Can the College do this?

[Didyousaysomethingdarling]

Can the College do this?
HELP 17 year old DS ‘withdrawn’ from College without our knowledge.

My very shy DS has not been logging on to his remote lessons since November. He’s been fibbing to me about everything being ‘all fine’ when I check how his course work is going. I regularly check my son’s emails and saw he has been receiving lesson material, so assumed all was as it should be.

A friend mentioned she’d had a remote college open evening session, so I contacted the college to find out if such would be available to us, only to find out he was ‘withdrawn’ from the course in November of last year for non-attendance. PLEASE could someone let me know if the college can do this, without contacting parents, if their child is under 18? Just to add, during his first year the college assured us on the first open evening that ‘No news was good news’ if we were not contacted by them, to assume all was well – only the parents of students, who needed extra help, had issues etc would be contacted. DH is fuming he doesn’t believe the college have followed the correct protocol.

bump

I worked in a further education college and we would've always contacted parents if the students was going to be kicked out. However it's interesting that you are very angry with the college but don't seem to be as angry with at your child. It sounds as though his attendance was so awful that they had no option whatsoever than to withdraw him from the course. Did you really think that he was continuing with his work for college?

If he’s been receiving materials, then how has he been off rolled?

I was quite surprised at how little communication there was between us parents and the sixth form college when my dd started this year.

We do have 'parent advantage' where we can look at their attendance though and I'd be amazed if they didn't contact you if he wasn't there. What about safeguarding?

Do they have your contact details? I've enrolled and taught many a student who has given either no details or deliberately incorrect ones. He will have had several warnings and it's on him to communicate in post compulsory education. It's tough that he hid it from you.

Used to work in a college. Yes we would withdraw for on attendance. A letter would be sent addressed to the student to confirm. Would not contact parents directly for non attendance.

That’s very poor.

My son is almost 17. We have a parent portal we can log onto to see grades, attendance etc. We’ve had an email today to say we will receive text alerts for non virtual attendance. They always sent texts for absence during face to face.

Any student who doesn’t attend is contacted along with their parents as there is a big concern about mental health. The college acknowledge that some find remote learning difficult. Anyone non engaging is flagged as potentially vulnerable and offered up to 2 days of attendance.

Is it possible that he has intercepted a letter? Seems strange to me that you haven’t had contact.

I've got lots of emails from DS's college, they can't stop telling us how terrible DS is doing.

OP's son is not going to make up the lessons now, is he?
Need to plan forward.
He knew he wasn't engaging, but chose not to reveal it.

That's the problem you need to think about now.
How to go forward with some honesty & trust.

Yes they can.

Hope your son finds a way forward.

Our experience of college during lockdown has been very poor. Absolutely no pastoral care, no concerns about non engagement or attempts to guide students.

Just PowerPoints. Tutor non attendance for sessions to check understanding has been awful.

Around 70% of the intake have quietly dropped the course so far. We check DS is online and it's just him and another one or two sat chatting on teams waiting for tutors.

Thank you for all your replies. We've contacted the college to find out where the breakdown in communication occurred. Ultimately I should have been more pro-active in contacting the College and DS should NOT HAVE LIED.
I just hope my experience will encourage other MN users to actively get in touch with their children's college and nip anything like this in the bud.
...Off to explore where to go from here, with a now 18 year old DS who is virtually too shy to leave the house. AHH!

This all sounds very weird. If my son doesn't attend a lesson, whether face to face or online, I receive a text to inform me - as I found out when he missed a lesson to do his driving test in October. And I can log in and check on the parent portal too.

What on earth has the OP's college been doing all this time?

@Soontobe60

If he’s been receiving materials, then how has he been off rolled?

This.

Has the college emails he has shown you with work on been directly from the college? Or are one of his course mates sending it on to him to cover for him?!

Is he year 12 or year 13. He can just repeat a year and it would be better if he was year 12 as it would be a fresh start.

My son did not do well in year 12 and chose to repeat the year, so did y12, y12 , y13 before going on to uni. Funding is available for 3 years at that age. He may need to change colleges but again that may not be a bad thing if he can start y12 again.