Not doing well at college, please help!

[MyKingdomforaNameChange]

Ds has been at college for 3 weeks and doesn't seem to be doing very well. I'm waiting for a phone call to discuss, but apparently the tutors have been telling him repeatedly that he doesn't seem very interested.

He ha always had some trouble writing fast enough to get things finished, but we've been working on strategies to help with this. Tutor suggested last week getting him tested for dyslexia.

My question is, if they won't let him stay at college, what can he do? There are not many opportunities round here for apprenticeships and I'm not sure he's ready for that anyway.

Panicking. What can I do here??

Is he interested? What does he say?

What type of course is he doing - A levels or BTEC L3, or BTEC L2?

He tells me he's interested, but tells the tutors he's not. He's doing a level 2 BTEC.

He's now looking into County Training, which will be a GCSE English retake along with an apprenticeship, but he doesn't have any idea what area he wants to do the apprenticeship in!

I just want to strangle him ha ha. He's wasting all his chances :(

Can you sit him down and help him work out his options?

• Stick with the BTEC & English retake
• Move to a different BTEC
• As above but look around for an apprenticeship
• Quit and do what?

You somehow need to make the quitting option seem poor. e.g. Do funding / internet access etc give you any leverage? Are you in a position to bribe with promises of driving lessons in the future?

Was he happy to take a level 2? Could he do a different, perhaps level 3, alongside English retake. What were his options after gcse?

can the college support testing for dyslexia? I wouldn't say he's wasting his chances, he just needs to find the right thing for him and the right support, how old is he 16/17? Surely the college would want him to stay? "Sunscreen song" - most people don't know what they want to do until much later - I know it might not help right now

What were his GCSEs like?

Why is he telling the tutors he's not interested? Which one is he lying to? You or them?

If he’s on level 2 they won’t let him switch to level 3 unless he had great GCSEs (in which case why would he be on level 2?).

If he’s not interested this is the one and only time for him to find something to change to this year. After this point it will be way too late. I teach level 2 BTEC and they’re hard work sometimes but if someone’s just not interested and not trying you can’t do anything much except get them removed from the course. There’s too much to do to be able to coax uninterested students through a full year. However if he does want to do it and needs support that’s a whole other issue and the college should work towards providing that.

We’ve already had 3 students appear then disappear to other paths this year...funnily enough late starters don’t seem to stay long. I don’t know what they think college will be like but I think they have an idea it’ll be a great laugh and nothing like school - to some extent that’s true but I also set homework, give tests and enforce behaviour standards in my classroom! Just because they can go to the chip shop at lunchtime doesn’t mean they’re on easy street.