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Don't know how much it would help you, but I'm doing VCE as an adult student at an adult education provider (CAE) and there are school aged people (from 16-18) in my classes that are mainly filled with 20+ years, so maybe the same would be accepted at TAFE?
Ooooh, that's very promising - thanks PZ.
A big part of whether she is accepted in to a program will be whether the coordinators, etc. perceive her as wanting to do it herself. So she needs to be the one phoning them for information and reading course handbooks and going to open days and asking for tours of the facilities and so on.
Yep, that's exactly right Kmn. We had a talk with her school coordinator the other day and he thinks she's just not mature enough for TAFE. Basically, at her school, although they have an attendance policy (no more than 5 absences or you fail), there's a safety net that you can make up the time by attending after school. Plus, they make allowances and have student welfare officers. There will be no such safety net at TAFE - you go or you don't so you really have to be self-motivated.
It was very illuminating. Basically they said she is a very unusual case in that she knows exactly how to play the system and exactly what pyschobabble to use to get her own way. I've always given her the benefit of the doubt but maybe I should have been more less accommodating.
So at the moment, I've veering towards Fiona's Bootcamp and a zero tolerance mode.
She really pulled that idea out of her bum Fi.
If it's chinese, irish or hawaiian its all still medicine and requires a great deal of discipline to 1) get the scores and 2) continue the study.
As far as I know Traditional chinese medicine requires an actual stint in China.
Yeah, get yourself a cattle prod to get this kid into gear since you can't do much more :rofl:
DD1 - attitude and all is going for Nursing/Midwifery after VCE and she really has her (pierced) nose to the grindstone. Gawd knows where that came from.
We really have to swap teenager stories Lulu over a beer (and yes, I know it's completely my own fault for not making meetups). The talk with the coordinator was very illuminating. He said it's really quite common for teenage girls to think that they're 23 and they think that they know oh so much about the world and can't believe how hard done by they are that no-one else is treating them like an adult yet. He said they normally come good in Years 13 ie. after they've left school. The penny drops. So your DD is doing well - she's figured it out ahead of schedule.
He basically said all we can do is to try to get her to attend consistently and try to get her to stay at home (she's too bloody lazy and disorganised to sort out her own place anyway). He said that there's no magic solution, there's no BIG issues and other kids have a lot more difficult circumstances but they manage to pull their finger out and attend school. DSD just looks for excuses not to and if only she concentrated her efforts on good not coming up with stories, then all would be fine. In not so many words, he said that the student counsellors waste a lot of time with her because she just uses seeing them as an excuse to get out of class.
I hate to say this but ... I think she has a lot of the personality traits of her mum :(
Fiona, tell the school that to be seen it must be at lunch time or after school, in other words, her free time not class time.
Many kids get to year 12 and it suddenly dawns on them what they want to do 'when they grow up" Many use the first year of Uni flunking out as they don't have the discipline to work on their own. it is either go to class and hand in work or fail.
As a parent I think these last years of school are the hardest for both the parents and students. There is so many decisions to deal with and you question each one and ask am I doing the right thing.
All the best in deciding the next step :)
Fi don't forget DD has been out on her own for a fair while now. Paying her own way, getting home in time for curfew (which apparently can't happen for your parents) cooking every second night and cleaning too. She nearly failed exams because she didn't show up claiming how hard done by she was. She ranted about all that crap and it fell on deaf ears.
She asked for independence and got it. It was really hard for me - but sort of not, the attitude was vomit inducing but I really, truly let her go. She learnt.
I don't think you should help her financially if she moves out. Otherwise yes, not for the $$$. I think sense of entitlement with go through the roof...
Parenting and genetics won through over teenaged angst in the end! :clap: I'm really impressed by the way you've handled her, Lu.:
Fi I just wanted to clarify a few things for you (I do lots of work through C'Link with kids around your daughters age in her situation)
1. If she does decide to move out and approaches C'Link to apply for Youth Allowance as an Unreasonable to Live at Home case - an in depth assessment is done by a social worker who will interview her, and you and DH as parents as to the reasons why it is unreasonable to live at home - the rules have changed recently as there has been a big push to avoid youth homelessness and they will only recommend granting the payment if there has been serious family breakdown - if you explain the situation honestly to a C'Link social worker, I am 100% sure they will not recommend granting.
2. If I'm wrong and she does qualify, she does not need to sign a lease to receive rent assistance - there is a form her landlord signs to verify the rent she pays (e.g. lead tenant at a share house, homeowners if she is renting a granny flat).
3. There are new rules for Youth Allowance applicants which state that if the young person has not achieved VCE or equivalent and is under 21, they WILL NOT BE PAID unless she is enrolled in further study (full time or 20 hours per week) - C'Link will not pay her to look for a job only.
4. TAFE's and Uni's to my knowledge no longer receive funding (this all changed when the Youth Allowance/must be studying rules changed in the last 12 months) for students under 18 to study VCE through these institutions - schools are supposed to be engaging kids at risk of leaving school without completing year 12 in alternative programs - if that's not happening, there is a new program called Youth Connections that is receiving a lot of funding to work with these students and get them onto some kind of education/training pathway. TAFEs and Unis are in some cases still accepting students under 18 to their VCE programs, but only in extreme circumsances. I refer lots of people to the Youth Connections program and so far it is having a lot of success - if you're concerned about her not passing year 12 and dropping out, or if she needs to look at alternative entry to a chinese medicine course, they may be useful - her school should be able to give you information, if not you could attend C'Link, ask for her to be referred to the Youth Connections program (she shouldn't need to be receiving payments for this to occur).
I really hope all works out and she's able to find something she's interested in and finds her feet :)
HTH