Mum of murdered Harvey Willgoose sends message ahead of dreaded return to school

The mum of murdered Harvey Willgoose has sent a video message to parents who struggle to get their children to school, telling them: ‘You are not alone.’ Caroline Willgoose, 51, should have been marking the start of young Harvey Willgoose’s Year 11 at All Saints’ Catholic High School in Sheffield.

But instead, she is waiting for the sentencing of the boy who murdered Harvey in February of this year, during their school lunch break. Harvey was stabbed twice, once fatally to the heart.

She told how going back to school would create a “black cloud” in their home despite having an "amazing" six week holiday because Harvey was a "school avoider". On the day he was murdered they'd finally persuaded him to go back to school. Tragically he never returned home.

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Now his grieving mum is planning a meeting for parents, as she urges the Government to take action. In a video message she said: “This time last year I will have been in the same situation as I know a lot of people are now because we would have had an amazing holiday, six weeks holiday with our Harvey - and then that black cloud is looming because kids are starting back at school next week.

“I would be like ‘we’ve had a great time’ but then my heart would sink because Harvey was a school avoider, and we thought we were on our own. We know now that we were not on our own. This needs talking about now, this is very close to my heart, this is what breaks me because our Harvey’s last 18 months were shocking because he was a school avoider and I didn’t understand.

“But I understand that now and we thought we were on our own but we are not on our own and you’re not on your own.”

She is arranging a meeting for October 2 at the Miner’s Welfare Club in Beighton between 6pm and 8pm, for families so they know “they are not on their own”. She said children should also come and “they need a voice too”, adding: “Let’s talk about school avoidance because 20 per cent of children don’t go to school and this needs sorting and talking about.”

Harvey Willgoose’s mum said her son wept ‘I’m trying my best but nobody understands me’ as he pleaded with them not to send him to school just days before he was murdered. The desperate 15-year-old sent his family TikToks showing other children crying with a caption saying: 'They don’t understand. I can’t go to school.'

He also told his dad he was scared there were knives at school after a lockdown the week before his death. No knife was found at the time but Caroline says the children told her they knew there were weapons taken onto the grounds.

Caroline has been urging the Government to tackle the growing problem in the UK with children like Harvey who became ‘school avoiders’ after Covid. “These are not naughty children. They just cannot cope with school,” she told The Mirror previously, explaining how her son only went to school 20 days in five months.

Figures show that around 21.2 per cent of pupils in the academic year 2022/23 were persistently absent, meaning they missed 10 per cent or more of their school sessions. It is believed Covid and the extended absence from school may have exacerbated ‘Emotionally-based school avoidance’ (EBSA).

“Children have been forgotten. They have a voice and need to be listened to. The Government needs to get to the bottom of this,” she said.