Sixth-form girl living alone

[BoboChic]

Do you think that a private mixed sixth form should admit a new pupil who will be living alone in a small rented apartment during the week, returning home to her parents at the weekend?

Fortunately for my acquaintance (not a close friend), her DD was not part of the "set" that was affected. However, this family has other DC at the school and is actively engaged in the current conversation shedding light on "what went wrong in 2015".

This would be a very boring forum if we only commented on situations in which we were personally involved.

None of this is any of our business. It's still interesting because discussions about expectations, standards, and school policy are interesting.

God, the whole bunch of you sound like a gang of obstructive, obtuse plonkers. Parent your kids. Stop with the quasi-management psycho-babble.

I am ready to drop my Gavel of Judginess:

The parents should have sent her to boarding school. Or kept her at home.

The school should insist that students all live with parents and are not left alone overnight/for more than 24 hours (like many other schools already do). They should also take a massive review of why they did not notice a big gang of friends slacking off until the exams were over. That's not good enough. That's actually their biggest failing.

The parents involved need to accept that they should have spotted the academic warning signs too, and not been so hands-off/naive.

Everybody needs to appreciate that missing grades is awful, but it's a vulnerable time for teens and they are actually lucky nothing worse happened.

Maybe the school should clearly communicate to parents the need to manage their own DC outside of school hours.

Spare us the personal abuse, Trifle. Just unfollow the thread if it's annoying you that much

HoldMeCloserTonyDanza:

It's not abuse. The OP does sound obtuse and she does sound obstructive. That's not name-calling.

Smelling socks, anyway.

the whole bunch of you sound like a gang of obstructive, obtuse plonkers

That is abuse trifle, give it a rest. Debate with people without calling them names.

HoldMeCloserTonyDanza:

If you think 'plonkers' is abuse, feel free to report my post. Otherwise, I wasn't talking to you.

No, FrancisCrawford. The law is very clear and universities have to make special arrangements for underage students.

Look at any university website. UCL has a good one as I recall.

www.birmingham.ac.uk/welcome/Students-under-18.aspx#Legal

OP, universities and sixth form colleges are not obliged by law to make special arrangements for 16 and 17 yos.

I left home at 17yo.
Being in France, I was one year ahead so went to Uni at 17yo, as a minor.
There was also the added issue that ,y parents were overseas so I arrived in a what looked like a foreign country, on my own. I didn't see my parents for a whole year again.

So I wasn't so far from the case you are describing. I was certainly 'still a child that needed supervision'... riiiight.
If you are in France, you will know that actually that sort of situation isnt unusual.

The issue here isn't with the school nor with the girl but with the parents. They took a decision it's what the best interest of the dd in mind. As it happens, it was perhaps not the best choice for their dd. It might well have been for another teenager.
What is missing here is the follow and the review from the parents to see how their dd was doing. To check if she was having parties after parties etc....

As for the other teenagers, sorry but the parents weren't fooled. The other students KNEW she was on her own after going to her flat. They KNEW. And they choose not toothwir parents. Their parents also choose to 'let them go out to her house' even though there was clearly not studying going on.

The failure there isn't with the school. The school role isn't to baby teenagers. It's to teach them.
The role of the parents is to check on their teenagers to see if they are doing well and if they re not being led astray (not intentionally but because let's face it, having a party will always be more fun than doing homework).
It was also the role of the parents to check even more closely on their dd as she was away from home on her own.

I read that as they do, Dione.

Oh and there was no special arrangement for me either...

I find it strange that living in France you expect that sort of level of 'babying' from schools and universities.

I'm not expecting anything, GreenPeppers.

Because - as this thread has amply proven - there is not consensus on the issue.

There IS consensus - you're the only one not getting it!

Parents were idiots to assume anything. Parents should have kept a closer eye on their kids. School should have better monitored their students' progress. There is NOTHING else the school could have or should have done.

End of.