School leaving age is being raised

[Lulu]

.............. darn great idea, i'm all for it for all sorts of reasons

But my only concern would be those students that don't thrive or are suited in an educational enviroment playing havoc in school because they want ' out' sooner whilst those who want/enjoy being there suffer to a certain degree !!

But that's the entire point. Why keep kids at school when they don't want to be there -it's a waste of everyones time.

I'm not sure what is being down in relation to Career Guidance atm, but I'm of the opinion it's pretty bloody useless. My daughter did it recently and it was a joke.
There is not much point giving a student a list of "things they like to do", getting them to tick a box and spitting out the result (cos mine would have been lying on the beach back then) based on that. OR like DD - given a book containing all the courses and told to pick a few

Proper personality/aptitude testing would go a long long way. My father approached a few schools when he was first looking at retirement and none of them were interested. I can't tell you how many people we saw over the years that would rather be doing the exact opposite of the jobs they were doing at the time, and all the time wasting as a result.

[smiles4u]

Lulu .......... i would have explained myself but my local is wearing off from the stitches at both ends of my arm that i had done today !!

......... too keep it very short (due to some slight pain here) i would be swinging in favour to keeping students in longer to encourage those that need to be there not cause they think it's a better option to leave early ... My sister is a secondary schoolteacher and i have heard first hand over the past 15years of her teaching at different schools the WHY's of why some leave as soon as they can ... I'm putting my hand up for those that would have potential to stay in school longer (little hard to explain right now, will come back when i can) ... lets's just say many of my sister's students over the years and at various schools think leaving school to have a baby at 15 is a better career option then being in school (one of my reasons) ... ooooh, PAIN kicking in now, ouchhy must GO

[butterfly_warrior]

I don't see how raising the leaving age is going to stop the have a baby route out of school. It's been going on for a long, long time... Unless you have a lot of schools like Sydney's Plumpton High, then you're going to have a lot of kids still use the baby exit path. Do you really think the government won't pay benefits to parents under the age of 17?

I have to say from the perspective of a secondary teacher, the sooner some kids are out, the better. Some kids just aren't built for a classroom and will never thrive in that environment. Keeping them at school is hard on them, hard on the teachers and hard on the other students. If they raise the leaving age, then they damned well better back it up with alternative paths out of the education system that don't force kids to sit through another two years of irrelevant (to them) schooling. More vocational education is needed if they are going to do this.

BW

[smiles4u]

........... but at least they will be a couple of years older with a baby !!!!!!!!!!!

(my own Mum was pregnant at 17) ... this is not my sole reason as it looks to be taken & i did mention that it's not.

Tinks ... wanna say great thread (thanks for letting us know as i wouldn't have)

.... To put it kindly i like for my own personal opinion to be voiced like everyone else but i'm not a person that debates on a topic (no offense to anyone) so i will nicely leave now ... smiles now leaving the building

[Lulu]

but again, that's something that needs to be addressed with vocational stuff or decent career guidance. If they think dropping out to have a baby is a better option - where is the failure?