Can High School refuse a child wanting to start 6th Year?

[StrongerSingle]

We are in the Stirling Council area.

My DD is 16. She has had a few problems. Her attendance record isn't perfect but she is trying hard to finish S5 with full attendance.

(Full disclosure - me and her Dad divorced a few years ago. He stayed local for a while but moved abroad a year ago, with his gf and rarely visits or speaks to our DC. It has had a big effect on our DD's.)

Me and DD had a meeting at the High School last week. Firstly they had a leavers form ready for her to sign but we both said that she didn't want to leave. They agreed to let her finish S5 but made it very clear she wasn't welcome back for S6.

Can they do this? Can we demand that they allow her to return after the summer? She already has English Nat 5 and wants to to English Higher and one other subject.

I don't believe you can demand that no. You could ask for advice about a good 6th form college though?

I don't think the school have to accept her. They are obviously worried about their grade average. It is pretty shitty if she wants to do it though.
She can go to another school for 6th year if one will take her.

Ajaslipstick - this is in Scotsnet. There are no such things as 6th Form Colleges up here.

StrongerSingle - don't know if they can (and I know ds' school wouldn't do it - they even have a few pupils doing an S7 but as it's in Glasgow that's no help to you ) - but the fact that googling it doesn't throw up anything suggests it's very rare.

It does look like they only have a duty up to 16.

Maybe one of your local councillors could help. Although one does have to wonder how supportive the school would be of your dd if they were "forced" to keep her on.

Does your dd have any favourite teacher she could go and talk to?

At my kids school the S5s in particular are told repeatedly that they do not have a right to be at school unlike up to S4 and if they don't behave they can f off(Not in those exact words ,I hope)

Yes I think they don’t have to take them for s5 or s6. Our school are certainly much stricter with s5 and s6 and if the pupils are told if they don’t toe the line they will be asked to leave.

Pretty sure all young people in Scotland are entitled to remain in full time non-advanced education until the age of 18. Hence the amount of S6 pupils who leave with a prom dress, year book and hoodie- it is very difficult to force a young person to leave even if they're set to attain he haw on paper.

If all they achieve is another year's maturity and being more ready for FE, apprenticeships, employment then S6 is still contributing to their positive destination.

Wanting to sit Higher English in school is a pursuing a valid progression route as your DD may not feel ready for the more independent style of study at college.

There have been pupils in our school told they aren't welcome to stay on for various reasons. You'd be best getting her to see a careers advisor to advise on what her choices may be if school won't keep her.

If she only wants to do one Higher perhaps she would be better off at college?

Also in the Stirling area and was at the info evening for the choices last week. I've been to several of these but this is the first one where they seemed to be actively pushing for the less academic to leave.

I'm really dismayed that some Stirling parents are getting the message that non academic young people should leave. There's massive investment in providing progression routes and alternative (to Highers AHs) at present. Partnerships with colleges, foundation apprenticeships which equate to a Higher. The school my DDs attend is a Stirling school and thankfully not giving this message. Please challenge them if they're trying to persuade pupils to leave who want to stay.

I didn't have any issue personally lidl and yes, the message was given about foundation apprenticeships, but this is the first year i've been where they were saying and repeating that your child could leave at 16 and go down other routes, they were even spelling out the date for Christmas leavers. This in a school where the vast majority of pupils stay on. I am sure that parents and pupils are well aware that they can leave too.

DS2 applied to do a college course on day release last year which was a total farce. They already knew who was getting the places and went through with giving him an interview that lasted under 5 minutes and then never informed him of the result for months despite being chased. Then when we looked this year, they have a whole pile of courses that they say are for s5/6 but n reality you needed to start in s5 as they run for two years and they were never publicised in the school in S4 going into 5.

DS is in S5 and has been a school refuser right through school. Before Christmas we were told that unless things seriously improved they would not be keen to have him back for S6.
However, some excellent work by the guidance team who allowed him to move out of one particular class and have more time in the music dept - with other conditions attached - has resulted in vastly improved attendance and a lot more engagement with other school activities .
I think he will go back for S6 now, which Im pleased about as he is only just 16 and not very mature (see school refusing!) but yes, the school could have refused not to have him back.

So sorry everyone ... just been a busy few days and I forgot to come back to check this.

Thank you all for your responses. I've been doing some investigating myself and was directed to this informative document - www.gov.scot/Resource/0045/00458341.pdf

There have been more meetings at the High School. I attended one last week, that DD's support teacher had set-up, and when we got there she was teaching and never joined us

DD is still attending school everyday, and has two half days volunteering at a local community centre, which she is enjoying. It all helps with her CV and hopefully, if the school see she is working hard they may let her stay for S6.

Thank you all again :)

You might find that only wanting to do 2 subjects is the issue - most schools require S6 to complete at least 3 and preferably 4 so that they aren't sitting about most of the time.

My kids school like them to do 3 -4 subjects in 6th year. However these include vocational subjects at a local college, which range from academic subjects like anatomy to cake decorating.

They also arrange voluntary activities through the school, like doing an IT class with local older people, helping at a SN primary school, mentoring first years, various school commmittees. These are all timetabled .

Apparently this is because evidence shows that pupils who only do one or two subjects are at high risk of dropping out .

So I’d find out what they have to offer and fill up her timetable with things that she is interested in.

DSs school require them to fill 3 columns out of 5 and then they are allowed one column of personal study and the other of specific options such as charity fundraising, mentoring etc.

Some of the colums contain things like sports coaching but in the main they are academic subjects. Id on't think they would be allowed to only choose 2 but the third could be a Nat 5 or something I guess.