The School Can't Experience

We're taking a short break over the school holidays. We'll be back with some great new episodes very soon! Meanwhile, here is a classic listener episode in case you missed it, or worth listening again.
Esther Jones unschooled all three of her children and now supports parents around the world through their own unschooling journeys via courses, her podcast, and her book, The Parents' Guide to Unschooling Yourself.
In this conversation, Leisa and Esther dig into what unschooling actually is (and isn't), why so many families find their way to it through the trauma of School Can't rather than by choice, and why the biggest stumbling block is almost always the parents, not the young people.
In this conversation they cover: the difference between unschooling and simply doing school at home; what "enough" actually looks like when your child is in burnout and spending their days gaming; how parental anxiety and the need for proof of learning can quietly undermine the very space you're trying to create; and the link between parental self-compassion and nervous system co-regulation.
Esther also shares what happened when her own children, raised entirely outside the school system, eventually chose to re-enter formal education, and what that tells us about the long-term outcomes families worry about most.
If you're contemplating the possibility of home education, feeling like you're failing, or struggling to let go of what learning is "supposed" to look like, we think this episode will help.
Resources from this episode:
Esther Jones’ Website - https://www.esther-jones.com/
The Parents Guide to Unschooling Yourself - https://www.booktopia.com.au/the-parent-s-handbook-to-unschooling-yourself-esther-jones/
The Unschool Space (Facebook) - https://www.facebook.com/TheUnschoolSpace/
The Unschooling Summit - https://www.theunschoolingsummit.org/
Send us Fan Mail
Support the show
School Can’t Australia Facebook Community - https://www.facebook.com/groups/schoolphobiaschoolrefusalaustralia
If this podcast or the School Can’t Australia community has helped you, please consider making a donation or volunteering to help. Find out more here: https://www.schoolcantaustralia.com.au/get-involved#donate

If this episode helped you please take a moment to subscribe, rate, or review the podcast on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. It genuinely helps other School Can't families find us.
If you are a parent of carer in Australia and experiencing distress, please call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or contact the Parent Help Line. - https://kidshelpline.com.au/parents/issues/how-parentline-can-help-you
You can contact us to volunteer to share your School Can't story or some feedback via email on schoolcantpodcast@gmail.com
Disclaimer
The content of this podcast is based on personal lived experiences and is shared for informational and storytelling purposes only. It should not be treated as medical, psychological, or professional advice under any circumstances. If you have concerns about your health or well-being, please seek guidance from a doctor, therapist,...

We're taking a short break over the school holidays, so this week we're revisiting one of our favourite episodes from the archive.
Emma Brooksby , Managing Director at U&I Educational Partners, ADHDer, and former school principal, joins Leisa to unpack executive function: the set of skills that let us plan, manage time, switch between tasks, and regulate our emotions. Emma explains why these skills aren't directly taught at school (they develop largely "through osmosis"), and why that creates a hidden, compounding load for young people who experience executive dysfunction - one that can tip into the anxiety and overwhelm at the heart of many School Can't experiences.
Emma and Leisa walk through the four big areas where this shows up at school - planning and organisation, task initiation, time management, and emotional regulation, using everyday examples (lost jumpers, forgotten textbooks, the dread of starting homework) to show how quickly small breakdowns escalate into shame, anxiety, and avoidance.
They also talk practical strategies: why removing scaffolding too early backfires, how AI tools like Goblin Tools' Magic To Do can break overwhelming tasks into manageable steps, and why "just get started" is rarely as simple as it sounds.
Recommended Resources
U&I Educational Partners - https://www.uandi.com.au/
Goblin Tools, Magic To Do - https://goblin.tools/
Harvard Centre on the Developing Child - https://developingchild.harvard.edu/
Learning to Plan and be Organised (book) by Kathleen Nadeau  - https://www.amazon.com.au/Learning-Plan-Be-Organized-Executive/dp/1433822172
Send us Fan Mail
Support the show
School Can’t Australia Facebook Community - https://www.facebook.com/groups/schoolphobiaschoolrefusalaustralia
If this podcast or the School Can’t Australia community has helped you, please consider making a donation or volunteering to help. Find out more here: https://www.schoolcantaustralia.com.au/get-involved#donate

If this episode helped you please take a moment to subscribe, rate, or review the podcast on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. It genuinely helps other School Can't families find us.
If you are a parent of carer in Australia and experiencing distress, please call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or contact the Parent Help Line. - https://kidshelpline.com.au/parents/issues/how-parentline-can-help-you
You can contact us to volunteer to share your School Can't story or some feedback via email on schoolcantpodcast@gmail.com
Disclaimer
The content of this podcast is based on personal lived experiences and is shared for informational and storytelling purposes only. It should not be treated as medical, psychological, or professional advice under any circumstances. If you have concerns about your health or well-being, please seek guidance from a doctor, therapist,...

Send us Fan Mail
Support the show
School Can’t Australia Facebook Community - https://www.facebook.com/groups/schoolphobiaschoolrefusalaustralia
If this podcast or the School Can’t Australia community has helped you, please consider making a donation or volunteering to help. Find out more here: https://www.schoolcantaustralia.com.au/get-involved#donate

If this episode helped you please take a moment to subscribe, rate, or review the podcast on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. It genuinely helps other School Can't families find us.
If you are a parent of carer in Australia and experiencing distress, please call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or contact the Parent Help Line. - https://kidshelpline.com.au/parents/issues/how-parentline-can-help-you
You can contact us to volunteer to share your School Can't story or some feedback via email on schoolcantpodcast@gmail.com
Disclaimer
The content of this podcast is based on personal lived experiences and is shared for informational and storytelling purposes only. It should not be treated as medical, psychological, or professional advice under any circumstances. If you have concerns about your health or well-being, please seek guidance from a doctor, therapist,...

Get in touch? Email us at schoolcantpodcast@gmail.com with your feedback, suggestions or to volunteer to share your School Can't experience.
This episode takes a different shape from our usual format. Rather than a single guest, it draws together voices from more than a dozen past guests and lived experience parents to build a fuller picture of burnout.
At its centre is a reframe: burnout isn't a medical disorder or a character flaw, it's a nervous system response to chronic stress, closer to smoke from a fire than the fire itself. Once that's understood, so much of what looks like laziness, manipulation or misbehaviour starts to make sense as something else entirely: a loss of spark, a slow withdrawal as masking becomes unsustainable, a body and brain that have simply run out of capacity to keep going.
The episode doesn't shy away from one of the most damaging patterns in this space — the well-meaning advice, often from professionals, to make home less comfortable in order to push a young person back into school. 
Several families share what happened when they followed that advice, and the outcomes are genuinely heartbreaking. This section briefly touches on self-harm and suicidal ideation — please take care while listening.
From there, the focus shifts to recovery: what it actually looks like, why following a young person's passions matters more than any formal program, why progress is rarely a straight line, and why parent burnout is just as real and just as deserving of compassion as the burnout experienced by young people themselves. 
The episode closes with a metaphor that's stayed with many of our listeners — the caterpillar dissolving in the chrysalis before it can become a butterfly — a reminder that transformation is often happening even when it's invisible.
Voices featured in this episode include Dr Naomi Fisher, Tiffany Westphal, Tanya Valentin, Laura Hellfeld, Eliza Fricker,  and lived experience parents Mark, Jessica, Jennie, Emma, Diana, Wendy and Jodie.
Content warning: this episode includes discussion of self-harm and suicidal ideation.
Relevant resources: (available in your podcast app)
Episode 60 — Why School Can't Young People Struggle with Self-Care and Hygiene, with Laura Hellfeld 
Episode 55 — Jodie's Lived Experience
Episode 51 — Jessica's Lived Experience
Episode 43 — Wendy's Lived Experience
Episode 42 — Tanya Valentin on School Can't, Parental Grief and Transformation
Episode 28 — Dr Naomi Fisher on Parental Burnout
Episode 27 — Diana's Lived Experience
Episode 23 — Eliza's Lived Experience
Episode 18 — Lived Experience with Mark Thompson
Episode 9 — Jennie's Lived Experience
Episode 8 — Understanding Burnout in Our Young People with Dr Naomi Fisher
Episode 7 — Emma G's Lived Experience
Send us Fan Mail
Support the show
School Can’t Australia Facebook Community - https://www.facebook.com/groups/schoolphobiaschoolrefusalaustralia
If this podcast or the School Can’t Australia community has helped you, please consider making a donation or volunteering to help. Find out more here: https://www.schoolcantaustralia.com.au/get-involved#donate

If this episode helped you please take a moment to subscribe, rate, or review the podcast on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. It genuinely helps other School Can't families find us.
If you are a parent of carer in Australia and experiencing distress, please call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or contact the Parent Help Line. - https://kidshelpline.com.au/parents/issues/how-parentline-can-help-you
You can contact us to volunteer to share your School Can't story or some feedback via email on schoolcantpodcast@gmail.com
Disclaimer
The content of this podcast is based on personal lived experiences and is shared for informational and storytelling purposes only. It should not be treated as medical, psychological, or professional advice under any circumstances. If you have concerns about your health or well-being, please seek guidance from a doctor, therapist,...

Permaculture designer Cecilia Macaulay joins host Leisa Reichelt for a surprising but genuinely practical conversation about how the design of our home environments can either add to or reduce the nervous system burden on School Can't families.
Drawing on 34 years of permaculture design, and on Japanese cultural practices she's studied over decades, Cecilia introduces the idea that home can be designed to work for us rather than against us, without requiring willpower, discipline, or a big cleanup effort. Her approach, which she calls Togetherness Design, starts from the principle that order is natural, and that small, well-placed design choices can create a sense of competence, calm and belonging for both children and parents.
Cecilia shares practical, immediately usable ideas: why the kitchen sink is the single best place to start, how "floordrobe islands" can transform an overwhelming room into a liveable one, what perpendicular shoes at the front door have to do with nervous system regulation, and why design, not rules, is the key to creating lasting change in a household under pressure.
This episode is also a reminder that the young people in our community who have found their way out of conventional schooling can build meaningful, even remarkable lives on their own terms, Cecilia's own career is a case in point.
Special Offer for Listeners:
The Home That Loves You Back: 9-Month Guided Home Harmonising Project starting June 28: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/the-home-that-loves-you-back-9-month-guided-home-harmonising-project-tickets-1981827693982
Use the code: SchoolCant200 for a $200 discount (limited to the first six to sign up)
Other Resources:
Cecilia’s Website and Blog to sign up for stories and events: https://www.ceciliamacaulay.com.au
Cecilia on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cecilia_macaulay/
Cecilia on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cecilia.macaulay.australia
Send us Fan Mail
Support the show
School Can’t Australia Facebook Community - https://www.facebook.com/groups/schoolphobiaschoolrefusalaustralia
If this podcast or the School Can’t Australia community has helped you, please consider making a donation or volunteering to help. Find out more here: https://www.schoolcantaustralia.com.au/get-involved#donate

If this episode helped you please take a moment to subscribe, rate, or review the podcast on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. It genuinely helps other School Can't families find us.
If you are a parent of carer in Australia and experiencing distress, please call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or contact the Parent Help Line. - https://kidshelpline.com.au/parents/issues/how-parentline-can-help-you
You can contact us to volunteer to share your School Can't story or some feedback via email on schoolcantpodcast@gmail.com
Disclaimer
The content of this podcast is based on personal lived experiences and is shared for informational and storytelling purposes only. It should not be treated as medical, psychological, or professional advice under any circumstances. If you have concerns about your health or well-being, please seek guidance from a doctor, therapist,...