Are school allowed to deny students from doing a subject?

[moonchild]

Hi there, just generally, should school be able to deny students from doing a subject although the student has been performing decently?
course counselling is around the corner and my friend just got kicked out of one of their subject because they was performing 'just' decently and not high enough for the schools expectations

[Snow Leopard]

I guess it depends on the subject and what you mean by "decently".

[moonchild]

I guess it depends on the subject and what you mean by "decently".

passing, averaging around 65-70%

[Snow Leopard]

we're both in yr 11 going yr 12, our school doesnt encourage distance ed ( the subject is chem

Is it a prerequisite for uni's/courses you want to get into?

[moonchild]

Is it a prerequisite for uni's/courses you want to get into?

yupp, we both wanted to go to science, i havent done my course counselling yet, but my friend has, the school brushed over it and took my friend out of chem, they really wanted to do chem!

[blueycan]

yupp, we both wanted to go to science, i havent done my course counselling yet, but my friend has, the school brushed over it and took my friend out of chem, they really wanted to do chem!

That doesn't seem too fair. I think your friend should follow up with the careers counsellor to
 find a solution and try to get back into it, they could talk about an agreement like, if they don't get certain scores they agree to not participate or something like that.
If it's a prerequisite the school should encourage the student to improve, not kick them out completely.

[moonchild]

That doesn't seem too fair. I think your friend should follow up with the careers counsellor to
 find a solution and try to get back into it, they could talk about an agreement like, if they don't get certain scores they agree to not participate or something like that.
If it's a prerequisite the school should encourage the student to improve, not kick them out completely.

Thank you for the advice!

[PhoenixxFire]

This is something my first high school used to do a lot to make their average results look better (along with "encouraging" people to do vcal not vce). Mostly it was done a bit secretively, without stopping to think about what was best for the student (one of my brothers friends got changed to vcal after one meeting with no consultation with parents or anything...)

If talking to the course counselor yourself doesn't help, get your parents involved, if the course counselor still won't let you do it then go to the vice principal/principal and just keep being a nuisance until they let you do it. There isn't really any reason for them to not let you do the subject other than trying to improve their averages or them thinking that you'll take up too much of the teachers time, make getting you to drop it more effort than its worth for them and they'll probably stop trying.

[caffinatedloz]

Like PhoenixxFire has touched on, schools should strive to always do what is best for the student. Allowing students to make their own choices, but offering them guidance should be their role. To some extent, the school should have control over who does what subject, however, the school should be looking out for what is best for the student.

I guess it depends on what subject it is and why the school would not allow a student to do it. If it is purely to boost their average results or make themselves look better than obviously, it's wrong.

[Aaron]

Schools are not allowed to reject enrolment from a subject for individuals. However as we know, there are many reasons or strategies schools use to do this within the lines e.g. not run the subject, the "encouragement" one that PF stated is one i've seen many times.

At my previous school I worked at, we were told that decisions relating to subject enrolment must be up to the student and parent/guardian. As a school they should only be permitted to make recommendations. Of course, if a subject can't run due to lack of numbers etc. (particularly in the public system, this is quite common and an acceptable reason) then this is a different story. But individual rejection or withdrawal due to impact on scores is wrong and should not technically happen - unless it is a VCAA pre-requisite which is embedded in the study design (e.g. Methods 1/2 for Algorithmics). Timetabling is the only genuine reason I can think of that would be an appropriate reason for rejecting enrolment. If a subject can't run due to lack of enrolments, fair enough. If you can't enrol in it because your other choices conflict with the timetable, fair enough (can't cater to everybody, timetabling is such a bloody complex process... respect to all timetablers out there).

Decisions relating to program changes (e.g. VCE to VCAL, vice-versa, etc) should DEFINITELY be done with permission from the parents... infact any decision relating to subject changes should be done with parent permission anyway given the potential impact it has on future university prospects. At our school any subject change decision (any year level) requires both student and parent authorisation before it happens (usually done through a signed form or meeting).

[undefined]

At my school, you're not allowed to choose further maths unless you're failing methods 1/2 (which all students must take). Pretty unfortunate.. If we were allowed to choose it the further class would probably double if not triple in size.

[moonchild]

This is something my first high school used to do a lot to make their average results look better (along with "encouraging" people to do vcal not vce). Mostly it was done a bit secretively, without stopping to think about what was best for the student (one of my brothers friends got changed to vcal after one meeting with no consultation with parents or anything...)

This seems to be the case at our school too! we're both new to the school, so we didn't expect the subject selections to be so strict and limiting. Thank you for the advice! My friend is currently looking into what she can do

[moonchild]

I guess it depends on what subject it is and why the school would not allow a student to do it. If it is purely to boost their average results or make themselves look better than obviously, it's wrong.

I agree 100%, the school has pushed my friend out because of their average not being high enough (

[moonchild]

At my school, you're not allowed to choose further maths unless you're failing methods 1/2 (which all students must take). Pretty unfortunate.. If we were allowed to choose it the further class would probably double if not triple in size.

oh ( thats not good, it seems sorta pressuring to force all students to take methods (