Name change
Hello, I would really appreciate any useful information or advice on this situation:
For context:
There is a child who has lived all of their life in a non-Western country. Due to extreme circumstances, they did not attend school in their early teenage years.
They have recently now started secondary school in the UK. The parent has now been contacted by the school about school-leaving options as they turn 16 this year.
The child has only been in the UK, and in back in education, for a handful of months.
Although they do speak quite good English, it's hard to ascertain just how well they are doing or not doing in their lessons, and what struggles they are experiencing.
At the Parent's Evening, I believe they were just told that they were' doing well' but no specifics.
When they first started the school, the child did express concern about being hampered by lack of technical skills, as pen and paper are the standard in the classroom in their homeland.
Since then, in my role (limited capacity) I have casually asked the child how they are doing and they say they are 'OK'. Their parent also asks but the child doesn't open up and probably doesn't want to be seen to be having to ask for help.
It's hard to ascertain for sure, but it appears that they are receiving no extra support in either lessons/learning, or technical skills wise.
Myself and the parent are currently in the process of arranging the discussion with the 'leaving-school' advisor.
My questions here are:
Do schools generally offer extra support in the these circumstances?
If so, what sort of support may be available and how do you access it?
Also, may it be a possible for the child to stay on at school for an extra year?
Many thanks in advance.