Refused TY

lovely gurl

So had a meeting with the principle and viceprinciple.Hes going into 5th year,BUT if he's struggling by midterm they are going to make an application to the dept that he repeat 5th year.He wouldn't be told about repeating till he's finished 5th year.Tbh I'm relieved.It was a good clear the air meeting too and I think it will resolve his age issue for me without him facing into the leaving cert for possibly another year yet.The school are happy because it will keep him in his structure.Although if there are no issues with him coping he will not be allowed to repeat so just have to see how he gets on.
Thanks so much everyone for the support and advice,ye have no idea how much I appreciated it!

SusieBlue

lovely gurl wrote: »

So had a meeting with the principle and viceprinciple.Hes going into 5th year,BUT if he's struggling by midterm they are going to make an application to the dept that he repeat 5th year.He wouldn't be told about repeating till he's finished 5th year.Tbh I'm relieved.It was a good clear the air meeting too and I think it will resolve his age issue for me without him facing into the leaving cert for possibly another year yet.The school are happy because it will keep him in his structure.Although if there are no issues with him coping he will not be allowed to repeat so just have to see how he gets on.
Thanks so much everyone for the support and advice,ye have no idea how much I appreciated it!

Glad you have resolved the issue but this outcome wouldn't satisfy me at all. Essentially, even if he does struggle, they might fob you off and not let him repeat the year.
They are also acknowledging that he may not be ready for the leaving cert cycle by saying they'll allow him repeat.
Imo, it makes no sense at all to repeat 5th year when he could just do 4th year and do one year of each school year without having to repeat anything.

I only did my leaving cert 8 years ago, and the first day of 5th year the pressure was put on, all focus was on the final exams. I actually had a terrible experience in TY (poorly organised in my school) but I can't imagine having to go straight from JC pressure into LC pressure, with the only silver lining being that I get to do 5th year twice (therefore an extra year of stress) if it doesn't work out.

Obviously as the parent you know your son better but two years of 5th year as a resolution sounds like a nightmare. There's also the danger his classmates will see him as "slow" (hate to use this word and mean no offence, using it for lack of better word) for having to repeat.
All this could be solved by just letting him do 4th Year. The school sound very inflexible to me.

muttnjeff

is your son happy with that? As long as he knows that you have done all you can for him. Is he over 16? Another option could be take him out for the year. He could do volunteer work and some part time work and different batches of work experience that you might organise yourselves through friends and relatives. Then return to school for fifth year with his friends? Sounds a bit off the wall but who says everything has to be by the book? Once he is over 16 school is not compulsary. Only thing is you would want to be sure they would take him back into fifth year or go elsewhere-no repeating involved and solves the age issue.

muttnjeff

I have just seen he is very young. Remember that if he goes straight ahead apart from academically his classmates will all be turning 18 long before him---party time!!! So his classmates will be (Legally)going to pubs and drinking at discos and that will be the lunchtime chat.... Not what I would want for my child. I would seriously consider moving school and doing TY. He will make lots of new friends as in my experience TY mixes all the groups up again so friends from 1-3rd yr may not all stay as close and new friendships are formed. he could still stay in touch with the others