School refusal sixth form year 13

[Claybury]

One teen problem I have never had before and thought / hoped wouldn't happen to me - but DS has recently decided his lessons are a waste of his time, getting up for school is unnecessarily tiring, and fill him with negative energy.
He reckon he can study at home alone more efficiently and therefore is skipping lessons. He does have past form for not working much until Easter and stepping up quite well for summer exams but at A2 I'm not happy about this strategy.
Does anyone have any experience of this ?
He's doing sciences so needs to go in IMO. He is meeting his tutor tomorrow to discuss - what can school actually do about students like this ? Does the law mean he must go in ? He's almost 18.

No real idea, but I guess it is possible they could de-register him and refuse to enter him for exams?

Have you asked why he does not want to attend school? Is he struggling with the pace of the lessons? I believe that legally he has to be in education or training. It is very likely the school will kick him out if he does not attend. What are his ambitions? How did he do in his exams last year?

He's always done better than predicted in exams - due to last minute ramp up. Hence his confidence that he can do that again. That said he is finding it tougher this year.
But his attendance in the past has always been 100%
I think he's had enough of school and has now conflict with certain teachers where he doesn't like their teaching style.

I always coasted through exams until the January of A2, this year is the year he realy needs to pull his socks up. But unfortunately, I suspect the only way he'll realise is by failing to do so

If it was possible to do well in his exams without any teacher input, there would be no need for school!

It is questionable how well he will understand complex issues without help.

He will not have constructive feedback to help him improve his work.

As he is studying sciences he will miss out on practicals which would deepen his understanding.

He will be missing out on training in exam technique which is crucial in helping him reach top grades.

All of these are important at any level but especially at A2.

Maybe a few arguments you can use to convince him

..and the important life lesson that sometimes we have to do things we don't want to do in order to get the things we want.

he will be damn lucky if he gets a job he enjoys 100% of the time, but he needs to earn money soon.

negative energy - dear oh dear. And a hell of a lot of teenage arrogance too.

in short - suck it up, kid.

Is he actually studying at home or is he just simply bunking off?

The sixth form should have an attendance policy that he needs to be aware of. A student who simply stopped attending at my sixth form would be eventually kicked out. We wouldn't want their potentially crap results on our league table.