My son is 7 yrs old. He is about to go into yr 3 in junior school, at a school which neighbours his current primary. He gets panicky when faced with new things, whether it's the prospect of a school trip to a place he's never been to before or now, his new school. We have tried getting him to talk about his worries & tried to get him to do a balanced list of the things he's looking forward to alongside the things he is worried about. When faced with an unfamiliar situation his brain "locks down" into a fight or flight behaviour. He becomes panicked. Yesterday he was supposed to go on a visit to the new school, meet the new teacher & visit the class room. He was to go with the rest of his class mates, all of whom will be moving to the new school with him. He panicked & ran back to the primary school. The teachers allowed him to remain there instead, I can only imagine that he was tearful, would have fought bakc if they tried to man-handle him to the new school & beyond reasoning.

Has anybody had a similar situation & can they offer any ideas?

Thanks!