schools and the law

bigjluk

my friend is a single mother with 2 teenage girls.one of the girls keeps getting in trouble at school,whether its attendance (bunking off) ,or behaviour problems.the mother works full time as a sucessful retail manageress.she is getting threatened with jail over her kids behaviour,and she is inconsolable regarding this,as she is a law abiding citizen ,who has never ever had any problems with the police.what can she do,she is at the end of her tether.

retireby50

Can't offer any advice myself, but this website could be helpful with this sort of issue coming up regularly.......

http://www.gotateenager.org.uk/

Esoog

bigjluk wrote: »

my friend is a single mother with 2 teenage girls.one of the girls keeps getting in trouble at school,whether its attendance (bunking off) ,or behaviour problems.the mother works full time as a sucessful retail manageress.she is getting threatened with jail over her kids behaviour,and she is inconsolable regarding this,as she is a law abiding citizen ,who has never ever had any problems with the police.what can she do,she is at the end of her tether.

Jail because her daughter is wagging it? What school does she go to??!?

hippyadam

Esoog wrote: »

Jail because her daughter is wagging it? What school does she go to??!?

It's quite common for any state run school to threaten this these days...

pinkshoes

Has she spoken to her daughter about her behaviour, and explained the consequences?

Has she spoken to the school and asked if they have any suggestions? (i.e. could the school phone her if the daughter doesn't turn up, so she can go and find her and see if she can convince her to go to school?).

Perhaps she can come to some sort of agreement with the daughter i.e. leave school and get a job, or arrange something nice for her if she improves her attendance. (obviously do same for other daughter).

bigjluk

yes she has spoke to the daughter about what could happen,the school phones her if she is not in attendance,but she is only 14 so cant leave school yet

Bennifred

I'd be personally escorting the young lady to school every morning......

Gigglepig

Is there a voluntary family counselling service in your area that she and the daughter can go to, if not, can she afford a family therapist? If she is at the end of her tether perhaps look for support.

Britwife

If I were her, I would have to take a week holiday from work and actually go to school with her the entire week and stay in the background all day. I'm sure it will only take the first class to get her to change her mind.

It's got to be hard being a single mum of teenage daughters, such a hard stage. They really need their mum. Do the girls have supervision after school? If not, maybe make arrangements for someone close to them to be there for them.

Taliahmai

Hiya, unfortunately schools can and do take parents to court. My sister went through the same thing with her son. She ended up at court and ended up with a huge fine and she had to attend patenting classes every week for 16 weeks, and she still has weekly visits from the truency officer (it happened last year). Nothing was imposed on my nephew! But she was told if the bad attendence contined they would be taken back to court and she would recieve a custodial sentence. Thankfully my nephew realised they was serious about it and he does now attend every day....but as i say the truency officer does still call every week

lallysmum

Bennifred wrote: »

I'd be personally escorting the young lady to school every morning......

which is all well and good, but then as soon as you've driven off, they just walk out again. And it is your responsibility to ensure that your child stays on school premises not the school teachers.

Ask your friend to not ignore it when the school calls, to be completely upfront with everyone.Tell her to contact the Education/Attendance officer and explain that, with the best will in the world X will not go to school.

Once they have taken so much time off, it seems virtually impossible to go back, as they have missed so much work, it all seems a little overwhelming.

Discuss with the school whether X can go back on a reduced timetable for a while.

Does X get pocket money? My dd currently is on a £10 a week pocket money system, but loses £2 per day for non attendance (full day, not just turning up for one lesson and bunking off the rest)

Tell your friend not to give up, if she tells anyone and everyone involved that she is trying, that she simply cannot make X go to school and stay there.. they won't put her in prison. Tell her to ask for help, ask what they suggest to get X there.

Wishing your friend all the best.