New government law for 16 year olds

Talkin - that's not true. LAST year's Y11 had to stay to 17, THIS year's Y11 have to stay to 18. DD is in Y11.

I have a DD in year 12 - this is the year that they had to stay in 'education' until 17. DD2 is in year 11 - she has to stay in 'education' until 18.
There is no responsibilty for the school to provide 'education' to everyone until this age. They have their own admissions criteria for sixth form.

the currrent year 11 just have to stay till year 12
next year the the first year that have to stay till year 13
BUT
its not school
and there are lots and lots of options to make it work

personally I think its good that 16 year olds will not be left to fend for themselves

Does this mean, schools with a sixth form can't kick out pupils without the right GCSE grades?

Rounds here there are now private companies which previously signed up NEETs who will get the 16-18 year olds that the schools and colleges don't want.

They allegedly offer training, but warehousing teens seems a better description

They seem to be making a whole lot of money from it though

They need to sort fe and apprenticeship s out first, ds1 is 19 on sunday. After gcses he did level 2 in electrical instillation at collage for a year while looking for qn apprentiship.

He then applied to do his levwl 3 and was accepted, the week he was due to start the collage got in touch and told us the govenment had changed the course and there was no funding for his age group (17) they wanted over £2000 for him to take the course.

It took him another 8 months, applying for all sorts of jobs until he finally managed to get an apprenticeship.

It was a right fuck up and did nothing for his confidance, it was a totally miserable 8 months for all of us.

Either the age should be 18 for everything, or it should be 16.

Here in England, we need to decide once and for all whether a young person is classed as an adult (albeit a Young Adult) at 16 or 18...

Just need to point out this appears to be in England only.
I was flumoxed, as DS2 (16) has started his GCSEs but i knew nothing about this 'law', turns out reason being we're in Wales. (He's applied to college, but there's no guarantee of a place of course)

Old enough to legally have sex, old enough to legally MARRY, yet not old enough to leave school or claim unemployment benefits?!

Again, ->

And given I had DD at 16, what will happen to those under 18's that fall pregnant during that time?

Access to help with Childcare costs while attending College is dependant on claiming IS / JSA / ESA...

Exactly, starball. Exactly. If DD doesn't get on this College course, I'm screwed. Because DD is refusing to do ANYTHING other than the Cateing she has had her heart set on since she was 7yo, and her SN's prevent her from fully understanding the consequences that will have on me and her siblings...

You can't drag a 17 to collage and round here that collage is 13 or 20 miles away. We have bugger all public transport and 16-18 aren't eligible for free bus passes any way.

I just cannot see DCs who hated school, turning up to do maths and English lessons on day release.

It's just going to end up with the poorest, often single mothers, paying for DCs who should be ether in work or able to claim befits in their own right.

Encouraging and helping all 16-18y to stay in education is one thing, forcing them, by sentencing their mothers and younger siblings to deeper poverty if they don't is wrong.

I think some of the training will be crap and will just give some employers cheap labour.

Given how underfunded FE collages have always been and the cuts to sixth form collages I can see a lot of DCs having no where to go.

Who is actually going to check every 16-18 is actually getting the training promised.

I fear many vulnerable DC will fetch up working in very poorly paid jobs while not bothering to attend unsuitable training.

Given the choice of 1/2 a days extra wages under the counter and £5 bus fare to sit in collage I know what lots of DCs will choose.

We are debating this currently - it depends whether she can get her grade to an F before her exams. F = retake GCSE Maths, G = Functional skills, at DD's College. An F IS now a possibility, as DD has dropped another GCSE last week, is only doing 7 now, and is using the extra time to do more 1-2-1 work in Maths with an LSA, so an extra 2 hrs a week 1-2-1.

She only has 15 marks to find across the 2 Maths papers to scrape an F...

She would see that F as a MASSIVE achievement.

Thing is, it IS going to be difficult for parents on IS / JSA / ESA - if the young adult (which is what they are, post 16) refuses to do any sort of training, then the parent will lose all their CTC, Child Benefit for that child, will also lose their 25% Council Tax discount, AND lose a portion of their housing benefit.

Unlike in previous years, there will be NO PROVISION for that young adult to claim JSA.

So if you have a school refuser, who refuses to continue in education or training, then you will have NO income with which to feed that young adult.

How many of you are able to literally DRAG a 16/17yo to College daily?! And stop them from being disruptive etc, so that they get themselves kicked out?!

But is GCSE Maths the best target for her? DH did a functional skills course at 55 which was much more practically based and far more use to him on a day to day level

Current Y11's have to stay for two years. DD's course will be at least a 3 year one. (Is intended to be a 3 year course, but pace can be slowed for the individual, so may take 4 years for DD.)

At the end of it, she will have a trade, and be able to gain employment.

KatyMac - I actually AGREE with continuing English and Maths. If they didn't insist on it, my DD would leave school at 16, functionally innumerate IMO (heading for a 'G' grade at GCSE, with mucho additional support over the years in Maths. A G grade seems to equate to having Maths skills lower than the average 9yo...)

It is a necessity to continue with it. DD will never get a C grade in Maths - but any improvement on her current Maths skills will be SO important to her.

My DD has SN's, and without spending an additional 2-3 years in vocational training, would be unemployable. She's just got a place on a Catering NVQ course with SN help. We think...

If she doesn't get on this, though, I'm screwed!

(Will have no money to feed her, and her Maths skills aren't high enough to get employment anywhere yet.)