At my wits end - ds (yr 12 nearly 18)

[Ms_Fi]

Bright sparkles - we're in the Hunter Valley.

Things got worse today - his bio teacher (lovely lady, desperate to help DS achieve his potential but pretty much ready to throttle him for his apathy) told me that the assignment he handed in was actually someone else's work

When I asked him about it tonight (was very calm) he lied to me 7 times that it was his work and he didn't know what the teacher was on about. 7 TIMES!! I had been perfectly calm up until then, but after that I cried bucketloads

It took me begging him to tell the truth before he admitted he hadn't done the assignment at all, and he'd submitted work another student in the class had done as his own.

I'm so worried - this was a piece of coursework for his HSC and if the teacher follows procedure he'll now be suspended and faces exclusion from his HSC course. He's already dropped a subject this year so if he drops another he won't be eligible for his HSC.

THANK YOU SO MUCH for all your replies, I really do appreciate them all. In some ways I think it's be easier if he was a tearaway teen but he's not. He's polite, always attends school, doesn't muck up in lessons or anything - he just doesn't do any work.

I'm going in to see his year advisor on Thursday to try and work out where we go from here - I also want to find out why it's gotten this far before the school got me involved. The first I knew last year that he was falling behind and subsequently failing was when his mid year report came out.

[diannescruffy]

My DS18 was exactly the same, three years ago I wrote a very similar post to this. He repeated Yr 9 twice, didn't want to do Yr10 but I basically forced him because I wanted him to at least have a Yr10 pass, which he didn't get. He went on to do Tafe and thoroughly enjoyed it and also excelled, made us so proud. We told him before leaving school that he needs to be either working or doing some sort of course. If he doesn't pass Yr12 this year and doesn't want to repeat please don't push him, maybe he could try some different courses to find an employment path he enjoys. You are certainly not alone, wishing you all the best.

Regards,
Dianne