start at home is to get the child to list good things about school and bad things about school, which lessons they do like and which ones they don't like and reasons why.

This can be a huge eye-opener and can really help pinpoint why there might be difficulties there.

School can put measures in place such as access to quiet spaces, time out cards, leaving lessons early so corridors aren't so busy, uniform adjustments and even part time time tables if needed.

Sorry : by the parents I mean whoever usually deals with the school, whether that be you and your partner, or you, your partner and the ex.

It's great that you are so commuted to their education I think what's important to remember is if a child has difficulties then they will struggle to learn in school, we have a lifetime to learn and it's important to focus on mental health too.

I also remembered a great Facebook page which you may find helpful called not fine in school, lots of people with the same difficulties all kind and supportive and lots of knowledge on there :)

I have four children and out of those three have experiences difficulties in school one from bullying and two through undiagnosed autism and ADHD which only became obvious once they reached secondary age.

Hi Michaela,

I'm Loraine, one of the Netmums' Parent Supporters.

Thank you for posting your concerns on here and I can totally understand why you and your partner are worried about his child (your stepchild) not attending school.

Claire has given you some really good advice already - do you feel able to follow any of it? Have you tried contacting the school?

How often does your stepchild stay at their other parents?

Has your partner spoken to his child's mum to discuss if she is aware of any worries the child might have? How old is the child?

I'm sorry for all the questions Michaela, but I'm trying to get a clearer picture of what's going on so that I can point you and your partner in the right direction.

Come back and give us some more information and we'll try to support you in any way we can.

Loraine x