DS1 is driving me (and his teachers!) nuts. He's currently repeating yr 11 (NSW) after deciding his courses weren't right for him and failing the year he came up with a new grand plan and after a lot of talking and pleading with the school he was allowed to change his courses and try again.

He's a bright boy, who is capable of doing the work but he's just not bothering. So far this year he's failed to hand in major assignments for 2 of his subjects (losing him 40% for each course) and not bothered with any homework. I didn't know anything about this until parents evening last week.

It's like he just doesn't get it - he doesn't put any effort into class work at yet he's desperate to go to uni and study biomedical engineering. He attends school every day and doesn't skip lessons but all his teachers have said he's just a bum on a seat, there's no participation or effort from him at all.

We had the mother of all arguments last week that resulted in a lot of things being said by both of us that we regret and now it's as if nothing ever happened.

I've already banned him from the Xbox and his DS and insisted all homework is done at my desk so I can encourage him to work and help him if he needs it. The daft thing is he doesn't need any real help, just prodding to remind him to keep working.

I'm really struggling with him and his teachers have run out of ideas.

Any one of any ideas on how I can get it through to him just how important continued effort at school is?