A mother of three from Andover says she’s becoming increasingly worried for her son’s well-being after he left school two years ago, unable to cope with the pressures.
Sian Rummey, 35 says her son, now aged 15 has been offered no alternative schooling apart from a couple of hours of maths tuition and despite her contacting Hampshire County Council, no action has been forthcoming.
She said: “He feels he has no purpose and recently he told me ‘Mum I don’t want to go on’, he’s falling through the net, not just his education but his mental health too.”
Ms Rummey’s son was diagnosed with ADHD when he was five years old and has been on medication since then.
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He attended the Clere school, in Burghclere when he was 11 years old but was excluded and then joined Winton Community Academy, in Andover.
But due to anxiety he often disappeared from school.
Ms Rummey continued: “He kept running away, he was anxious and couldn’t help his behaviour. I had to remove him because I was worried for his safety.”
The teenager has now spent the past two years at home and his mother feels the family has been abandoned: “He’s been in hospital because he had a mental breakdown and I feel his life’s been destroyed.
"My son is due to sit his GCSEs next year and two hours of Maths tutoring is just not enough, he’s being set up to fail.”
A spokesperson for Hampshire County Council said: “We always engage fully with any families to resolve concerns and offer the best solution for each child, in line with our statutory duties. While it would not be appropriate to comment on individual children, more generally, the County Council works closely with parents, local schools and relevant partners to support children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) to get the very best from their education and to achieve well.
Ms Rummey said that she would continue her fight to get her son an education and that there were many more children who were falling through the net who desperately needed help: “My son is at breaking point yet he still wants to prevent this from happening to others and has told me, ‘If I can help this from happening to one other child I’ll have helped.”
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