leaving school

[pigginskint]

my son is 16 and doesn't want to take his GCSEs, can he leave school early and go straight into a job

[Cheekystar]

I could be wrong so check with your LEA but I think once he is 16 he can leave... but discourage it, even if he just sits english and maths it'll make such a huge difference to his life, and there are so many options such as apprenticeships FE colleges etc, make an appointment to see his connexions / careers adviser who should be able to support him to make the right choice

[Mr.Nose]

in scotland u can leev wen ur 16 maby its diferent in othr places. if hes not very clevr then he probly shouldn't bothr doin his GCSEs so it wuld be best 2 teech him a skill like mechanics or carpentry or sumthin

[summersoon]

I agree with Cheekystar

Maths and english would make a huge difference

[kempie]

Since 1st September 1997 (under section 8(4) of the Education Act 1996) 16 year-olds cannot legally leave school until the last Friday in June in the school year in which that child reaches age 16. This is classed as the School Leaving Date.

It is illegal for anyone to employ full-time a person who has not reached minimum school leaving age.

[filthiestfis]

looks like Mr Nose left school early! LOL

[pigginskint]

Thanks to everyone replying, I have now managed to sort my son out at school, ( He cant leave until june), I went for a meeting with quite a few people at the school and they came up with a suggestion that was ok by my son. He has now dropped science, PE, and RE, he is able to do his saturday job all day tuesday as well, - they are classing it as work placement- he has also been given permission to leave a lesson if it is getting too much for him, but only if he goes to the library to do course work, so far he has only done it once in the last week, so hopefully we have found the answer, and he is now talking about going to college in september as he has seen a course for construction that is for three days a week. Schhol have realised that he is very strong willed and won't do anything he doesn't want to do