Major patterns that appear in students that fall through the education cracks for whatever reasons. After working and observing many students over the years the following patterns have emerged. Once the child realises the overall picture that in generally people are genuinely coming from a place of good intention it is truly fulling to see the changes in the student.

Students get very good at avoiding answering questions, fumbling around books, needing to go to the toilet etc.

Most of the major patterns that are present in all the “struggling students” that I have worked with are:

Trauma; a significant factor that affected all the students. For those who were considered more "at risk," they experienced multiple traumas, some of which occurred during their early years within their homes or families. Other traumas stemmed from their relationships with other students, and a considerable portion of it happened within the school environment due to their struggles with basic learning. In fact, for many students, these traumas manifested in all three areas. It's important to note that sometimes the trauma was not necessarily a physical or obvious mental trauma, but rather a perception of a student that witnesses a trauma in another student. In simpler terms, it became traumatic because of the meaning the student assigned to that event.

Inappropriate feedback; a significant factor that affected the students' learning experiences. In this case, the students received some form of inappropriate communication from their teachers, parents, and peers when their behaviours or results didn't align with expectations. For instance, if a student received a poor grade on a test, a parent might react with anger, cursing, or punishment. If the feedback was perceived as abusive, blaming, or judgmental, the students can either fight back or withdraw. Unfortunately, this would attract more of the same kind of feedback, leading to an escalation of the fighting or withdrawal behaviours. The perceived unfairness of the feedback, coupled with this escalation, can trigger anger that, if not reversed, can grow into rage, depression or anxiety.

Inappropriate meaning; the meaning that children give to situations can greatly influence their response. You see, the kind of meaning that a student attaches to the feedback they receive often determines how they react. It's quite common for many students to "take it personally" and internalise the feedback at the level of their identity. For example, in the scenario mentioned earlier, a student might start believing that they are "dumb," "stupid," or even "learning disabled." This happens when they perceive the feedback as abusive and personal.

Now, there are also instances where the feedback is well-intentioned and meant to help the student. However, the student may still assume that something is inherently wrong with them, placing the feedback at the level of their identity. It's fascinating how the meaning children assign to situations can deeply impact their perception and response.

Escalation; In all struggling students, escalation happens with on-going disagreements or arguments that occurs. Instead of the feedback being a “one time” event which could generate a correction, these students and their family, peers or teachers escalated the feedback to an ongoing battle. Think of it this way, if the student did poorly on another test, the parent might get even more angry and bring up the last test results and the student would react angrily to the anger. The parent then starts to react to the student’s anger. Many times the original reason for the battle was buried under the escalating battle the growing rage over the perceived unfairness and a lack of anger management strategies fuels the escalation even more.

Alienation; Since the student feels attacked at who they are, they feel different to the other students who seem to be doing all right (the ones that the system deems okay). They feel separated and alienated. This increases the emotional impact and they become even more traumatized. As the escalation continues, they look for ways to recapture a sense of self-worth and belonging in ways that may not be very useful.

Search for identity and belonging;  Desperate to find where they fit in and to feel like they belong, they look around for others with whom to identify (not always a good outcome). They find others in their school and community who are going through the same type of experience and band together. They could be attracted to each other by a common interest or they may start distracting the class and others follow. Other influences as TV, video games, phones, movies, or music or sporting groups often influence their search for identity. This sense of identity and belonging has a strong influence on the way they live their life.

Group rebellion;  The groups they form in Primary school can be a big influence on the groups they join in High School. High School groups by the very nature and volume of students are harder to control which is why it is so important to have students have a good sense of identity before then.