15 year old son put on and unnecessary managed move and dropped down a year - move failed child not in school now

[Sharon19713]

I applied for my year 10 son to move secondary schools through the normal application. The new school decided to put him on a "managed move" due to my son and I being honest about disruptive behaviour and achievements as a boxer. Nobody form the LEA was present and the new school had not received any information about my son from his current school. The new school also dropped him down to year 9 due to differences in curriculums even though he was on "trial". I have never signed anything official for the move, my son didn't receive induction, support or mentoring from the new school and no package was put into place to ensure success. After 3 months at the school, where my son was extremely happy, the school decided the move was unsuccessful due to a "minor incident" with a teacher. This happed four days before the summer break.

It is now October and my son still hasn't got an educational plan as he has missed too much out of his GCSE studies to go up to year 11 at his original school and making him redo year 10 would set him up for failure as the current headmaster agreed with me. I have contacted LEA, both schools involved, governors of the receiving school, Children's Commission, Cabinet member for education, SNAP, Career Wales and have even been to my local MP.

My son is a victim of a totally mismanaged and unofficial managed move leaving him with no educational provision. My son was no where near exclusion and doesn't fit the criteria of a managed move, yet the receiving school dropped him a year and then decided he couldn't become a permanent pupil after all! I have received nothing at all from the school regarding any part of this process and have actually been ignored completely. My son is wasting away at home and nobody is interested - what can I do??

I'm sorry, this situation sounds terrible.

If it was a managed move then presumably he is still on the roll of the original school? As it's his GCSE years he really can't afford to be sitting at home doing nothing. I'd get him in his uniform and down to the original school. While he's sat at home not bothering anyone he's not going to be on their list of priorities. If he's in school, they'll have to do something with him.

I agree with noble

Can he go back to his old school but in the year below where he was? I know this is far from ideal but I don't see an alternative.

Why did you apply for him to be moved in year 10 if he was nowhere near exclusion? It's a pretty drastic thing to do and I can see why it was necessary for him to drop back a year.

What has his achievements in boxing got to do with anything?

Does his disruption involve fighting in school?

I'm fairly sure that as the OP took her son off the first school's role that she can't just send him back in.

OP have you asked for tutors from the LEA, (as a stop gap) they still have a requirement to educate your son.

he has missed too much out of his GCSE studies to go up to year 11 at his original school

Is this you saying this, or them? Students sometimes miss more than 3 months due to illness and it is possible to catch up and still get good GCSEs at the end of Y11, if the school is supportive and flexible.

My son was ill from Y8 to the middle of Y11 so missed more than 3 months of GCSE teaching due to hospital appointments and a reduced timetable. With the school's help, he was able to take his GCSEs with his peer group and get As and Bs in 7 subjects.

If it was a managed move he'd be on the original school roll still. If it wasn't, then the new school wouldn't just be able to say 'this isn't working' without going through a formal exclusion process. He can't have just been attending school for three months and been on the roll nowhere, surely?

Thank you so much for all your replies to my message. To elaborate on the situation, yes my son is officially on the register of his original school and finally after months of nagging, my son and I met with the headteacher, LEA and two representatives from the failed school regarding the failure of the managed move, the head who actually decided on the move wasn't at the meeting and has totally ignored me for some odd reason. The failed school reps gave pathetic reasons for my son's failure such as: shirt being tucked out, about to walk out of the canteen eating a burger, late for a few lessons and not backing down to a teacher who pushed him and verbally assaulted him! They even tried to lie about incidents that were nothing to do with my son! After the failed school staff left the room, I had a discussion with the head of the original school and the LEA officer and we agreed putting my son back a year is setting him up to fail at his original school and he was told to think about what career he would like to follow and let them know.

I applied to move my son originally due to his lack of achievement and enthusiasm towards school. He attended an all boys school and was butted & punched in the face by the school bully when he was in year 7 so defended himself and calming walked away with the teacher when she intervened, the bully was then permanently excluded. DS has been "hero worshipped" since this event, which gave him a platform to be a clown in school. I am a very involved mother and insisted on keeping close contact with the school over every issue and felt the school were constantly unofficially excluding him for low level disruptive behaviour, which I understand is the most annoying type for the teachers to deal with.

After chatting with DS, his school and the education department, I applied through the normal procedure to change his school to a mixed sex and race school with the belief that he would act more mature in a mixed environment and wouldn't be "known" as a boxer there.

After the "managed move" meeting DS actually attended the new school the very next day and I was aware that failure would mean reverting back to the original school, but a 6 week review meeting should have taken place, which wouldn't have had such an effect on his GCSEs if he had to move back. Also, no plan was discussed regarding his GCSEs if the move failed.

I have three A4 pages full of all the emails and telephone calls I have made regarding this situation where I have been ignored, misadvised or just brushed off. Today, I am expecting a visit from a "mentor" who works with disengaged teenagers, which I am sure my son does not come under this category, but at the very least it is a source of contact from the education department. I have asked the deputy chair of the cabinet in charge of education and the LEA for tuition and was ignored. I am out of my mind with worry and concern for his future as I was a high achiever in education myself and am more than aware of the importance and impact education has on your life.

Thank you once again for all the messages, which alone are a source of support to me in this dreadful situation.

OP, naming your son, and the extra information you've given, makes him really easy to identify by anyone who knows the situation. I'd suggest you ask MN to redact identifiable information.

Surely the LEA have a duty to ensure he is educated.They can't just shrug their shoulders!
Iwould be speaking to alawyer/citizens advice,complaining to my councillor and my MP for starters

You didn't mention the actual reasons why he was excluded from these schools. From the school point of view, they don't want a very disruptive kid in class to affect others from learning. Your only options are either homeschooling him or sending him to pupil referral unit. The former is a better option but it won't work if he is not a self motivated person.

Unfortunately, there are no "rules" as such with managed moves. Schools accept children on managed moves because they know that they can terminate the MM whenever they wish if there is a problem. The school have decided they are better off without your son than with him, sadly. Their seemingly minor issues could be part of what they may feel is a wider "negative attitude" that is pervading the year group, and as a receiving school they hold all the cards. They were actually quite thoughtful allowing him to drop a year - this would have ended up costing them a lot financially, had they felt he had "passed" his probation period and changed him to single registration. However, the situation now is really bad for you and your son.

The original school has to take responsibility for him, unless they decide they have enough to permanently exclude. I would ring parent partnership to ask for some assistance and schedule a meeting.

Good luck.

The school where your son is on roll has a legal responsibility for his education.

I would try him in year 10 at original school, it is better than nothing. I would contact school and advice your DC will be in school on Monday morning. They will have to make provision for him.

If he is not physically in school he will be forgotten. Get him back into school ASAP

What outcome are you hoping for?
At this stage your options seem to be
1:back to original school in original year
2: home school
3: possibly original school but back one year ? School is not obliged to do this.
4: possibly return to the mm move school? Again this school is not obliged to accept him.

The only real option there would seem to be option 1, so you should at least take it for the time being whilst you try to see if something else can be sorted out.

What a confusing story. Why did you agree to all this if it wasn't compulsory?

And I have to say, it sounds like you are exceptionally defensive about your son's behaviour. You say the school's reasons are 'pathetic' but actually, you list several incidents where he has clearly not followed school behaviour policies. I am not surprised they are not welcoming him (or you) with open arms. Call me harsh but I think you need to start listening to the messages people are sending you about your child.

You are in Wales arent you?
SNAP and Careers Wales are a waste of space.
No idea what to suggest, sorry, other than move to England.