To think it Is it a feasible proposal that a school might consider allowing a currently pregnant Year 12 the opportunity to repeat year 12 next yeara currently pregnant currently pregnant year 12

[redhilary]

I have reposted this thread from chat due to limited traffic.

Is it a feasible proposal that a school might consider allowing a currently pregnant year 12 girl the opportunity to repeat Year 12 next year.

Seems like 99% of us are suggesting that grammar school may not be the best fit for this girl, but OP doesn't want to hear this.

She’ll get way more support in FE.

It is quite unusual for a grammar school to take someone into 6th form with only four 7s and the remainder at a lower grade. So they were willing to give her the benefit ofnthe doubt and take her in. However her pregnancy now suggests to them that she is either going to be unwilling or unable to keep up with the pace a grammar would be teaching at even if they were to allow her to repeat a year.

Honestly that kind of environment is just about results I went to one, a local college would be much more suitable to support her transition to adulthood.

Given her GCSE grades, did the girl's mum put pressure on the school, in order to allow her to go forward?

Swearing and braking chairs doesn't sound "happy and contented" and if she resits, she won't be in the same class as her friends. You also say her friends look her as some kind of 'awful warning', glad they're not in her position. It doesn't sound great.

What are the girl's thoughts because it sounds as if mum is the one pushing for her to stay at school, when an FE college might be more appropriate...many of them have creches for a start.

I am sorry for your friend's daughter and for your friend. This sounds really tough. But I honestly think it may be better to take a year or two out and look later at doing A Levels and going on to further study. Doing A Levels with a baby in tow would be challenging for someone without any additional needs. And I think your friend's daughter's grades are not so good that they suggest that she would breeze A Levels. This might be due to her additional needs but for her sake I think doing all this at once may be too much for her. I would suggest she takes a year out, gets good childcare in place and goes back, maybe to a sixth form college, once things have settled a bit.

I don't think re-admission to school to repeat a year is usual in those circumstances. FE college is the usual route. It might be to do with funding.

Firstly its not my daughter so the choice is down to my friend and her daughter. Secondly I am not anti F.E College at all, I understand that F.E Colleges are more likely to be supportive to a new mother.

Autism in its self is not an excuse for violent behaviour. However, if you understood what it is like being a young immature Autistic person under intense pressure, you might be more sympathetic. (if you had a constant pain in your head you might kick a chair yourself).

This being a major reason why a significant number of young offenders are diagnosed or are un diagnosed Autistic.

It takes years of coping strategies for High Functioning Autistic people to feel comfortable, building their wall. These walls can/will collapse if one brick is removed from them.

Seasonfinale. What Grammar schools are you talking about Henrietta Barnett...

My DD's perfectly academic grammar school requires an average of 5.5 or 44 points over 8 subjects = 4 6s and 4 grade 5 for 6th form entry !

Explaining her violent behaviour away because of autism and lockdowns etc doesn’t wash. Her external stress factors are likely to be even greater next year, with a young baby.

Arguing with the school for arguments sake isn’t necessarily going to end up with the best outcome for your friends DD.

Rather than trying to work out how everything can stay the same despite a baby, it might be more helpful to work out where she will be able to access the most support to help her achieve her potential. As PPs have said, that’s more likely to be at college

Our local FE is appalling for A Levels so the grammar would be way better. Many FE colleges are much more about GCSE resists and vocational with poorly taught and rated A-level provision. Too many on Mumsnet will have you believe that unless students have a clean sweep of 8s and 9s then they are not serious A-level material. Happily this isn’t true.

She may benefit from the familiar setting and staff. If there is a local sixth form college that may be another good choice but local and personal variables here are huge. No one can advise without knowing the specifics of local provision.

Fundamentally she wants to stay, has the support of subject teachers and should not be encouraged to leave because of the misogynistic values of SMT who are worried about the school’s reputation and view pregnancy as a social contagion.

If this was a woman asking about work she would be told to lean in if that was her instinct. I have seen plenty of teens make a marvellous job of A-levels and babies and of course many who don’t but do not allow anyone else to set that bar low for her.

Derbee two incidents over two years of GCSE are not a violent history. How the school handled them does speak volumes about its lack of understanding - great that they provided a time out card after a meltdown and exclusion. If only the SENCO had managed that first…

This seems to be so much more about your friend being desperate for her DD to continue at her grammar as if nothing had happened.

What has happened means that the grammar school is not not the most appropriate and supportive place for her DD to be. Why does your friend want her DD to be somewhere that doesn’t want her?

You say: My friend is also desperate that her daughter achieves her academic aims.

Why? And why do they need to be achieved right now? She just seems to be in denial.

The most important thing right now for a child with additional needs and a baby on the way is for her to get through the birth and adapt to her new life. That would be hard enough for a NT child let alone an autistic one.

DD has plenty of time to resume her education at an FE college when she has adjusted to her new circumstances.

Hi OP, I was in a very similar situation.

I fell pregnant during Y12 and my sixth form originally allowed me to take a year out and come back to complete Y13. When I did go back, I was made to feel like a leper and the school made it clear that I wasn't welcome.

My mum, like your friend, wanted me to do whatever I could to stay on at the sixth form but in the end I told them where to stick their school and enrolled at the local college.

It was the best thing I could have done. I made a new start and didn't tell anyone that I had a baby at home. I was living on my own in a tiny flat with my baby and it was hard but not impossible. I also had more free periods so didn't have to go in all day every day and so this was better for childcare. I completed my A Levels a year after my peers and then went on to university.

The last thing the girl needs is to be made to feel unwelcome and unsupported. Whether the school are right or wrong, they are going to make her time there difficult if she stays, and that's the last thing she needs.

Oh and I meant to say, I was so surprised by how the standard of teaching at the local college was the same as at the extremely competitive sixth form. The only difference was the actual students. I did just as well in my A levels at the college as I would have done if id have stayed on at the first school (AAB).

I feel like we don’t know all the facts here.

We know she got OK-ish (not stellar) GCSEs. We know she had trouble during her GCSEs (and there were probably additional incidents as well as the ones she got excluded for, because exclusion at a grammar is usually a last resort).

What has not been said by OP is how well she has been coping
academically with A level work so far. A levels are a big step up from GCSEs. Even without her disabilities and imminent teenage motherhood, I don’t think it’s U for a school to say, you are already struggling here, there is a limit to how many more adjustments/allowances we can reasonably make, and we think you would be better off somewhere that can better meet your needs.

I find it quite amusing on here about the huge numbers of posters children who get 10 grade 9s at GCSE. I will be very happy if DD1 year 11 achieves 5 grade 7's and 4 grade 6's in June. These grades are realistic targets for her they are more than enough to be on the right path for successful A Level study,

It would be worth looking at whether care to learn funding is still available. This pays for funding for full time child care if a school age mum continuous education .

The school should treat her like a pregnant member of staff would be treated (except pay obv) on terms of maternity leave and return.

The DDA that applies would be age and maternity rather than disability

Not really read the thread but if you don't already have an EHCp apply yourself as they go to 25. That said I know another child without an EHCp who is also doing 3 years.
My year 12 son has just started a 3 year 6th form I can assure you he is not pregnant they have done it because the LA stuffed up big time and 1 of the subjects he wanted to take where no longer available.
So yes it is possible and remember her triple whammy under the equality act of disability, sex and pregnancy discrimination.

She won’t be going back with her friends anyway, so I would start her at a sixth form college if immediate study is what she wants. Having dyslexia, autism and a newborn, she may not feel ready to go straight back into A levels anyway. I had a baby that didn’t sleep and barely knew which way was up for 18 months, there’s no way I could have sat exams then (and I’m a pretty academic ex-grammar school student with a post-grad), it just would have been too hard at that point.

She is currently doing O.K academically. However, has I have said up-thread being immature young and Autistic with things out of your control, is like being hit constantly in the head with a hammer.

High Functioning Autistic Adults, Teenagers or Children are among the most misunderstood, thus discriminated people in this country.

As I have said...

I think she should have a look at the 3 A level equivalent BTEC courses. My dyslexic 17 year old is excelling at his and will be going to uni. It has been a revelation to him after years of struggling.

Thank you Hamster and Getaway. I have known her all her life and I am her God Mother. I owe it to her and her mother who without, I would never of got of the floor from the mental and physical illness I suffered from 18- 24.

I know very well what my Darling God Daughter is going through right now. I am with her all the way, I will do everything in my power for her at this time.

I just wanted to add that I didn't find A Levels and a 6 month old baby hard at all.
I went to uni to study midwifery when he had just turned 2. I worked 16 hours on top.
I didn't live at home (lived in a council house). I lived with his dad. I didn't have family help.
I'm not super intelligent (I'm not stupid though!). My GCSE's were A, Bx6, C.

Even with autism and dyslexia, with the right academic support, why can't she do it? Especially with pretty reasonable results.

I went to a college, I didn't even consider going back to 6th form. But, why shouldn't she if that is what she wants?

I found being a single mum of 3, and working in a shift based career far more stressful than one little baby and A Levels. Take me back!