If you are pregnant , don't bother with MY school

Adverse Affect
4.24 The young person at the centre of this complaint spoke about feeling very upset by the decision of School A not to accept her and the rationale for this.
She said she;
‘felt put into a low category, .that I was not good enough to be in his school, I felt ashamed and embarrassed that someone could make me feel this was for being a single young mother. I wouldn’t wish this feeling on anyone else, I was very emotional and stressed by it. I felt hurt and discriminated against as my child wouldn’t stop me having an education’.
She said it also made her upset for her baby. She explained that this initially made her not want to go back to school at all. She felt that the school did not see that she wanted to
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complete her education for her and her baby and worries that no one thinks she wants to make a difference for her child. She spoke about worrying about what people will think of her, that they may be judging her and thinking that she will get nowhere.
4.25 Her mother stated her view that the actions of the school impacted on her daughter’s self-belief, that she has no self-belief and does not believe in her abilities. She reports that as a result of the school’s actions, ‘the damage to her self esteem is immeasurable’.
4.26 She reported that her daughter had wanted to go back to school, was very motivated to complete her education after having the baby and that this was a positive thing as she had previously been less motivated about school. Her daughter was delighted that she was given a chance to go to the school but this offer was then retracted. She feels that the actions of the school have negatively impacted on her daughter’s motivation and that she and her daughter felt stigmatised and slighted as a family.
4.27 It is clear that the actions of the school in relation to refusal of enrolment were experienced by the young person as a negative judgement of her. Those actions resulted in her being denied access to the school where she wished to enrol and where a school placement appears to have been available to her, on two separate occasions and was subsequently retracted on each. The manner of communication of the decision not to enrol her was experienced by her and her mother as judgemental and stigmatising. This young person has clearly indicated the importance of education to her by continuing to seek a further school placement whilst managing the significant life changes that have taken place. She has indicated her wish to complete her education for her own betterment and that of her baby.