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TY Work experience

  • 21-11-2023 12:49pm
    #1
    elinco
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3 ✭


    Hi there,

    I'm a parent of a TY student, and haven't been successful in getting him work experience. I've reached out to about 10 organisations, but to no avail. A couple of contextual points:

    • The way the school is running it is that it is every Tuesday for the year. There are no block weeks of work experience placements.
    • My son is not very interested at all in school or in getting a work experience placement, so has done nothing to help with the search, and expects his parents to organise it all. There is a possibility that he may have ASD, but we've unfortunately not been able to get a diagnosis as of yet due to financial limitations.
    • He has a big dependency on screens, so is spending his Tuesdays in bed on his school iPad. We've tried to limit his time on the iPad but this leads to escalated bad behaviour which includes school refusal.
    • I feel like the school has no real interest in kids like my son, so is not doing much to help this situation.

    What I am wondering is. Does the school have a duty of care to those that don't get WE, and should they be making the kids that don't get a placement attend school instead?

    Thanks for any advice you can give!

    Nick



Comments

  • #2
    HazeDoll
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 604 ✭✭✭HazeDoll


    You need to take some steps back. Lawnmower parenting has not worked for you. This is relatively low stakes, so it's an ideal time for him to learn that he has to take responsibility for some aspects of his life. Send him around to charity shops to volunteer his Tuesdays, or tell him to find some other way to volunteer every Tuesday. You're probably tempted to find some way to bend the rules by employing him yourself in some capacity, but I think you can predict how that would work out.

    Stand your ground. He needs to see that you're resolute in your decision to support him but you're not going to take all the responsibility from him. Maybe he won't ever sort out a WE placement but that will be his problem and not yours. He will be missing that aspect of his TY certificate, not you.

    Unfortunately you're starting from a weak position as you have caved on the 'staying in bed with an iPad' question. He's calling the shots and so far it's working out just dandy for him. That has to change. Screen access is dependent on his positive engagement with school and positive contribution to the running of the household. It's a privilege and not a right, he needs to earn it. If you separate him from his screen or change the wifi password and he doesn't like it, let him rage. I'm sure he didn't like getting vaccinations or going to dentists but you did these things because that's what best for him.

    Blaming the school is an interesting angle. Do you feel the school should find him a job? Get him out of bed? Turn off your home wifi so he'll put down the iPad?

    You can be supportive and encouraging without taking all the responsibility from him. He needs to learn to get up, get dressed and show up now, or he'll still be staying in bed with his iPad when he's in fifth and sixth year.



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