Your education
Questions on this page:
When do you have to go to school?
Do you get a say in deciding which school you will go to?
What can you do if you don’t get into the school you want?
What can you do if you need extra help at school?
What are your rights if you have Special Educational Needs?
What can you do if you have been excluded from school?
What can you do if you’re being bullied?
What if you can’t go to school?
When do you have to go to school?
Your parents must make sure that you start school when you are 5 years old. If you can’t go to school for any reason, or if your parents want to give you home education, your parents must make sure that you have lessons at home. You can leave school on the last Friday in June if you are 16, or if you are going to turn 16 during the school holidays after you leave school.
Do you get a say in deciding which school you will go to?
Your local authority will handle school admissions and your parents or carers should apply to have you admitted into the school of their choosing. There are deadlines for applying to your local authority for a school place, and you will be able to find these out from your local authority. You can have a say in deciding which school you’d like to go to. However, the local authority does not have to admit you into your school of choice, or into the school of your parent’s choice.
If you have special education needs and you have what is called a Statement of Special Educational Needs, you must get admission into the school that is identified in this Statement.
What can you do if you don’t get into the school you want?
If you are not admitted into the school that you or your parents or carers want, your parents or carers may be able to make a complaint. This is called an appeal. The letter that the local authority sends your parents or carers telling you which school you have got accepted into will have information about how to make an appeal and also the deadline for making an appeal.
Appeals will be heard by an Independent Appeals Panel of three to five members of the public. If you are interested in appealing your school place, you should talk to your parents or carers. You can get more information about this by contacting the Children’s Legal Centre.
What can you do if you need extra help at school?
If you have difficulties learning, you may be able to get extra help at school. You may be able to get help with a range of different things, like schoolwork, reading, writing, expressing yourself, communicating with others, understanding what people are saying and behaving properly, for example. If you need this sort of help, you, your parents or carers or your teachers will need to ask the local authority to give you this help. See the next question ‘What are your rights if you have Special Educational Needs?’ to find out how to do this.
What are your rights if you have Special Educational Needs?
Having Special Educational Needs means that you have learning difficulties or disabilities that make it more difficult for you to learn than for other children your age. If you have Special Educational Needs, you may need extra help at school. This help can be given by your teachers or by an outside expert.
If you need extra help, your parents, carers or teachers can ask your local authority’s Special Educational Needs Department to assess your needs. This is called a ‘statutory assessment.’ Your local authority must decide within 6 weeks whether or not they will make an assessment.
If your local authority decides not to do an assessment, your parents or carers can appeal this decision to a panel called a ‘First-Tier Tribunal (Special Educational Needs and Disability)’. Your parents can contact the Children’s Legal Centre to get help with this.
If your local authority decides to make an assessment, they must finish it within 10 weeks and send a Statement of Special Educational Needs to your parents or carers within 12 weeks. The Statement should contain the support that must be given to you and it will list the school that you must go to. The support can include educational support, for example, it might say that you need to have sessions with an expert to help you with speech and communication problems. It can also include non-educational support, like medical help that you might need to help with a medical condition that you have.
Your parents or carers can appeal to a panel called a ‘First-Tier Tribunal (Special Educational Needs and Disability)’ if they are not happy with what the local authority includes in your Statement of Special Educational Needs. They can contact the Children’s Legal Centre to get help with this.
If the school does not give you the support listed in your Statement of Special Educational Needs, your parents or carers should get legal advice, as they may be able to make a complaint about this and force the school to give you the support you need. They can contact the Children’s Legal Centre to get help with this.
If you think that you have been treated unfairly by anyone at your school because of a disability that you have, you may be able to make a complaint about this.
What can you do if you have been excluded from school?
There are two types of exclusion: fixed-term exclusions, which are for a short period, and permanent exclusions, where you will be taken off the school role. You should only be excluded from school as a matter of last resort, where you have not abided by your school’s behaviour policy. This can include where there has been persistent, disruptive behaviour. You should only be permanently excluded from your school if you have seriously broken your school’s behaviour policy, or if you staying at your school would seriously harm you education or welfare, or the education or welfare of pupils or others at your school.
Excluding you from school should be a last resort only and should not be used for things like lateness or truancy, pregnancy, minor matters like failing to do your homework, breaking the school uniform rules, or poor academic performance.
Before deciding to exclude you, your Headteacher should make sure an investigation has been carried out, consider all the evidence, and allow you to tell your side of the story. If your Headteacher decides to exclude you, he or she should notify your parents or carers immediately. A letter should be sent which contains the reasons for you being excluded.
Your parents can appeal against the Headteacher’s decision to exclude you. If they want to do this, they will need to appeal to your school’s Governing Body. They can contact the Children’s Legal Centre to get help with this.
If you have been permanently excluded or temporarily excluded for over 5 days, your local authority must find alternative education for you.
What can you do if you’re being bullied?
Bullying in schools is a problem that affects thousands of children every year. Bullying includes physical or verbal abuse or a combination of both. It can include the following types of behaviour:
• Name calling and teasing, including taunts about sexual orientation
• Taunting
• Mocking
• Making offensive comments verbally, or by texting, email or on the internet, for example on social networking sites like Bebo, Facebook or Myspace
• Stealing from you
• Physical violence, like kicking, hitting and pushing
• Making threats
• Trying to force you to do something you don’t want to do
• Excluding you from taking part in group activities
If you are being bullied, you should talk to your parents or carers, or a teacher or someone else at school, like a social worker or Connexions Advisor. Your school should have an anti-bullying policy, which is a guide that sets out how it tries to stop bullying and how complaints of bullying should be handled. Your school should use this policy to decide how to tackle the way you are being bullied.
If you aren’t happy with the way the school has dealt with trying to stop the bullying, you can make a complaint about it. You should talk to your parents or carers if you want to make a complaint. You or your parents or carers can contact the Children’s Legal Centre if you want to talk to a legal advisor about how to make a complaint.
If you feel like you can’t go to school because you are being bullied, your local authority should find an alternative education for you.
What if you can’t go to school?
If you can’t go to school because you have been excluded, because you have an illness, or for another reason, like you are being bullied, your local authority must find another type of education for you. This can be in a Pupil Referral Unit, or it can be home education. Whatever is provided, it is up to the local authority to make sure that the education is suitable to your age, educational level, ability and aptitude.
What if you are in care?
If you are a looked-after child, your local authority should make an assessment of your educational needs as part of your core assessment. The local authority must also make sure that you have a Personal Education Plan, which is a document that sets out a course of action to make sure that you can reach your full educational potential. It should include clear objectives or targets relating to academic achievement, out of school activities and personal and behavioural targets. It is the responsibility of your social worker to make sure that you have a Personal Education Plan within 20 school days of being looked after or joining a new school.
If you want to go to continue with your education after high school, can you get help to pay for this?
If you turn 16 and still want to study, schools, sixth form colleges and city technology colleges are free.
You may be eligible for Education Maintenance Allowance payments if you continue with your education and fulfil the criteria.
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