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Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

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Original poster

My daughters attendance

22 replies

silv9427 · 22/10/2011 11:22

Please help anyone my daughter is 17 years old and attended college I thought all was OK until fiday just gone I got a phone call from the college saying she has been kicked off her course due to attendance and now college is closed for a week. I was shocked as this was the first I have heard there was a problem, I said to the teacher why didn't you tell me even a phone call to let me know what was happening I have punishments I can put in place to improve her attendance. The woman said they didn't have my phone number I said your ringing me now!!! she said we looked in her file and found my number. I'm well angry about this as I get family credit and will loose £200 per week now. I thought because my daughter is under 18 yrs they had to tell me if she is not at college I'm still legally responcible for her. She is desperate to get back on the course and understands the gravity of the situation. Can anyone advise me please

OP posts:

SamMiguel · 22/10/2011 11:28

Oh My God! You get £200 a week if your 17 year old daughter goes to college? I'm stunned and lost for words...

Original poster

silv9427 · 22/10/2011 11:33

no I'm on a low income and get working famlies tax and child tax credit thats £125 pw I get £20 child ben and £55 from her father per week if she is not in full time education it all stops.

OP posts:

kritur · 22/10/2011 11:39

You will need to check the paperwork that you got when she originally signed up for college as to the agreement regarding home-college contact and notification of failure etc. It isn't unusual in large colleges for it to take up to half term for them to process everyone's attendance and get in touch with parents. It is usual that they get a warning first before being taken off the course. Why was your daughter not attending? What was she doing whilst you thought she was at college? You say she is desperate to get back on the course but surely she can't be that keen if she hasn't been going? Does she really want to be there or would she be better with a job?

SamMiguel · 22/10/2011 11:42

You will need to contact college. There may be some staff in over half term. She needs to take responsibility for her actions and try to persuade them that she is committed. May be too late though...

mumblechum1 · 22/10/2011 11:43

Check your consent order if you have one. Usually the child mtce ends when the child is 18 or completes full time education whichever is the later, in which case it stops on her 18th birthday if she doesn't go back gto college.

ll31 · 23/10/2011 17:48

why isn't ur daughtersortng this out? why r u annoyed at school and not ur daughter

scarevola · 23/10/2011 17:56

I thought (but may wide of the mark here), that once a child is over the minimum legal school leaving age (as a pupil at a 6th form college would be by definition), then there is no compulsion to be in education (truancy officers don't cover this age group).

So it doesn't surprise me that there was no action taken - none is needed as pupils are permitted to just opt out. And once you've missed enough sessions to be badly adrift of the course, then there is little point in continuing.

If your DD does not want to be in formal education at the moment, I doubt you can persuade her.

What does she want to do?

And can you find a way for her to do it and contribute to the family finances, if still under your roof?

twinklytroll · 23/10/2011 17:56

You seem to be more bothered about losing the £200 a week.

Having said that there should have been prior contact.

belledechocchipcookie · 23/10/2011 17:59

Well, if she's not in full time education then she needs to get herself a job pronto. She needs to speak to the college, it may be the case that she can catch up.

cory · 23/10/2011 18:44

I would have thought something along the lines of what scarevola said: attendance figures probably are deal with in a different way for this age group. And tbh your dd is nearly adult: it probably wouldn't occur to them in the first place to get in touch with you to sort her out: they would expect her to be sorting herself out. Just as if she had left school and taken a job instead: her boss wouldn't be ringing you before he sacked her.

cory · 23/10/2011 18:44

Though I would want to know that they have spoken to her about the rules first and spelled out what kind of attendance you would need to avoid sanctions.

Angelico · 23/10/2011 18:49

Hmmmm, the college have definitely been crap about contacting you. They get paid for their intake in October from what I understand so they can kick her out now and hang on to the money they will have received for her. You should definitely make a complaint and keep complaining. They may not take her back this year though.

TalkinPeace2 · 23/10/2011 19:52

I'm confused
a friends child, for medical reasons, missed 7 weeks of college
they jumped up and down from the word go to get the paperwork in place
she went back for 4 weeks and then was (validly) off for 14 weeks.
She was kicked out and given medical leave to retake which she is doing

any half arsed college should be UTTERLY on the ball on this - electronic registers etc - the staff salaries depend on accurate records

how can they not have chased up their cashflow before?

belledechocchipcookie · 23/10/2011 20:57

She was unwell rather then absent. They couldn't throw her out for being ill. If a student can't be bothered to turn up what should they do?

CecilyP · 23/10/2011 20:59

Having taught in college, I would reiterate that they would be very unlikely to contact a parent about slack attendance. They would be at fault if they had not spoken to your daughter and warned her of the consequences of her behaviour.

TalkinPeace2 · 23/10/2011 21:12

but how would they know?
both her (separated) parents were at her bedside the first time
I know that the word of her illness only reached the college via facebook

redglow · 24/10/2011 19:24

Thing is , is the mum worried about her education or just not receiving all that money. I think you cannot make somebody of that age learn if they do not want to.

maypole1 · 24/10/2011 19:33

The money it seems if she was that unwell she would have been signed off by the doctors and tutor would have been informed

balia · 24/10/2011 19:47

My DD started college this Sept - I've already had a report on her progress including attendance figures (she's had one day off). It seems incredible that they would just kick your DD off without any warning - how many days are they saying she has missed?

TalkinPeace2 · 24/10/2011 20:36

my kids school operate the "FROG" software - that gives me access to attendance, behaviour, homework etc
and unanswered messages are auto followed up with an email ....

clam · 24/10/2011 20:44

Is it possible that your daughter only signed up for college in order for you to receive the £200 per week, and that she is not therefore particularly committed to the course itself? And that it's all now become too much to maintain and she's been dropping days, perhaps not realising she'd be booted out so soon?

redglow · 24/10/2011 20:54

Easy two hundred pounds as she probably would not earn that much. My seventeen year old earnt ninety pounds a week at that age doing 45 hours a week.

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